Brett Weinstein (33:52)
And, and that's, that's, that's what happens to Himmler, but also because he's there, he's now an old fighter, right? He's one of the party vanguards. He gets a lot, he gets credit. He gets a lot of valor credit, like a lot, honestly, a lot of stolen valor for like being one of the guys who's there, even though he's not there for anything, like serious, you know, he's just kind of standing around awkwardly with a flag and a uniform. Now there are consequences for the Party in the immediate wake of the failed putsch, the Nazi Party is banned. Hitler and his lieutenants are put in what you'd call the luxury prison. For his part, Himmler's history with the party makes it hard for him to find work. But the event also serves to strengthen his ties, especially with Ernst Rohm, who he visits in prison. In general, his great talent in this period is finding men who are. He can't get to the Fuhrer, right? Hitler is unreachable to him, but he can find guys who are close to the Fuhrer and he can get to them. And that brings him closer to the center of the party. And these guys really seem to trust him. And so because he's out and he's free during this awkward period where the Nazi Party's outlawed and a lot of its top people are behind bars, Himmler is going to be really useful to those folks, right, because he's able to move freely. He's one of the guys who's still on the outside, so we can use him Now. Strasser is also free. And because the Nazis are illegal, he helps to create a new far right party that's like a front for the Nazi Party, but not technically the Nazis. And he gets elected to the Bavarian parliament. And Himmler becomes basically his secretary after this point. And as Strasser rises and rises through the party and takes on more and more duties, Himmler takes over his old duties and he start. He's helping to. He's basically put in charge of building and expanding this front party for the NSDAP in Bavaria stealthily, and he's in charge of propaganda. After a while, he Writes to a friend in August of 1924. I have an enormous amount to do. I am in charge of organization and expansion of Lower Bavaria at all levels. Given all the work, there's never a moment to think about finding the time to write a letter. And like, I bring this up because it's. He's writing this in a letter, right? He's humble, bragging, like, I don't even have time to write letters to you anyway. Enjoy the letter. You know, like, he's trying to. He's. He's big league. Ing him, right? And that's a real thing for Heinrich is he's always kind of bragging about how much he's doing and how important he is. He expressed frustration that he was fighting what seems to be a losing battle to try and spread the Nazi Party during this period of time where it's illegal. But he also expresses confidence that the seeds that the Volkish movement was sowing would bloom in the end. And he was sadly correct. The Volkisher Bloc, which is his party, that's this Nazi front group, group equals the Social Democrats in local Bavarian elections later that year. That December, Hitler is released from prison and the Nazi Party gets unbanned. He's able to reassemble the NSDAP in 1925. He's still banned from public speaking for a while. And the ban is a little different in each state. It lasts in Bavaria until 1927, I think, in Prussia until 1928. So he's able to speak in certain states, but not others for a while. And during this period of time where he's muzzled or partly muzzled, he needs mouthpieces who can travel to the places he can't and give speeches in order to, like, draw crowds and build the party. Cause that's how they're recruiting, is by having these public events. We pay for the beer. You come, you show up, you listen to some guy talk, you join the party, you hand him a couple of bucks, right? Like, that's. That's. And Himmler becomes one of the most reliable speakers, right? He's sent all around Bavaria recruiting new members at these local party gatherings. You know who else helped build the Nazi Party?
