bulletin to all German radio stations under the heading “Gen-
eral Staatskommissar von Kahr, General von Lossow and Colonel
von Seisser repudiate Hitler putsch.” “The opinions expressed
by us at the Bürgerbräu assembly,” the brief bulletin explained,
“were extracted at gunpoint and are invalid. Watch out for mis-
use of above names.”
Ten minutes after that they issued a further radio bulletin:
“Barracks and most key buildings are in army and Landespolizei
hands. Reinforcements are on their way. City quiet.”
Puzzled by the failure of General von Lossow to arrive at
army district headquarters, Röhm ordered his guard of honor
to stand down. By : .. it was dawning on the Nazis that
they had been double-crossed. Hitler and Ludendorff could
find no sign of the missing triumvirate, while over at the Bür-
gerbräu Captain Göring was remarking uneasily to his lieuten-
ant, Brückner, “It is odd that none of them can be reached.”
Guessing that this meant trouble, he sent Brückner out to barri-
cade the bridges across the River Isar. As Hitler and Ludendorff
drove back from visiting Röhm they saw bill-posters at work
across the whole city, putting up, on Kahr’s orders, placards re-
pudiating the Hitler putsch as “senseless,” banning the Nazi
party, and promising ruthless punishment of the guilty.
Something had clearly gone wrong. Back at the Bürgerbräu
beer hall Hitler and Ludendorff conferred with Göring, as the
Nazi storm troopers mingled with the infantry cadets and party
men, all hungry and unshaven. General von Ludendorff faced a
dilemma: He told an intimate friend later that day, “It was clear
that the Nazi movement was to all intents and purposes finished.
It was quite plain to me where my duty lay. I would have been a
cowardly dog if I had left Hitler in the lurch now.”
Göring urged Hitler to retreat to Rosenheim, south of
Munich, and regroup there. Ludendorff would not even hear of