Message #92727

[Aryan Warrior]

1. The great mass demonstration against the Law for the Protection of
the Republic. This demonstration was held in the late summer of 1922 on
the KÖNIGS-PLATZ in Munich, by all the patriotic societies. The National
Socialist Movement also participated in it. The march-past of our party,
in serried ranks, was led by six Munich companies of a hundred men each,
followed by the political sections of the Party. Two bands marched with
us and about fifteen flags were carried. When the National Socialists
arrived at the great square it was already half full, but no flag was
flying. Our entry aroused unbounded enthusiasm. I myself had the honour
of being one of the speakers who addressed that mass of about sixty
thousand people.

The demonstration was an overwhelming success; especially because it was
proved for the first time that nationalist Munich could march on the
streets, in spite of all threats from the Reds. Members of the
organization for the defence of the Red Republic endeavoured to hinder
the marching columns by their terrorist activities, but they were
scattered by the companies of the Storm Detachment within a few minutes
and sent off with bleeding skulls. The National Socialist Movement had
then shown for the first time that in future it was determined to
exercise the right to march on the streets and thus take this monopoly
away from the international traitors and enemies of the country.

The result of that day was an incontestable proof that our ideas for the
creation of the Storm Detachment were right, both from the psychological
viewpoint and as to the manner in which this body was organized.

On the basis of this success the enlistment progressed so rapidly that
within a few weeks the number of Munich companies of a hundred men each
became doubled.

2. The expedition to Coburg in October 1922.

Certain People's Societies had decided to hold a German Day at Coburg. I
was invited to take part, with the intimation that they wished me to
bring a following along. This invitation, which I received at eleven
o'clock in the morning, arrived just in time. Within an hour the
arrangements for our participation in the German Congress were ready. I
picked eight hundred men of the Storm Detachment to accompany me. These
were divided into about fourteen companies and had to be brought by
special train from Munich to Coburg, which had just voted by plebiscite
to be annexed to Bavaria. Corresponding orders were given to other
groups of the National Socialist Storm Detachment which had meanwhile
been formed in various other localities.

This was the first time that such a special train ran in Germany. At all
the places where the new members of the Storm Detachment joined us our
train caused a sensation. Many of the people had never seen our flag.
And it made a very great impression.

As we arrived at the station in Coburg we were received by a deputation
of the organizing committee of the German Day. They announced that it
had been 'arranged' at the orders of local trades unions--that is to
say, the Independent and Communist Parties--that we should not enter the
town with our flags unfurled and our band playing (we had a band
consisting of forty-two musicians with us) and that we should not march
with closed ranks.

I immediately rejected these unmilitary conditions and did not fail to
declare before the gentlemen who had arranged this 'day' how astonished
I was at the idea of their negotiating with such people and coming to an
agreement with them. Then I announced that the Storm Troops would
immediately march into the town in company formation, with our flags
flying and the band playing.

And that is what happened.

As we came out into the station yard we were met by a growling and
yelling mob of several thousand, that shouted at us: 'Assassins',
'Bandits', 'Robbers', 'Criminals'. These were the choice names which
these exemplary founders of the German Republic showered on us. The
young Storm Detachment gave a model example of order. The companies fell
into formation on the square in front of the station and at first took
no notice of the insults hurled at them by the mob. The police were
anxious. They did not pilot us to the quarters assigned to us on the
outskirts of Coburg, a city quite unknown to us, but to the Hofbräuhaus
Keller in the centre of the town. Right and left of our march the tumult
raised by the accompanying mob steadily increased. Scarcely had the last
company entered the courtyard of the Hofbräuhaus when the huge mass made
a rush to get in after them, shouting madly. In order to prevent this,
the police closed the gates. Seeing the position was untenable I called
the Storm Detachment to attention and then asked the police to open the
gates immediately. After a good deal of hesitation, they consented.

We now marched back along the same route as we had come, in the
direction of our quarters, and there we had to make a stand against the
crowd. As their cries and yells all along the route had failed to
disturb the equanimity of our companies, the champions of true
Socialism, Equality, and Fraternity now took to throwing stones. That
brought our patience to an end. For ten minutes long, blows fell right
and left, like a devastating shower of hail. Fifteen minutes later there
were no more Reds to be seen in the street.

The collisions which took place when the night came on were more
serious. Patrols of the Storm Detachment had discovered National
Socialists who had been attacked singly and were in an atrocious state.
Thereupon we made short work of the opponents. By the following morning
the Red terror, under which Coburg had been suffering for years, was
definitely smashed.

Adopting the typically Marxist and Jewish method of spreading
falsehoods, leaflets were distributed by hand on the streets, bearing
the caption: "Comrades and Comradesses of the International
Proletariat." These leaflets were meant to arouse the wrath of the
populace. Twisting the facts completely around, they declared that our
'bands of assasins' had commenced 'a war of extermination against the
peaceful workers of Coburg'. At half-past one that day there was to be a
'great popular demonstration', at which it was hoped that the workers of
the whole district would turn up. I was determined finally to crush this
Red terror and so I summoned the Storm Detachment to meet at midday.
Their number had now increased to 1,500. I decided to march with these
men to the Coburg Festival and to cross the big square where the Red
demonstration was to take place. I wanted to see if they would attempt
to assault us again. When we entered the square we found that instead of
the ten thousand that had been advertised, there were only a few hundred
people present. As we approached they remained silent for the most part,
and some ran away. Only at certain points along the route some bodies of
Reds, who had arrived from outside the city and had not yet come to know
us, attempted to start a row. But a few fisticuffs put them to flight.
And now one could see how the population, which had for such a long time
been so wretchedly intimidated, slowly woke up and recovered their
courage. They welcomed us openly, and in the evening, on our return
march, spontaneous shouts of jubilation broke out at several points
along the route.

At the station the railway employees informed us all of a sudden that
our train would not move. Thereupon I had some of the ringleaders told
that if this were the case I would have all the Red Party heroes
arrested that fell into our hands, that we would drive the train
ourselves, but that we would take away with us, in the locomotive and
tender and in some of the carriages, a few dozen members of this
brotherhood of international solidarity. I did not omit to let those
gentry know that if we had to conduct the train the journey would
undoubtedly be a very risky adventure and that we might all break our
necks. It would be a consolation, however, to know that we should not go
to Eternity alone, but in equality and fraternity with the Red gentry.

Thereupon the train departed punctually and we arrived next morning in
Munich safe and sound.

Thus at Coburg, for the first time since 1914, the equality of all
citizens before the law was re-established. For even if some coxcomb of
a higher official should assert to-day that the State protects the lives
of its citizens, at least in those days it was not so. For at that time
the citizens had to defend themselves against the representatives of the
present State.

At first it was not possible fully to estimate the importance of the
consequences which resulted from that day. The victorious Storm Troops
had their confidence in themselves considerably reinforced and also
their faith in the sagacity of their leaders. Our contemporaries began
to pay us special attention and for the first time many recognized the
National Socialist Movement as an organization that in all probability
was destined to bring the Marxist folly to a deserving end.

Only the democrats lamented the fact that we had not the complaisance to
allow our skulls to be cracked and that we had dared, in a democratic
Republic, to hit back with fists and sticks at a brutal assault, rather
than with pacifist chants.

Generally speaking, the bourgeois Press was partly distressed and partly
vulgar, as always. Only a few decent newspapers expressed their
satisfaction that at least in one locality the Marxist street bullies
had been effectively dealt with.

And in Coburg itself at least a part of the Marxist workers who must be
looked upon as misled, learned from the blows of National Socialist
fists that these workers were also fighting for ideals, because
experience teaches that the human being fights only for something in
which he believes and which he loves.

The Storm Detachment itself benefited most from the Coburg events. It
grew so quickly in numbers that at the Party Congress in January 1923
six thousand men participated in the ceremony of consecrating the flags
and the first companies were fully clad in their new uniform.

Our experience in Coburg proved how essential it is to introduce one
distinctive uniform for the Storm Detachment, not only for the purpose
of strengthening the ESPRIT DE CORPS but also to avoid confusion and the
danger of not recognizing the opponent in a squabble. Up to that time
they had merely worn the armlet, but now the tunic and the well-known
cap were added.

But the Coburg experience had also another important result. We now
determined to break the Red Terror in all those localities where for
many years it had prevented men of other views from holding their
meetings. We were determined to restore the right of free assembly. From
that time onwards we brought our battalions together in such places and
little by little the red citadels of Bavaria, one after another, fell
before the National Socialist propaganda. The Storm Troops became more
and more adept at their job. They increasingly lost all semblance of an
aimless and lifeless defence movement and came out into the light as an
active militant organization, fighting for the establishment of a new
German State.

This logical development continued until March 1923. Then an event
occurred which made me divert the Movement from the course hitherto
followed and introduce some changes in its outer formation.

In the first months of 1923 the French occupied the Ruhr district. The
consequence of this was of great importance in the development of the
Storm Detachment.

It is not yet possible, nor would it be in the interest of the nation,
to write or speak openly and freely on the subject. I shall speak of it
only as far as the matter has been dealt with in public discussions and
thus brought to the knowledge of everybody.

The occupation of the Ruhr district, which did not come as a surprise to
us, gave grounds for hoping that Germany would at last abandon its
cowardly policy of submission and therewith give the defensive
associations a definite task to fulfil. The Storm Detachment also, which
now numbered several thousand of robust and vigorous young men, should
not be excluded from this national service. During the spring and summer
of 1923 it was transformed into a fighting military organization. It is
to this reorganization that we must in great part attribute the later
developments that took place during 1923, in so far as it affected our
Movement.

Elsewhere I shall deal in broad outline with the development of events
in 1923. Here I wish only to state that the transformation of the Storm
Detachment at that time must have been detrimental to the interests of
the Movement if the conditions that had motivated the change were not to
be carried into effect, namely, the adoption of a policy of active
resistance against France.

The events which took place at the close of 1923, terrible as they may
appear at first sight, were almost a necessity if looked at from a
higher standpoint; because, in view of the attitude taken by the
Government of the German REICH, conversion of the Storm Troops into a
military force would be meaningless and thus a transformation which
would also be harmful to the Movement was ended at one stroke. At the
same time it was made possible for us to reconstruct at the point where
we had been diverted from the proper course.

In the year 1925 the German National Socialist Labour Party was
re-founded and had to organize and train its Storm Detachment once again
according to the principles I have laid down. It must return to the
original idea and once more it must consider its most essential task to
function as the instrument of defence and reinforcement in the spiritual
struggle to establish the ideals of the Movement.

The Storm Detachment must not be allowed to sink to the level of
something in the nature of a defence organization or a secret society.
Steps must be taken rather to make it a vanguard of 100,000 men in the
struggle for the National Socialist ideal which is based on the profound
principle of a People's State.