The Impact of the March on Rome on the Early Nazi Movement, 1922–1925

The fact that the fascist March on Rome influenced the Nazi movement has been mentioned in nearly every biography of Hitler and in most histories of the Nazi Party. Yet the specific processes through which that impact was exercised have not been examined in detail. This chapter provides an early step in that direction, taking as its starting point a group of individuals who were close to Hitler at the time of the March on Rome: his personal Stammtisch at Munich’s Café Heck, which met regularly throughout 1922 and 1923. This perspective sheds light not only on the immediate context surrounding Hitler within which news of the March reverberated, but also illuminates two trajectories within the early Nazi movement – one religious, the other paramilitary – that were intertwined in important ways with Nazi perceptions of the rise of fascism in Italy. This analysis is based on a close reading of the Nazis’ chief organ, the Völkischer Beobachter, and on an examination of hitherto underutilised archival sources related to members of Hitler’s Stammtisch, including the unpublished recollections of Hermann Esser, the personal papers of Father Bernhard Stempfle, and military and government records related to Ernst Röhm.