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

198 DER FUEHRERuncertainty and helplessness. Directly ahead of Hitler marched Graf,farther to the left Goring; Alfred Rosenberg was in the second row.Dietrich Eckart, a sick man, was missing. A little to one side was astocky, bald man with hysterically convulsed features, the anti-Semiticagitator, Julius Streicher from Nuremberg. The first ranks werefollowed by an automobile carrying several machine guns. Then camethree thousand men with shouldered rifles, some with mounted bayonets— all singing.An armed cordon was drawn across the street where it opens into theOdeonsplatz. Perhaps a hundred men — again police and notReichswehr — against three thousand. If the police wanted to stop themarchers, they had to do it in this narrow pass; once they reached theopen square, the revolutionaries could have brought their numericalsuperiority to bear.It is still not entirely clear who fired first. It would seem that Streicherleapt at one of the policemen and tried to snatch his carbine. One heardHitler crying: 'Surrender! Surrender!' This man could bluff from thedepths of his soul. At the same moment a Nazi ran forward and cried interror: 'Don't shoot, His Excellency Ludendorff is coming!' Who canmeasure the effect of the fraction of a second wasted in muttering theuseless word, 'Excellency'? A shot rang out and the man — probablyUlrich Graf — collapsed, wounded. A volley was fired. Goring fell,shot in the thigh. Scheubner-Richter received a fatal wound and fell. Sotight was his leader's grip on him that Hitler's arm was dislocated. Hitlerlay on the ground. It is not clear whether he was pulled down byScheubner or was instinctively seeking cover. In any case, it is certainthat if he wanted to cow the enemy, he had to remain on his feet.Ludendorff remained standing. He even advanced. With Streck hepassed between the rifle barrels of the police to the open square. If fiftyor perhaps even twenty-five men had followed him, the day would haveended differently.The front ranks of the three thousand returned the fire. They put theirmachine gun into action. Rosenberg lay on the ground near the frontline. Behind him lay a National Socialist whom he did not know,shooting over him. The other side shot back; the