History Lesson

In November 1923, Adolf Hitler led a violent coup against the democratic system of Germany's Weimar Republic. The coup started in an unlikely spot — a beer hall in Munich, the Burgerbraukeller, far from the capital city of Berlin and its parliament. But at this beer hall, the political, military and police leaders of the state of Bavaria were meeting. Hitler wanted to enlist them in a "March on Berlin" to overturn the democratic government. He went to the beer hall to give a speech.

For five years, Hitler and others on the German right had been telling their followers a lie: that Germany had n...