RÖhm was member 555, which in reality was member number 55. The party had started numbering from five hundred to make the party seem larger. It was here he met the thirty-year-old WWI veteran, Adolf Hitler. Hitler had the gift of oratory. He spoke about the inequality of the Versailles treaty, the loss of German territory and the consequences of the reparations Germany was forced to pay.
The result of this system of forced reparations was economic turmoil. Inflation spiralled out of control. This was known as hyperinflation. It soon cost one billion marks for a piece of bread and a sausage. Germany was in need of a strong leader, because the democracy of Weimar did not seem to be working.
By 1921, Hitler was the leader of the German Workers Party, which had changed its name to the National Socialist Workers Party, or NSDAP. Hitler believed Versailles was a crime, and that the Jews were behind it. He was a dynamic and uncompromising leader, and so attracted others to the fledgling party.
Hermann GÖring, the decorated World War One pilot, joined the Nazis, as did Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was originally a chicken farmer, but rose to become the leader of the Nazi SS.
In 1923, Hitler seized the moment to sway the tide in his favour. The French had come to collect their reparations, even amid widespread German poverty and squalor. The humiliation was seen to be the worst thing, in many Germans' eyes.
In Munich, Hitler and the Nazis acted. This act became known as the Beer Hall Putsch and took place on November 8th 1923. The Nazis stood in the middle of a rival party meeting. They wanted to start a nationalist revolution in Bavaria, and let it spread all over Germany.
Other far right wing parties collaborated and marched on Berlin. The police didn't support the march and so shots were fired. Four policemen and sixteen Nazis were killed.
Hitler stood trial for the failed putsch, and became famous for his stand.
