The Beer-Hall-Putsch and Mein Kampf
By 1923, Hitler had become head of the “fight group” (Kampfbund), an organization for right-wing military groups such as the SA. From then on, he sought to rally support for an overthrow of the republic, and when conflicts escalated between the social-democratic government in Berlin and the local Bavarian right-wing government in Munich in November of 1923, he thought the time had come to declare a state of emergency in a beer hall in Munich. The so-called “Beer-Hall-Putsch,” however, was short-lived, mainly because the Bavarian leaders and the Bavarian military ultimately decided against supporting the coup. Thus, Hitler was left to march through Munich with only Ludendorff and a few other supporters. When they encountered Bavarian police, Hitler fled, but he was later arrested, tried, and sentenced to five years in prison. He served less than a year of that sentence.
During his time in prison (1924–1925), Hitler wrote his infamous book Mein Kampf, a copy of which would later, during the Nazi reign, be given to almost every German at any possible occasion (birth, wedding, burial, etc.). In this book, Hitler drew the political and propagandistic conclusions from the failed Beer-Hall-Putsch. Among others, he recognized that he needed the support of the army if he were to seize power in Germany. Since there were still many Jews in high military position, this meant that he had to tone down his anti-Semitic and anti-capitalist rhetoric and instead appear more neutral—at least in his public speeches. He also concluded that he needed to proceed legally within the framework of the Weimar political system. On the other hand, the book also spelled out Hitler’s ideology very clearly to his followers. On many pages, he developed his anti-bolshevist, anti-Semitic, nationalist, social-Darwinist theories coupled with the necessity to gain more Lebensraum (habitable space) for the superior Aryan race, particularly in Eastern Europe and Asia.