Hitler’s 1923 Beer Hall Putsch seems to have been inspired by Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome. The March on Rome made Mussolini the leader of Italy whereas the Beer Hall Putsch resulted in prison for Hitler who had to wait another decade to seize power.
So, why such different results?
Numbers?
700,000 Fascists in 1922 compared to 35,000 Nazis in 1923. 25,000 Black Shirts marched on Rome and only 600 Brown Shirts were on hand for the Beer Hall Putch.
Didn’t Mussolini have an experienced military operation by then? Or maybe it would be called a police operation.
The Squadristi. Pretty much the same proportion of ex-military and just plain goons as Hitler’s SA. Mussolini just had more of them at the time than Hitler did.
Hitler went off semi-half-cocked. He didn’t have all of his ducks lined up. IIRC, General Ludendorf ripped him a new one for not telling him, when he could have just sent for him an hour or two earlier, and he could have been there.
Lossow, Kahr and I forget the number 3 man whom he ‘drafted’ to head his new government weren’t ready (even though they were making deals all over the place before that night), so they agreed with Hitler, and then double crossed him. They left and alerted as many of the incumbent government armed factions as they could.
Hitler’s people didn’t take key strategic points when they should have.
They didn’t really have a good plan of action, and kind of winged it. Most of Munich, I think, were wanting a change of government, but, they weren’t sure if Hitler was what they wanted.
So, irresolute populace, and unorganized revolutionaries, but, at least the police force/military was kind of sure that they didn’t want any revolutionary activity just then, so, Hitler’s small group took the beating.