I read this article Against Normalization: The Lesson of the “Munich Post” in the LA Review of Books.
At the very apex of the Beer Hall Putsch, a clash between his militia and Munich’s chief opposition newspaper, the Munich Post, may have changed the course of history, giving evidence that Hitler had the potential for a far more ambitious course of evil than anyone in Germany believed. Only the reporters who had been following Hitler seemed able to imagine it.
On the night of November 8, 1923, amid a clamorous political meeting in the Bürgerbräukeller, a huge echoey beer hall where political meetings were often held, Hitler stood up, fired a pistol into the air, and announced his militia had captured the three top leaders of southern Germany’s Bavarian province and handcuffed them in a back room in the beer hall. The next morning, he declared, his Stormtrooper militia would capture the capitol buildings and then head north to Berlin.
We live in a time (Post WWII) when states/countries/nations have a monopoly on the use of force. I'm still trying to Wrap my head around Hitler's status at the time. Was he a government representative? Were there no checks and balances at that time on what he could do?
As Hitler sought to ingratiate himself with the city’s rulers (though never giving up the threat of violence), the Post reporters dug into his shadowy background, mocking him mercilessly, exposing internal party splits, revealing the existence of a death squad (“cell G”) that murdered political opponents and was at least as responsible for Hitler’s success as his vaunted oratory.
I don't understand how Hitler could organise a death squad (prior to coming to power). Were these volunteers from an angry mob he had stirred up? Was his private militia paid by a Corporation or a body of government?
My question is: How did Hitler have his own private militia in 1923?