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.I demanded of themthat they should come forward if the slightest attempt to sabotage the meeting were made and that they mustremember 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 closelyhuddled together and tried to pierce me through with their looks.Innumerable faces glowing with hatred andrage were fixed on me, while others with sneering grimaces shouted at me together.Now they would Finishwith us.We must look out for our entrails.To-day they would smash in our faces once and for all. Andthere were other expressions of an equally elegant character.They knew that they were there in superiornumbers 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 atthe side, away from the entry and on top of a beer table.Therefore I was always right in the midst of theaudience.Perhaps this circumstance was responsible for creating a certain feeling and a sense of agreementwhich I never found elsewhere.Before me, and especially towards my left, there were only opponents, seated or standing.They were mostlyrobust 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 toorder litre mugs of beer, one after the other, and to throw the empty mugs under the table.In this way wholebatteries 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 masterof the situation.Even the ringleaders of the disturbers appeared to be convinced of this; for they steadilybecame 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 Imyself 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".Atthat 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 like268 Mein Kampfhowitzers above their heads.Amid this uproar one heard the crash of chair legs, the crashing of mugs, groansand 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, launchedtheir attack.Like wolves they threw themselves on the enemy again and again in parties of eight or ten andbegan steadily to thrash them out of the hall.After five minutes I could see hardly one of them that was notstreaming with blood.Then I realized what kind of men many of them were, above all my brave MauriceHess, who is my private secretary to-day, and many others who, even though seriously wounded, attackedagain 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 outheadlong by my men, who had not numbered fifty.Only in the left corner a big crowd still stood out againstour men and put up a bitter fight.Then two pistol shots rang out from the entrance to the hall in the directionof the platform and now a wild din of shooting broke out from all sides.One s heart almost rejoiced at thisspectacle 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 seethat my boys renewed the attack with increased fury until finally the last disturbers were overcome and flungout 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 speakershall 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 anddeclared: "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 constabularyofficiosiousness.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.269 Mein KampfCHAPTER VIIITHE STRONG IS STRONGEST WHENALONEIn the preceding chapter I mentioned the existence of a co-operative union between the German patrioticassociations.Here I shall deal briefly with this question.In speaking of a co-operative union we generally mean a group of associations which, for the purpose offacilitating their work, establish mutual relations for collaborating with one another along certain lines,appointing a common directorate with varying powers and thenceforth carrying out a common line of action.The average citizen is pleased and reassured when he hears that these associations, by establishing aco-operative union among one another, have at long last discovered a common platform on which they canstand united and have eliminated all grounds of mutual difference.Therewith a general conviction arises, tothe effect that such a union is an immense gain in strength and that small groups which were weak as long asthey stood alone have now suddenly become strong.Yet this conviction is for the most part a mistaken one.It will be interesting and, in my opinion, important for the better understanding of this question if we try toget a clear notion of how it comes about that these associations, unions, etc., are established, when all of themdeclare that they have the same ends in view.In itself it would be logical to expect that one aim should befought for by a single association and it would be more reasonable if there were not a number of associationsfighting for the same aim.In the beginning there was undoubtedly only one association which had this onefixed aim in view.One man proclaimed a truth somewhere and, calling for the solution of a definite question,fixed his aim and founded a movement for the purpose of carrying his views into effect.That is how an association or a party is founded, the scope of whose programme is either the abolition ofexisting evils or the positive establishment of a certain order of things in the future.Once such a movement has come into existence it may lay practical claim to certain priority rights
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