{{Short description|German judge}} [[File:Nasleep Eerste Wereldoorlog, staatsgrepen, processen, Duitsland, SFA022823679.jpg|thumb|Neithardt (1) presiding over the Beer Hall Putsch trial, 1924]] '''Georg Neithardt''' (31 January 1871 — 1 November 1941<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lilla |first=Joachim |date=October 23, 2024 |title=State ministers, senior administrative officials and (NS) functionaries in Bavaria 1918 to 1945 |url=https://verwaltungshandbuch.bavarikon.de/VWH/Neithardt,_Georg |access-date=October 23, 2024 |website=bavarikon}}</ref>) was the district court director of the Munich People's Court in Germany's Weimar Republic.<ref name="br" /> In February and March 1924, Neithardt presided over the trial of Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, and eight additional leaders of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. He also presided over the trial of Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley.<ref name="br">{{cite news |last1=Eklkofer |first1=Volker |title=The beginning of the end of democracy |url=https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/radiowissen/geschichte/hitlerputsch-weimarer-demokratie-umsturz-nationalsozialismus-100.html |access-date=3 January 2021 |publisher=Bayern Public Radio |date=23 February 2015}}</ref>

==Bayernbund meeting trial== In September 1921, Hitler was arrested after he and members of his SA paramilitary faction disrupted a Bayernbund meeting hosting the federalist Ballerstedt.<ref name="bear" /> Neithardt presided over Hitler's trial, which sentenced Hitler to three months in prison. Hitler served one month of his sentence.<ref name="bear" />

==Beer Hall Putsch trial/Munich Putsch trial== Sympathetic to far-right politics in Germany, Neithardt presided over the Beer Hall Putsch trial, which lasted from 26 February to 1 April 1924.<ref name="br" /><ref name="bear">{{cite book |last1=Bear |first1=Ileen |title=Adolf Hitler |date=2016 |publisher=Vij Books India}}</ref> Neithardt treated Hitler, Ludendorff and other defendants on friendly terms, and referred to Ludendorff as "your excellency."<ref name="br" /> Hitler used the trial to propagandize against democracy in Germany and argued that his attempted coup-d'etat could not have been treason, if its aim was to negate the treason of Germany's armistice signed in 1918.<ref name="br" /> Hitler was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison but served only nine months of his sentence.<ref>Shirer, William L. (1964) ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'' Pan Books: London, pp. 106-107</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neithardt, Georg}} Category:1871 births Category:1941 deaths Category:20th-century German judges Category:Beer Hall Putsch Category:German nationalists Category:People from the Weimar Republic