4. My Word is My Pledge

Nazis: The Road to Power

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