Journey Through Time Episode 27 The Trial that Made Hitler Famous Ep. 2 It wasn’t the Beer Hall Putsch that made Hitler internationally famous, but the trial held afterwards. After the coup had collapsed, Hitler and his group marched through Munich hoping that crowds would join them (they didn’t) and there was a brief shoot-out where four police were killed. Hitler fled Munich, but was arrested. Even though the putsch ended in farce, Hitler saw the trial as a platform. One of the panel of judges in particular was sympathetic to him: he was not forced to wear prison clothes, it was a 24 day trial and he was allowed to make long speeches and cross-examine witnesses himself. He pleaded guilty but nonetheless some judges wanted to acquit him. He received a five year sentence but released after 13 months. He was given special treatment in jail, but it fed his martyr-complex. Once the Nazis gained power in the 1930s, the anniversary of the putsch was celebrated, and in fact Kristallnacht was conducted on the anniversary. The two presenters, David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell, then went on to draw parallels with the current day.
The Rest is Classified Episode 99: Putin’s Secret Army: Trump, Wagner and Russia (Ep.2) As an entrepreneurial caterer and restauranteur, Prigozhin got into P.R. where he was not beyond indulging in dirty tricks. Because of his PR skills, the Kremlin turned to him. Prigozhin was behind the Internet Research Agency, a troll factory based in Russia employing 800-900 workers. First the Internet Research Agency targetted a domestic Russian audience, particularly demonizing Alexy Navalny. In 2014 after the invasion of the Crimea, it moved its focus to the West, then it looked to the 2016 US election. The Internet Research Agency paid for Facebook ads, often pushing both sides, in order to sow division. At this stage Prigozhin became visible to the FBI, leading to a 2016 FBI indictment. He denied the connection with the Internet Research Agency, and took it to the courts. The title of Peter Pomerantsev’s book sums it up: Nothing is True and Everything is possible. Doesn’t that just describe the world we live in?
The Rest is History. I haven’t listened to my old friends Dominic and Tom for a while, so I scrolled back to 2022 and found a series that they did on Australia’s prime ministers to mark Albanese’s victory. Although Episode 187 is titled Australia’s Prime ministers from Edmund Barton to Robert Menzies, it didn’t give much attention to the early prime ministers (perhaps I was day-dreaming at that point?) and they concentrate on post-WW2 prime ministers. Now, as I found with their episode on the Tupamaros, Dom and Tom might be very good – are very good- on European, British and American history, they’re not so hot on the rest of the world, especially ‘middle powers’ like us, or the Global South. They deal respectfully with Menzies, Curtin, Chifley and Menzies again, but in Episode 188 Part 2 they become a little skittish. They point out that Harold Holt was Australia’s youngest Member of Parliament and succeeded Menzies. They laughed (as do we all) at the unfortunate naming of the Harold Holt Swimming Pool. They think that Gorton was an excellent character, almost French in personality, war hero and larrikin. They question (as do we all) Billy Macmahon’s sexuality and his propensity to steal things (really?). They see Whitlam as a patrician figure, who was brought undone by his plan to borrow petro-dollars during the oil shock. They thought that Fraser looked like the classic Australian, welcomed the Vietnamese and opposed apartheid- and he lost his trousers. By Episode 189 Part 3 they are completely silly, and admittedly, they have plenty to work with here. Hawkie held the world record for sculling a yard of ale, but was economically similar to Thatcher; Keating was impressive but a paradox; Howard was stolid; Rudd was part of a culture of spills; Gillard exemplified The Guardian newspaper in female form; Abbott exemplified the Daily Mail. Turnbull could have been a Labor P.M. ( I rather wish he was, personally) while Morrison exemplified the Man at the Garden Centre and looked like a koala. So as you can see, Dom and Tom’s powers of analysis declined over this three part series, and ended in farce. Perhaps Australia did too.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 