Browning Automatic Rifle

Extreme chaos naturally gave rise to ambitious schemers, especially when Germany's turmoil had already lasted far too long.

On April 17, 1928, the renowned Adolf Hitler published a speech through the Völkischer Beobachter.

In the speech, he harshly condemned the government's incompetence and declared that Germany had suffered all this precisely because the government had accepted the Treaty of Versailles' war reparations and adopted various postwar measures.

Hitler stated outright that the military government had destroyed everything in Germany, forcing the great Germanic people to bear humiliations they should never have had to endure.

At the end of the speech, Hitler also declared that he would establish an order in which every German household had milk and bread on its table, and restore the Germans to the summit of the world.

If Hitler had made such a speech just after World War I ended, it would certainly not have won much approval. Instead, he would have been considered a madman and a fool.

But now, with Germany suffering through an economic crisis and postwar hardships, Hitler's various speeches instantly attracted many Germans, who treated his words as holy writ.

In fact, Hitler was no longer the mere lance corporal he had been during World War I. The political party he led had become one of Germany's largest, while the Stormtroopers he had founded had grown into an armed force with hundreds of thousands of members.

If one had to choose the person most likely to overthrow the German Government, then at that moment the only possible candidate was Hitler.

As this rising figure in German politics gradually gained prominence, both William II and President Hindenburg were naturally paying close attention to Hitler.

William II, however, had already withdrawn from the struggle for power, so authority within the government naturally fell