Hitler's Rise to Power: The Nazi Movement in Bavaria 1923-33

Bavaria has become known as the birthplace of the Nazi Party, a mass movement without precedence in German history.

In January 1919 a new political party, intended to be nationalist yet appeal to the masses, was established in Munich.

Soon after Adolf Hitler became a member, and the stage was set for its transformation into the NSDAP.

Despite Hitler’s skill as an orator and his understanding of propaganda, in its early days the movement resembled a rabble rather than a cohesive unit.

This came to a head with the unsuccessful Putsch of 1923: Hitler was imprisoned, and the party itself entered a period of prohibition.

A reformation was necessary, and on his return Hitler strived to ensure that no cause was given to shut them down, employing constitutional means to yield legality.

Charting the decade between Hitler’s failed coup d’état and his appointment as Chancellor, Geoffrey Pridham’s case study is focused at grassroots level.

Employing archive material to formidable effect, he addresses how Bavaria’s political landscape shifted and the violence that accompanied it, how religion affected the situation and what compelled people to support Hitler.

Hitler’s Rise to Power is a narrative of a disorganised movement, with financial issues and a ban on its most prolific speaker holding public meeting, and how this movement became the infamous Nazi party.

Praise for The Rise of the Nazi Party

‘Deserves consideration as a special case’ – European History Quarterly

‘Able to put the political significance of the Nazis’ anti-semitism into perspective.’ – The American Historical Review

As a student Geoffrey Pridham wrote his PhD thesis on the Nazi movement in southern Bavaria. Since then he has been a lecturer of European Politics at Bristol University, contributed to ‘A Dictionary of Politics’ and co-authored ‘A Documentary History of Nazi Germany’.