23 min

4. My Word is My Pledge Nazis: The Road to Power

    • Drama

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

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

23 min