Beer Hall Putsch

[Mannheim]

Does anybody know the circumstances of the two putschists who were killed at the War Ministry?

[Helly Angel]

No Manheim, the only hero dead in the War Ministery was the Leutnant Theodor Casella, member of the Röhm´s Staff by bullets of the Police. The rest fallen in the Feldherrnhalle.

[Helly Angel]

Someone of the nazis who were with Röhm shoot and the police open fire killing Casella but inmediately the Nazis surrender and were arrested with Röhm.

[Keir]

From Wikipedia (oof...):

According to Ernst Röhm in his book "Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters" (Franz Eher Verlag, Munich 1928), Martin Faust and Theodor Casella, both members of the armed militia organisation Reichskriegsflagge, were shot down accidentally in a burst of machine gun fire during the occupation of the War Ministry as the result of a misunderstanding with II/Inf.Regt 19.

In fact, the best account of the putsch I've found was in Anthony Read's The Devil's Disciples which states that
Two of Röhm's men were also shot dead as they tried to break through the army cordon around the War Ministry to join the battle." (100)
I can't find anything more than that about the incident; most books (of course) focus on Hitler's role and limit or ignore their examination of the peripheral events. This includes Evans's The Coming of the Third Reich which, despite a chapter entitled "The Beer-Hall Putsch", spends just over a single page on the actual events of that day (193-4).
Shirer at least has the following to say, which still implies more a picnic than a shooting match:

Röhm, at the head of a detachment of storm troopers from another fighting league, the Reichskriegsflagge, had seized Army headquarters at the War Ministry in the Schönfeldstrasse but no other strategic centres were occupied, not even the telegraph office, over whose wires news of the coup went out to Berlin and orders came back, from General von Seeckt to the Army in Bavaria, to suppress the putsch...
By dawn Regular Army troops had drawn a cordon around Röhm’s forces in the War Ministry...
Shortly after noon the marchers neared their objective, the War Ministry, where Röhm and his storm troopers were surrounded by soldiers of the Reichswehr. Neither besiegers nor besieged had yet fired a shot. Röhm and his men were all ex-soldiers and they had many wartime comrades on the other side of the barbed wire. Neither side had any heart for killing...
Röhm surrendered at the War Ministry two hours after the collapse before the Feldherrnhalle.

[Helly Angel]

My source is Richard Hanser, "Putsch!"

[Helly Angel]

Well, this is not directly in relation wit the nazis dead in the Putsch but are a rare images taken to the SA and Party members during the short time before the Putsch, source Wikipedia.org, section commons:

Zu dem Verbot der S.A. der "Privat Armee" Adolf Hitlers! Erinnerungen an den Hitler - Putsch im Jahre 1923. Mit Maschinengewehren bewaffnete S.A. Hitlers in den Strassen Neustadts an der bayrisch - thürigischen Grenze.

Bewaffnete bayrische Kampfverbände der Truppe "Hitler" an der Thüringschen Grenze. Sturmabteilungen der "Brigarde Erhardt" auf dem Marsch.


"Bewaffnete bayrische Kampfverbände der Truppe "Hitler"an der Thüringschen Grenze. Ueben der Rekruten im Scharfschiessen."


Bewaffnete bayrische Kampfverbände der Truppe "Hitler" an der Thüringschen Grenze. Ausbildung der neuen Rekruten auf einem Gelände in Neustadt.

[Helly Angel]

...


Bewaffnete bayerische Kampfverbände der Truppe "Hitler" an der Thüringschen Grenze. Hakenkreuzler halten in den Strassen Neustadt`s mit Maschinengewehren Wache.


Zu dem Verbot der S.A. der "Privat Armee" Adolf Hitlers! Erinnerungen and en Hitler - Putsch im Jahre 1923. Ausschwärmen bewaffneter S.A. auf freiem Gelände bei Neustadt.


Zu dem Verbot der S.A. der "Privat Armee" Adolf Hitlers! Erinnerungen an den Hitler - Putsch im Jahre 1923. Bewaffnete S.A. Motorradfahrer - Patrouille mit dem Hakenkreuz am Stahlhelm in Neustadt auf Patrouillenfahrt.


Zu dem Verbot der S.A. der "Privat Armee" Adolf Hitlers! Erinnerungen an den Hitler - Putsch im Jahre 1923. Gefechtsordonanzen der S.A. vor dem damaligen Hauptquartier in Neustadt.

[Keir]

At first I thought the idea of citing a book that required an exclamation mark in the title was risible but it sounds like a great read. As one Amazon reviewer has it, "it reads like a novel, yet it contains a wealth of detail about the people and places of the time. Who gave Hitler his trenchcoat? What was the name of the homeless shelter he lived at in Vienna? Where did he take his meals in Munich? Trivia, yet interesting. What was even nicer was after mentioning a name the author would footnote it with what happened to the person later. Many of these names were known to me, some were not, few lived to see New Years day in 1950. Either they fell afoul of Hitler or were executed for war crimes."
Sounds like the book for me!
Here's another pic from that day, apparently:

[jeffhan373]

The best book on the Putsch is still the late Harold J. Gordon's "Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch." (Princeton University Press, 1972)

The troops surrounding the War Ministry were given orders not to initiate fire against the Putschists, but if they were fired upon they could retaliate. The Putschists fired a few shots, wounding two soldiers. and the Army opened up on them with machine gun fire, killing Martin Faust and Theodor Casella. As Dr. Gordon puts it, once the Nazis saw Casella's bloody body their will to fight promptly evaporated, and there were no more casualties there.

[Helly Angel]

Jeff,

I have Martin Faust was not militar. He was bank clerk, 22 years old and fallen in the Feldherrnhalle as SA troop.



Martin Faust image taken by the "Deutschland Erwacht!", NSDAP Publications.

[Keir]

Casella was a bank clerk as well. In fact, they were all supposedly retired or had civilian jobs and many were equally young. As Hitler describes their occupations in his dedication:
Alfarth, Merchant;
Bauriedl, Hatmaker;
Casella, Bank Official;
Erlich, Bank Official;
Faust, Bank Official;
Hechenberger, Locksmith;
Koerner, Merchant;
Kuhn, Head Waiter (only a couple of years older than Faust)
Laforce, Student of Engineering; (a year younger than Faust)
Neubauer, Waiter;
Pape, Merchant;
Pfordten, Councillor to the Superior Provincial Court;
Rickmers, retired Cavalry Captain;
Scheubner-Richter, Dr. of Engineering;
Stransky, Engineer;
Wolf, Merchant;

[Helly Angel]

Casella was bank clerk BUT he was Leutnant des Reserve, active in the Freikorps with Röhm and active member of his Staff. In militar uniform of the Reichswehr when he died.

[Keir]

Oh, yeah... Sorry- you'd mentioned that in the first post...

[Helly Angel]

Keir... are you in Bavaria? (Bayern) is hard to you take some pictures in the places of the putsch?

[jeffhan373]

Martin Faust was part of the Reichskriegsflagge unit that occupied the War Ministry. He was the first man hit when the Reichswehr troops opened fire. Theodor Casella was mortally wounded when he tried to pull Faust to a safe place - in vain, as it turned out.