Nazis: The Road to Power

BBC Radio 4
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Nazis: The Road to Power

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

  1. 04/01/2023

    Introducing Nazis: The Road to Power

    From the producers of Nuremberg, the story of how in just 13 years, Adolf Hitler led a fringe sect with less than a hundred members and outlandish ideas to be the dominant force in German politics. It is also about the forgotten players from these early years who played crucial roles in the Nazi Party's rise to power. This new scripted podcast takes listeners into the intrigues, the personalities, the knife-edge decisions which would ultimately lead to forty million dead in the world’s greatest catastrophe. Starring Sir Derek Jacobi as President Hindenberg, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels. With Toby Stephens, Nancy Carroll, Laura Donnelly and Juliet Stevenson as the Narrator. Written and directed by Jonathan Myerson. Producer - Nicholas Newton. A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

    3 min

  2. 12/01/2023

    1. Long Live the Soviet Republic of Bavaria!

    From the producers of NUREMBERG, the story of how in just thirteen years, Adolf Hitler led a fringe group with outlandish proposals and less than a hundred members to be the dominant force in German politics. It is also about the forgotten players from these early years who played crucial roles in the Nazi Party's rise to power. This new scripted podcast takes listeners into the intrigues, the personalities, the knife-edge decisions which would ultimately lead to forty million dead in the world’s greatest catastrophe. Starring Derek Jacobi as President Hindenburg, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Toby Stephens, Nancy Carroll, Laura Donnelly and Juliet Stevenson as the Narrator. Cast: Ernst Röhm & Gregor Strasser - JOSEPH ALESSI Emil Maurice & Rudolf Diels - OSCAR BATTERHAM Gottfried Feder & Otto Meissner - EDWARD BENNETT Helene Bechstein - NANCY CARROLL King Ludwig & Franz von Papen - WILLIAM CHUBB Dorothy Thompson - LAURA DONNELLY Sefton Delmer - TOMIWA EDUN Kaiser Wilhelm & Karl Alexander von Müller - NICHOLAS FARRELL Leni Hanfstaengl & Anni Winter - MELODY GROVE President Hindenburg - DEREK JACOBI Putzi Hanfastaengl - COREY JOHNSON Hermann Göring - SCOTT KARIM Rudolf Hess - GEORGE KEMP Else Janke & Mimi Reiter - SORCHA KENNEDY Oskar von Hindenberg & Theodor Duesterberg- JACK LASKEY Sinclair Lewis & Alfred Hugenberg - FORBES MASSON Kurt Eisner & Joachim von Ribbentrop - MICHAEL MALONEY Hermine Hoffman - LYNNE MILLER Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Magda Goebbels - SHANAYA RAFAAT Captain Mayr - TOBY STEPHENS Geli Raubal - TANVI VIRMANI Joseph Goebbels - ALEXANDER VLAHOS General Ludendorff and Kurt von Schleicher - ANDREW WOODALL The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    24 min

  3. 12/01/2023

    2. I Can Speak

    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 seems he has quite a talent for it. Even his old platoon members are amazed to see him transformed. He is also sent to observe one of the many fringe political parties, to check they’re not getting too subversive. The German Workers Party has less than forty members and meets in a grimy room at the back of a grimy restaurant. The army orders him to join: Adolf Hitler becomes Party Member 55. Starring Toby Stephens as Captain Mayr, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring 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 - NICHOLAS FARRELL President Hindenberg - DEREK JACOBI Kurt Eisner - MICHAEL MALONEY General Ludendorff - ANDREW WOODALL Other parts were played by: JOSEPH ALESSI, OSCAR BATTERHAM, SCOTT KARIM, GEORGE KEMP, SORCHA KENNEDY, JACK LASKEY, 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 Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    23 min

  4. 16/01/2023

    3. My Little Wolf

    Hitler has a gift for oratory and party membership is growing: every week he draws a larger crowd. The party formally changes its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party – soon everyone will be calling it Na-Zi for short. But in his speeches, Hitler still reserves his vilest attacks for the ‘November Traitors’, namely any politician who signed the Versailles Treaty and plunged Germany into third-class status. But all this campaigning costs: will Helene Bechstein, whose husband inherited the piano company, be able to help? Starring Nancy Carroll as Helene Bechstein, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Edward Bennett as Gottfried Feder, the Nazi Party’s first economist, and Joseph Alessi as Ernst Röhm, Commander of the SA. Cast: Helene Bechstein - NANCY CARROLL Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Ernst Röhm - JOSEPH ALESSI Karl Harrer - OSCAR BATTERHAM Gottfried Feder - EDWARD BENNETT Rudolf Hess - GEORGE KEMP Anton Drexler - JACK LASKEY Other parts were played by: WILLIAM CHUBB, NICHOLAS FARRELL, SCOTT KARIM, SORCHA KENNEDY, MICHAEL MALONEY, FORBES MASSON, LYNNE MILLER and ANDREW WOODALL The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    27 min

  5. 18/01/2023

    4. My Word is My Pledge

    When a merger with other nationalist parties is suggested, Hitler – effectively the Nazi Party’s only source of revenue – threatens resignation if he is not given total, unquestioning control over every aspect of the party. He uses this to establish the paramilitary Storm Division led by Captain Ernst Röhm, the ‘Machine Gun King of Bavaria’. So when Mussolini takes power in Italy in October 1922, everyone is asking: when will Hitler launch his own coup? Starring Nancy Carroll as Helene Bechstein, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Edward Bennett as Gottfried Feder, the Nazi Party’s first economist, and Joseph Alessi as Ernst Röhm. Cast: Helene Bechstein - NANCY CARROLL Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Ernst Röhm - JOSEPH ALESSI Karl Harrer - OSCAR BATTERHAM Gottfried Feder - EDWARD BENNETT Rudolf Hess - GEORGE KEMP Anton Drexler - JACK LASKEY Other parts were played by: WILLIAM CHUBB, NICHOLAS FARRELL, SCOTT KARIM, SORCHA KENNEDY, MICHAEL MALONEY, FORBES MASSON, LYNNE MILLER and ANDREW WOODALL The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    24 min

  6. 23/01/2023

    5. The Enemy is on the Left, The Danger is on the Right

    Footloose in Munich, Harvard-educated Putzi Hanfstaengl finds himself drawn in by Hitler’s charisma, quickly becoming one of his entourage, partly thanks to his enthusiastic piano-playing. But with the whole country in the grip of hyperinflation - pushing wheelbarrows of money to pay for a single loaf of bread - there is a call for a more drastic step: a coup against the federal government. Are the Nazis ready? Can they wait any longer? Starring Corey Johnson as Putzi Hanfstaengl, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Michael Moloney as Gustav von Kahr, Bavarian State Commissioner. Cast: Putzi Hanfastaengl - COREY JOHNSON Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Ernst Röhm - JOSEPH ALESSI Emil Maurice - OSCAR BATTERHAM Leni Hanfstaengl - MELODY GROVE Herman Göring - SCOTT KARIM Gustav Ritter von Kahr - MICHAEL MALONEY Ulrich Graf - FORBES MASSON General Ludendorff - ANDREW WOODALL Other parts were played by: EDWARD BENNETT, WILLIAM CHUBB, NICHOLAS FARRELL, GEORGE KEMP, SORCHA KENNEDY, JACK LASKEY and LYNNE MILLER The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    23 min

  7. 25/01/2023

    6. The National Dictatorship is Here!

    In what became known as the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazis seize power in Munich, now intending to march on Berlin and announce a national dictatorship led by Hitler. But first they must take control of all the police forces and the infantry barracks, and it’s essential they shut down the telephone exchange and radio transmitters. It is a night of chaos. And is the Army really on their side or do they have their own coup planned? Starring Corey Johnson as Putzi Hanfstaengl, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Andrew Woodall as General von Ludendorff, hero of WWI. Cast: Putzi Hanfastaengl - COREY JOHNSON Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Ernst Röhm - JOSEPH ALESSI Emil Maurice - OSCAR BATTERHAM Leni Hanfstaengl - MELODY GROVE Herman Göring - SCOTT KARIM Gustav Ritter von Kahr - MICHAEL MALONEY Ulrich Graf - FORBES MASSON General Ludendorff - ANDREW WOODALL Other parts were played by: EDWARD BENNETT, WILLIAM CHUBB, NICHOLAS FARRELL, GEORGE KEMP, SORCHA KENNEDY, JACK LASKEY and LYNNE MILLER The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    22 min

  8. 30/01/2023

    7. Write the Bitterness Out of Your Soul

    Far away in the Rhineland, 26-year-old Joseph Goebbels has a PhD, an unpublished novel and a half-Jewish girlfriend, Else Janke. But he finds himself drawn to the Nazi Party and Hitler’s rhetoric. Every day in his diary (undiscovered until this century) he records his excitement as he reads about Hitler defending himself – the latter is now on trial in Munich for his totally unsuccessful coup. Given free rein by a clearly sympathetic judge, Hitler is fast turning the courtroom into his own bully pulpit. Starring Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Sorcha Kennedy as Else Cast: Joseph Goebbels - ALEXANDER VLAHOS Adolf Hitler - TOM MOTHERSDALE Gregor Strasser - JOSEPH ALESSI Emil Maurice - OSCAR BATTERHAM Helene Bechstein - NANCY CARROLL Otto von Lossow - NICHOLAS FARRELL Leni Hanfstaengl - MELODY GROVE Putzi Hanfastaengl - COREY JOHNSON Herman Göring - SCOTT KARIM Rudolf Hess - GEORGE KEMP Else Janke - SORCHA KENNEDY Hermine Hoffman - LYNNE MILLER General Ludendorff - ANDREW WOODALL Other parts were played by: EDWARD BENNETT, WILLIAM CHUBB, JACK LASKEY, FORBES MASSON and MICHAEL MALONEY The Narrator is JULIET STEVENSON Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS Studio Manager – MARK SMITH Casting Director – GINNY SCHILLER Original Score – METAPHOR MUSIC Writer and Director – JONATHAN MYERSON Producer – NICHOLAS NEWTON A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

    24 min
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4.4
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The story of how in just 13 years, Hitler led a fringe sect with less than a hundred members and outlandish ideas to be the dominant force in German politics.

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