burst forth into the national anthem. As Hitler stood at atten-
tion, ramrod stiff, his face illuminated by a childlike ecstasy,
Ludendorff joined him and stood, ashen with suppressed emo-
tion, at his side.
Outside, the thump and blare of brass bands announced
the arrival of one thousand officer cadets; they had marched
over from the infantry school with swastika flags fluttering at
their head. Ludendorff and Hitler went out to give the salute.
Word came that the railroad station and telegraph office were in
the hands of Bund Oberland men, that Lossow’s army district
was firmly in the hands of Röhm’s “troops.” Hitler was
euphoric: The revolution seemed to have succeeded. Göring
sent word of his triumph to Carin on her sickbed that same
night.
All too carelessly, Göring now accepted the word of Kahr,
Lossow, and Seisser, and allowed them to return to their minis-
tries while Hitler and Ludendorff were momentarily called away.
Kahr seemed to have been won over, and the two others were
officers whose word was surely not in doubt; besides, Göring and
the young former fighter pilot Rudolf Hess had taken half a
dozen Bavarian ministers as hostages from the audience in the
beer hall, and they were even now being whisked off to a safe
house in the suburbs.
Kahr at first went along with Hitler’s revolutionary intent
that night. But then, during those wee small hours of the
morning in which men lose faith and enterprise, the revolution
began to fall apart. Kahr and Seisser joined General von Lossow
in the safety of the th Infantry Regiment barracks (since Los-
sow’s own building had been occupied at midnight by Röhm),
and they began to backtrack on the promises they had given to
Hitler. They ordered their press chief to ensure that not one
Munich newspaper appeared, and at : .. they issued a