Nazis: The Road to Power

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Nazis: The Road to Power: 1. Long Live the Soviet Republic of Bavaria

1. Long Live the Soviet Republic of Bavaria

BBC Radio 4 - Nazis: The Road to Power, 1. Long Live the Soviet Republic of Bavaria

Spring 1919: Corporal Hitler is summoned to Army Intelligence; they have a use for him.

The story of how, in just 13 years, Adolf Hitler led a fringe sect with less than a hundred members and outlandish ideas to become the dominant force in German politics.

By the end of 1918, the German people are starving and revolution is in the air. A 29-year-old army corporal is sent to report on fringe political parties in Munich. His name is Adolf Hitler and so begins the political ascent of the National Socialist Party. 

Nazis: The Road to Power recreates this story and the forgotten players from these early years – the army captain who orders Hitler to join the German Workers Party, the millionairess who plays the role of surrogate mother, the Harvard-educated American who becomes Hitler’s court jester.  

Nobody imagines the Nazi Party will ever take power – it requires a chain of hugely unpredictable events. This new 8-part series dramatizes these moments, re-creating the intrigues, the knife-edge decisions which would ultimately lead to 40 million dead in the world’s greatest catastrophe.

Even before the Armistice is signed, Germany is collapsing. The army is in retreat and the Kaiser has smuggled himself into exile. In Munich, there is revolution – a bloodless uprising led by poets and playwrights. And keeping his head down during all this is a lonely soldier recently discharged from hospital - Corporal Hitler is appalled to see Munich overrun by freethinkers, by liberalism, by women! 

Once the revolution is crushed, Army Intelligence looks around for soldiers who might be able to influence their comrades, steer them away from all this Bolshevik nonsense. And that’s how Corporal Adolf Hitler starts making speeches – it turns out he has quite a talent for it. 

Starring Toby Stephens as Captain Mayr, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Forbes Masson as Thomas Mann and Jack Laskey as Anton Drexler, founding Chairman of the German Workers Party.

Cast:
Captain Mayr – TOBY STEPHENS 
Adolf Hitler – TOM MOTHERSDALE
Gottfried Feder – EDWARD BENNETT 
King Ludwig – WILLIAM CHUBB 
Kaiser Wilhelm II – NICHOLAS FARRELL 
President Hindenburg – DEREK JACOBI 
Kurt Eisner – MICHAEL MALONEY 
General Ludendorff – ANDREW WOODALL
Anton Drexler – JACK LASKEY 
Other parts were played by: JOSEPH ALESSI, OSCAR BATTERHAM, SCOTT KARIM, 
GEORGE KEMP, SORCHA KENNEDY, FORBES MASSON and LYNNE MILLER 
The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON 
 
Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS
Studio Manager – MARK SMITH
Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER
Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC
Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON
Written and Directed by JONATHAN MYERSON

A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Drama

How Adolf Hitler turned a fringe sect into the dominant force in German politics.

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1. Long Live the Soviet Republic of Bavaria

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