Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

186 DER FUEHRERto Pohner. The Burgerbrau, a large building surrounded by a fenced-ingarden, hence easy to defend, had an ample police guard. But Frick, atthe behest of his former boss, telephoned the commanding officer not tointervene in the event of disorders; but to wait and report all happeningsto him.What happened was that Hitler's armed followers captured threethousand men, representing the entire state power of Bavaria. It wasmany hours before the nature of the event became halfway clear to theoutside world. Hitler's purpose was simply to set his gun at the heads ofthe dictators and force them to putsch. He felt sure he could carry thethree thousand away by his eloquence. Six hundred of his storm troopsquietly surrounded the building in the dusk. At police headquarters,Frick gave the police commissioner permission for the revolution. Thepresident himself sat in the Burgerbrau Keller, and Hitler took himprisoner along with the rest.With his storm troops at their posts, Hitler, seemingly an innocentguest, stood amid the beer fumes in the crowded vestibule andwhispered a command to a little middle-aged man with a pince-nez. Thelittle man was Scheubner-Richter. Hitler bade him drive out toLudendorff's place in the suburbs, inform the general that the coup d'etatwas an accomplished fact, offer him a command in the army, and bringhim to the Burgerbrau at once. All this, of course, with the greatestpoliteness — yet there was no mistaking that the unknown corporal wasgiving the general orders and a job.The trucks bearing storm troopers and machine guns rushed out of thedarkness, the illumined entrances of the building were suddenly blackwith armed men. Inside, Kahr stood unsuspecting on the platform; forhalf an hour he had been arduously reading from his preparedmanuscript. Hitler rushed into the hall, at his left side was AlfredRosenberg, meditating, perhaps, on the words of the Wise Men of Zion:that the boldest and most treacherous strokes are those that gain theadmiration of the peoples. At Hitler's right side a broad-shouldered manwith a mighty mustache; this was Ulrich Graf, apprentice butcher, anamateur wrestler and great brawler; he followed Hitler everywhere withthe loyalty of a dog, a gun always ready in his pocket. Behind themcame Rudolf Hess.