Chapter 36 36 Munich Riots

The Bavarian state government was originally scheduled to hold a rally on the evening of November 21, with the participation of celebrities from Munich politics and society. (Due to a series of unexpected events such as the sudden death of the president, the succession of President Hindenburg, and the secret formation of the Greater German Party, which affected the Bavarian nobility and army, the reception that was supposed to be held on November 8 was postponed to November 21, and the Munich beer hall riots, which were supposed to break out on November 8, were postponed to November 21.) )

Hitler, a prominent local figure, was also invited to the banquet, and he was huddled in an inconspicuous corner next to a pillar along with members of the Nazi Party, such as Max Aman, Rosenberg, and Ulrich Graf, without anyone paying attention to his presence.

Twenty minutes after a local official named Carl began to speak, the entire rally was abruptly and completely interrupted. Göring broke into the hall with twenty-five members of the armed Nazi party. The venue was in chaos. In the confusion, Hitler pulled a pistol out of his arms, then jumped on a chair with a roar, fired a shot at the ceiling, and then jumped down and walked to the podium.

"The national revolution has begun. Hitler shouted: "This hall has been occupied by 600 heavily armed men, and no one is allowed to leave the hall." The Bavarian and German governments have been overthrown, and the Provisional National Government has been formed. Army barracks and police stations have been occupied, and the army and police are advancing into the city under the Nazi flag. ”

Many in the hall were outraged by the brazenness of this young nouveau riche who tried to squeeze into the political sphere by means of intimidation, but no one could figure out how far Hitler's pure bluff had been. After all, they all saw that there were about six hundred stormtroopers outside the hall, and there was a machine gun at the gate.

With the assistance of Bona, the former Munich police chief, Hitler had persuaded Flick, an officer still working in the police station, to call the officers in the hall not to intervene, and to report anything that had happened, so that Goering could keep order in the hall. These orders were meticulously carried out by Flick, so the Nazis took control of the entire hall.

Seeing that the situation was under control, Hitler had Karl, Losov, and Sessell driven into a nearby room. At the same time, Sbner Richter drove to Ludwigshhoy that night to pick up General Ludendorff, because Hitler wanted him to be the nominal leader of his revolution.

Hitler was so excited that he began to meet Karl and his partners in a dramatic way. Seeing Hitler come in, Karl asked angrily, "What do you want? We are government officials! You have no right to imprison us!"

Hitler sneered, then brandished his pistol and said, "No one can get out of this room alive without my permission." I have prevented a new government with Ludendorff that will lead the German people to a great victory!"

At this time, however, Ludendorff was still unaware of what was happening. Hitler was ashamed to deceive everyone: "You have only one choice now: riot with me!"

As he spoke, he swung his pistol, looking a little insane, much to the horror of Carl and the others.

Seeing that his opponent was afraid and flinching, Hitler became even more arrogant, shouting: "I have four bullets in my pistol." If you don't want to cooperate with me, I'll give you three of them, and I'll keep the last bullet for myself. ”

He pointed his pistol at his head and shouted, "If I don't succeed by tomorrow afternoon, I don't want this life." ”

Carl and the others were surprisingly unmoved. First, they found it difficult to fully consider Hitler's madness, despite the guns and armed guards at the window, and second, they felt that whoever came first at this time would be the first to be unlucky. Losoff heard Carl and Sessell behind him whisper, "Deceit."

At this time, Karl tried to pretend to be brave and said, "You can arrest me or shoot me." It's not a big deal that I don't die. This sentence irritated Hitler on the other side.

Seisel then stepped forward and denounced Hitler for not keeping his promise: "God! You promised me that you would not carry out a coup d'état! Now you are trying to deceive me and ruin me!"

Hitler, who was still very angry, was very weak when he heard Sessel's words, but he still said firmly: "Yes, I have gone back on my word." Please forgive me. But for the sake of the motherland, I had to do so. ”

He wanted to explain something, but when he saw Karl start whispering to the silent Losov, he suddenly became angry and shouted, "Don't speak without my permission." ”

By this point, Hitler had made little real progress. Later, without saying a word, he walked out of the room, rushed to the hall, and announced to the others: "The three people inside have agreed to form a new German government with me, and the Bavarian cabinet has stepped down." After hearing his words, there was a cheer in the hall.

He pressed his palms to signal everyone to be quiet, and then continued: "So I mention yì, the Bavarian government consists of a regent and a prime minister with dictatorial powers. I have Mr. von Karl as regent and Mr. Boner as prime minister. In November, the government of the sinners and the president of Germany have been announced to be removed. A new national government will be appointed today in Munich. ”

As in history, Hitler triumphed in the Munich Beer Hall riots. At this time, he had not yet received the support of General Ludendorff, nor had any compromise from any high-ranking government official, and did not even take into account the attitude of the Wehrmacht, so he began his grand plan with extreme recklessness.

As soon as Hitler returned to the Nazi Party office building, his co-conspirator Ludendorff arrived. He was angry that Hitler had kept him in the dark and fiddled around: "Adolf, you can't be so brute! I'm not your pawn! Have you ever thought that if your action fails, I'll be taken to court?"

Hitler laughed: "I will not fail! The German people will go to glory under my leadership! Go to victory!" He tried to fool old fritters like Ludendorff in the same way that he had bewitched members of the Nazi Party.

But apparently he did not succeed, and Ludendorff yelled angrily: "You bastard! You make yourself, not me, the future dictator of Germany! And let me command your army like a monkey! Do you think everyone is a fool?"

However, Hitler was unmoved, and Ludendorff had no choice but to control himself and say to Hitler in as calm a tone as possible: "Mr. Hitler! This is a major national event, and I can only advise others to cooperate." You can't really influence their actions!"

Hitler shook his head and said: "It's too late! We can't go back, our actions have gone down in the pages of world history." Seeing that Ludendorff had succumbed, his loyal subordinate Losov had no choice but to get up and compromise with Hitler: "I will carry out Mr. Hitler's wishes as an order." ”

Ludendorff's intervention played a decisive role. While Karl still disagreed, Hitler used his last trump card. He said to Karl: "If Your Excellency permits, I will at once drive to see His Majesty, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and tell him: 'The people of Germany have risen up and made up for the unjust treatment of His Majesty's father.' ’”

Hearing this, Karl, a royalist official who had been vacillating, surrendered and immediately agreed to cooperate and act as the king's representative. They reached a semblance of unity, and all of them lined up and returned to the hall.

As the audience jumped into their seats and cheered enthusiastically, each of them spoke short words from the podium, pledged allegiance, and shook hands with each other. Overjoyed and relieved, Hitler said excitedly: "I will fulfill the vow I made five years ago when I was temporarily blind in a military hospital: to fight tirelessly until the overthrow of the government of sinners in November, and until the re-establishment of a strong, free and glorious Germany on the miserable ruins of today's Germany." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, his brown-shirted soldiers gathered in the tavern shouted loudly: "Germany is higher than one qiē".

Everyone applauded and shouted to Hitler: "Germany is higher than one qiē!"

Amid the shouts, a man in a brown shirt walked out of the tavern, he saluted the brown shirts guarding the gate, then nodded and disappeared into the night.

In a small alley not far away, a man was smoking against the wall, and when he saw the man in a brown shirt coming over, he threw the cigarette butt in his mouth on the ground and stepped on it with his foot, and took a note from the man in the brown shirt, and after the man in the brown shirt handed out the note, he nodded and turned to leave.

He opened the note, and by the light and moonlight from the window behind him, he could dimly read a line of small print: "Hitler rioted in the beer hall, immediately notify the Gestapo commander Major Gascole." ”

At about 11 a.m. on 22 November, the Nazis went into action, and 3,000 Nazi Party members and the Brown Shirts regrouped outside the beer hall that night. They distributed small quantities of rifles and ammunition, shouted slogans, and prepared to riot.

The unrestrained procession, armed with a variety of weapons, marched towards the center of Munich under the leadership of Hitler, Goering and the famous General Enrique Ludendorff.

At the same moment, in the Wehrmacht camp outside Munich, the sound of sirens pierced the sky, cars drove out of the warehouse, and rows of Wehrmacht soldiers with rifles lined up neatly, as soldiers of the newly formed 22nd Wehrmacht, they were waiting for a key figure to arrive.