Why a teetotaller, Hitler ordered 31 litres of beer in jail in 1924

Adolf Hitler enjoyed special treatment, including plentiful supplies of beer, during his time at Landsberg prison in Germany while serving a sentence for leading an unsuccessful coup.

The Nazi Party attempted to seize power after the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, where Hitler and his followers took to the streets in Munich. While imprisoned, Hitler wrote much of the first volume of his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and received a stream of visitors-330 to be precise, according to Peter Fleischmann, a German historian.

Fleischmann, who heads the Bavarian state archives in Nuremberg, said a review of newly published prison records reveals that Hitler and fellow members of the Nazi Party were treated much more favourably than socialists or communists who were also incarcerated for staging a coup several years earlier.

He said: "Formally it was the same kind of sentence, but in practice it was completely different. The leftists... were mistreated while the rightists had their path greased for them." Fleischmann said Hitler and his fellow Nazis "were granted prison treatment that was far beyond the norms of the time" by officials and prison guards who sympathised with their extreme nationalist ideology.

Even though Hitler described himself as a "complete anti-alcoholic" (teetotaller) he purchased 62 half-litre bottles of beer in July 1924-and similar amounts the following months.

Fleischmann's 552-page book also appears to confirm a British WWII-era joke about Hitler.

A doctor who examined Hitler on his arrival in Landsberg recorded that the Nazi leader was "healthy, strong" but suffered from an undescended right testicle, also known as unilateral cryptorchidism.

The congenital condition can increase the chances of infertility.

Hitler was released from Landsberg on December 20, 1924, due to supposed good conduct.

According to prison medical records, Hitler was 35 when he was jailed. He was healthy and strong, but had a right cryptorchidism and a luxation of the left upper arm.

The record said he was an artist and author and had been born in Braunau in Austria.