Lies being taught;
Mein Kampf is unintelligible ravings of a
maniac.
Now the Truth; Read and know. VOL II CHAPTER VIIc-THE
CONFLICT WITH THE RED FORCES
Part (c) First Conflict with Red Forces;
At the end of January 1921 there was again
great cause for anxiety in Germany. The Paris Agreement, by which Germany
pledged herself to pay the crazy sum of a hundred milliards of gold marks, was
to be confirmed by the London Ultimatum.
Thereupon an old-established Munich working
committee, representative of so-called VÖLKISCH groups, deemed it advisable to
call for a public meeting of protest. I became nervous and restless when I saw
that a lot of time was being wasted and nothing undertaken. At first a meeting
was suggested in the KÖNIG PLATZ; on second thoughts this was turned down, as
someone feared the proceedings might be wrecked by Red elements. Another
suggestion was a demonstration in front of the Feldherrn Hall, but this also
came to nothing. Finally a combined meeting in the Munich Kindl Hall was suggested.
Meanwhile, day after day had gone by; the big parties had entirely ignored the
terrible event, and the working committee could not decide on a definite date
for holding the demonstration.
On Tuesday, February 1st, I put forward an
urgent demand for a final decision. I was put off until Wednesday. On that day
I demanded to be told clearly if and when the meeting was to take place. The
reply was again uncertain and evasive, it being stated that it was 'intended'
to arrange a demonstration that day week.
At that I lost all patience and decided to
conduct a demonstration of protest on my own. At noon on Wednesday I dictated
in ten minutes the text of the poster and at the same time hired the Krone
Circus Hall for the next day, February 3rd.
In those days this was a tremendous venture.
Not only because of the uncertainty of filling that vast hall, but also because
of the risk of the meeting being wrecked.
Numerically our squad of hall guards was not
strong enough for this vast hall. I was also uncertain about what to do in case
the meeting was broken up--a huge circus building being a different proposition
from an ordinary meeting hall. But events showed that my fears were misplaced, the
opposite being the case. In that vast building a squad of wreckers could be
tackled and subdued more easily than in a cramped hall.
One thing was certain: A failure would throw
us back for a long time to come. If one meeting was wrecked our prestige would
be seriously injured and our opponents would be encouraged to repeat their
success. That would lead to sabotage of our work in connection with further
meetings and months of difficult struggle would be necessary to overcome this.
We had only one day in which to post our
bills, Thursday. Unfortunately it rained on the morning of that day and there
was reason to fear that many people would prefer to remain at home rather than
hurry to a meeting through rain and snow, especially when there was likely to
be violence and bloodshed.
And indeed on that Thursday morning I was
suddenly struck with fear that the hall might never be filled to capacity,
which would have made me ridiculous in the eyes of the working committee. I
therefore immediately dictated various leaflets, had them printed and
distributed in the afternoon. Of course they contained an invitation to attend
the meeting.
Two lorries which I hired were draped as much
as possible in red, each had our new flag hoisted on it and was then filled
with fifteen or twenty members of our party. Orders were given the members to
canvas the streets thoroughly, distribute leaflets and conduct propaganda for
the mass meeting to be held that evening. It was the first time that lorries had
driven through the streets bearing flags and not manned by Marxists. The public
stared open-mouthed at these red-draped cars, and in the outlying districts
clenched fists were angrily raised at this new evidence of 'provocation of the
proletariat'. Were not the Marxists the only ones entitled to hold meetings and
drive about in motor lorries?
At seven o'clock in the evening only a few
had gathered in the circus hall. I was being kept informed by telephone every
ten minutes and was becoming uneasy.
Usually at seven or a quarter past our meeting halls were already half filled;
sometimes even packed. But I soon found out the reason why I was uneasy. I had
entirely forgotten to take into account the huge dimensions of this new meeting
place. A thousand people in the Hofbräuhaus was quite an impressive sight, but
the same number in the Circus building was swallowed up in its dimensions and
was hardly noticeable. Shortly afterwards I received more hopeful reports and
at a quarter to eight I was informed that the hall was three-quarters filled, with
huge crowds still lined up at the pay boxes. I then left for the meeting.
I arrived at the Circus building at two
minutes past eight. There was still a crowd of people outside, partly
inquisitive people and many opponents who preferred to wait outside for
developments.
When I entered the great hall I felt the same
joy I had felt a year previously at the first meeting in the Munich Hofbräu
Banquet Hall; but it was not until I had forced my way through the solid wall
of people and reached the platform that I perceived the full measure of our success.
The hall was before me, like a huge shell, packed with thousands and thousands
of people. Even the arena was densely crowded. More than 5,600 tickets had been
sold and, allowing for the unemployed, poor students and our own detachments of
men for keeping order, a crowd of about 6,500 must have been present.
My theme was 'Future or Downfall' and I was
filled with joy at the conviction that the future was represented by the crowds
that I was addressing.
I began, and spoke for about two and a half
hours. I had the feeling after the first half-hour that the meeting was going
to be a big success. Contact had been at once established with all those
thousands of individuals. After the first hour the speech was already being received
by spontaneous outbreaks of applause, but after the second hour this died down
to a solemn stillness which I was to experience so often later on in this same
hall, and which will for ever be remembered by all those present. Nothing broke
this impressive silence and only when the last word had been spoken did the
meeting give vent to its feelings by singing the national anthem.
I watched the scene during the next twenty
minutes, as the vast hall slowly emptied itself, and only then did I leave the
platform, a happy man, and made my way home.
Photographs were taken of this first meeting
in the Krone Circus Hall in Munich. They are more eloquent than words to
demonstrate the success of this demonstration. The bourgeois papers reproduced
photographs and reported the meeting as having been merely 'nationalist' in
character; in their usual modest fashion they omitted all mention of its
promoters.
Thus for the first time we had developed far
beyond the dimensions of an ordinary party. We could no longer be ignored. And
to dispel all doubt that the meeting was merely an isolated success, I
immediately arranged for another at the Circus Hall in the following week, and
again we had the same success. Once more the vast hall was overflowing with
people; so much so that I decided to hold a third meeting during the following week,
which also proved a similar success.
After these initial successes early in 1921 I
increased our activity in Munich still further. I not only held meetings once a
week, but during some weeks even two were regularly held and very often during
midsummer and autumn this increased to three. We met regularly at the Circus
Hall and it gave us great satisfaction to see that every meeting brought us the
same measure of success.
The result was shown in an ever-increasing
number of supporters and members into our party.
Naturally, such success did not allow our
opponents to sleep soundly. At first their tactics fluctuated between the use
of terror and silence in our regard. Then they recognized that neither terror
nor silence could hinder the progress of our movement. So they had recourse to
a supreme act of terror which was intended to put a definite end to our
activities in the holding of meetings.
As a pretext for action along this line they
availed themselves of a very mysterious attack on one of the Landtag deputies,
named Erhard Auer. It was declared that someone had fired several shots at this
man one evening. This meant that he was not shot but that an attempt had been
made to shoot him. A fabulous presence of mind and heroic courage on the part
of Social Democratic leaders not only prevented the sacrilegious intention from
taking effect but also put the crazy would-be assassins to flight, like the
cowards that they were. They were so quick and fled so far that subsequently
the police could not find even the slightest traces of them. This mysterious
episode was used by the organ of the Social Democratic Party to arouse public
feeling against the movement, and while doing this it delivered its old rigmarole
about the tactics that were to be employed the next time. Their purpose was to
see to it that our movement should not grow but should be immediately hewn down
root and branch by the hefty arm of the
proletariat.
A few days later the real attack came. It was
decided finally to interrupt one of our meetings which was billed to take place
in the Munich Hofbräuhaus, and at which I myself was to speak.
On November 4th, 1921, in the evening between
six and seven o'clock I received the first precise news that the meeting would
positively be broken up and that to carry out this action our adversaries had
decided to send to the meeting great masses of workmen employed in certain
'Red' factories.
It was due to an unfortunate accident that we
did not receive this news sooner. On that day we had given up our old business
office in the Sternecker Gasse in Munich and moved into other quarters; or
rather we had given up the old offices and our new quarters were not yet in functioning
order. The telephone arrangements had been cut off by the former tenants and
had not yet been reinstalled. Hence it happened that several attempts made that
day to inform us by telephone of the break-up which had been planned for the
evening did not reach us.
Consequently our order troops were not present
in strong force at that meeting. There was only one squad present, which did
not consist of the usual one hundred men, but only of about forty-six. And our
telephone connections were not yet sufficiently organized to be able to give
the alarm in the course of an hour or so, so that a sufficiently powerful number
of order troops to deal with the situation could be called. It must also be
added that on several previous occasions we had been forewarned, but nothing
special happened. The old proverb, 'Revolutions’ which were announced have
scarcely ever come off', had hitherto been proved true in our regard.
Possibly for this reason also sufficiently
strong precautions had not been taken on that day to cope with the brutal
determination of our opponents to break up our meeting.
Finally, we did not believe that the
Hofbräuhaus in Munich was suitable for the interruptive tactics of our
adversaries. We had feared such a thing far more in the bigger halls,
especially that of the Krone Circus. But on this point we learned a very
serviceable lesson that evening. Later, we studied this whole question
according to a scientific system and arrived at results, both interesting and
incredible, and which subsequently were an essential factor in the direction of
our organization and in the tactics of our Storm Troops.
When I arrived in the entrance halt of the
Hofbräuhaus at 7.45 that evening I realizcd that there could be no doubt as to
what the 'Reds' intended. The hall was filled, and for that reason the police
had barred the entrances. Our adversaries, who had arrived very early, were in
the hall, and our followers were for the most part outside. The small bodyguard
awaited me at the entrance. I had the doors leading to the principal hall
closed and then asked the bodyguard of forty-five or forty-six men to come
forward. I made it clear to the boys that perhaps on that evening for the first
time they would have to show their unbending and unbreakable loyalty to the
movement and that not one of us should leave the hall unless carried out dead.
I added that I would remain in the hall and that I did not believe that one of
them would abandon me, and that if I saw any one of them act the coward I
myself would personally tear off his armlet and his badge. I demanded of them that
they should come forward if the slightest attempt to sabotage the meeting were
made and that they must remember that the best defence is always attack.
I was greeted with a triple 'HEIL' which
sounded more hoarse and violent than usual.
Then I advanced through the hall and could
take in the situation with my own eyes. Our opponents sat closely huddled
together and tried to pierce me through with their looks. Innumerable faces
glowing with hatred and rage were fixed on me, while others with sneering
grimaces shouted at me together. Now they would 'Finish with us. We must look
out for our entrails. To-day they would smash in our faces once and for all.'
And there were other expressions of an equally elegant character. They knew that
they were there in superior numbers and they acted accordingly.
Yet we were able to open the meeting; and I
began to speak. In the Hall of the Hofbräuhaus I stood always at the side, away
from the entry and on top of a beer table. Therefore I was always right in the
midst of the audience. Perhaps this circumstance was responsible for creating a
certain feeling and a sense of agreement which I never found elsewhere.
Before me, and especially towards my left,
there were only opponents, seated or standing. They were mostly robust youths
and men from the Maffei Factory, from Kustermann's, and from the factories on
the Isar, etc. Along the right-hand wall of the hall they were thickly massed quite
close to my table. They now began to order litre mugs of beer, one after the
other, and to throw the empty mugs under the table. In this way whole batteries
were collected. I should have been surprised had this meeting ended peacefully.
In spite of all the interruptions, I was able
to speak for about an hour and a half and I felt as if I were master of the
situation. Even the ringleaders of the disturbers appeared to be convinced of
this; for they steadily became more uneasy, often left the hall, returned and
spoke to their men in an obviously nervous way.
A small psychological error which I committed
in replying to an interruption, and the mistake of which I myself was conscious
the moment the words had left my mouth, gave the sign for the outbreak.
There were a few furious outbursts and all in
a moment a man jumped on a seat and shouted "Liberty". At that signal
the champions of liberty began their work.
In a few moments the hall was filled with a
yelling and shrieking mob. Numerous beer-mugs flew like howitzers above their
heads. Amid this uproar one heard the crash of chair legs, the crashing of
mugs, groans and yells and screams.
It was a mad spectacle. I stood where I was
and could observe my boys doing their duty, every one of them.
There I had the chance of seeing what a
bourgeois meeting could be.
The dance had hardly begun when my Storm
Troops, as they were called from that day onwards, launched their attack. Like
wolves they threw themselves on the enemy again and again in parties of eight
or ten and began steadily to thrash them out of the hall. After five minutes I could
see hardly one of them that was not streaming with blood. Then I realized what
kind of men many of them were, above all my brave Maurice Hess, who is my
private secretary to-day, and many others who, even though seriously wounded,
attacked again and again as long as they could stand on their feet. Twenty
minutes long the pandemonium continued. Then the opponents, who had numbered
seven or eight hundred, had been driven from the hall or hurled out headlong by
my men, who had not numbered fifty. Only in the left corner a big crowd still
stood out against our men and put up a bitter fight. Then two pistol shots rang
out from the entrance to the hall in the direction of the platform and now a
wild din of shooting broke out from all sides. One's heart almost rejoiced at this
spectacle which recalled memories of the War.
At that moment it was not possible to
identify the person who had fired the shots. But at any rate I could see that
my boys renewed the attack with increased fury until finally the last
disturbers were overcome and flung out of the hall.
About twenty-five minutes had passed since it
all began. The hall looked as if a bomb had exploded there. Many of my comrades
had to be bandaged and others taken away. But we remained masters of the
situation. Hermann Essen, who was chairman of the meeting, announced: "The
meeting will continue. The speaker shall proceed." So I went on with my
speech.
When we ourselves declared the meeting at an
end an excited police officer rushed in, waved his hands and declared:
"The meeting is dissolved."
Without wishing to do so I had to laugh at
this example of the law's delay. It was the authentic constabulary
officiosiousness. The smaller they are the greater they must always appear.
That evening we learned a real lesson. And
our adversaries never forgot the lesson they had received.
Up to the autumn of 1923 the Münchener post
did not again mention the
clenched fists of the Proletariat.
Adolf Hitler
No comments:
Post a Comment