1924: The Year That Made Hitler (37 page)

A secret photograph taken at Hitler’s treason trial. Judge Neithardt, wearing a judicial beret, sits at the center of the bench. (Fotoarchiv Heinrich Hoffmann, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

Hitler’s argument before the court depicted by a sketch artist. (Otto D. Franz, Library of Congress)

During Hitler’s trial, a leading satire magazine showed Hitler torching a government edifice while sitting atop the shoulders of General Lossow, who is sitting atop Commissioner Kahr, who is summoning the police. Nazi fortunes soar as the swastika becomes a shooting star. (Library of Congress)

Behind its faux-fortress entrance, Landsberg Prison was a thoroughly modern facility in 1923. (Landsberg Prison)

Hitler’s sunny cell in Landsberg Prison. The upright typewriter was added for effect in the 1930s when the Nazis turned the cell into a shrine. (Archiv Manfred Deiler)

Hitler wrote
Mein Kampf
on this small Remington portable typewriter. (Hermann Historica)

Festooned with a plaque and laurel leaves, Hitler’s cell became a place of pilgrimage in the 1930s. “Hitler tourism” boomed as 100,000 visitors passed by the room in 1938. (Archiv Manfred Deiler)

The “fortress” at Landsberg Prison was a modern building, not an old castle. After Hitler’s cell became a shrine, the Nazi banner was hung from his windows on holidays. (Archiv Manfred Deiler)

Hitler lived well in Landsberg Prison, where he had a wicker chair for drinking tea while he read the newspapers. The wreath was a gift from an admirer. (Yad Vashem)

Hitler bought a beer for 18 pfennigs every day from April 20 to May 5, 1924. His signature is in the middle of the page. (Archiv Manfred Deiler)

In prison Hitler lived with four other putsch participants on the second floor of the “fortress” building. Left to right: Hitler, Emil Maurice, Col. Hermann Kriebel, Rudolf Hess, Dr. Friedrich Weber. (Landsberg Prison)

Hitler and Emil Maurice walk and talk in the prison garden. Steadily supplied with sweets and pastries from his admirers, Hitler gained weight. He looks stuffed into his lederhosen. (Fotoarchiv Heinrich Hoffmann, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

After leaving prison, Hitler poses at the Landsberg city gate. He loved fancy touring cars like the one that took him back to Munich. (Yad Vashem)