hitler

42if the Allies did not acquit Bavaria of being an accomplice tothe crime, a penitent sinner could hope for more considerationthan an impenitent one. But the Allies were not pacified,whereas the Bavarian reactionaries were enraged. Ona February morning of 1919 Kurt Eisner was dead, while ayoung aristocrat, Count Arco-Vally, with a smoking revolverin his hand, made a wild dash to escape from an infuriatedmob.Who was to step into Eisner‟s place, who would have theself-assurance of the lost leader? Although the sunshine wasbright over Munich, it did not require much sagacity to forecastcloudy skies and storms for the morrow. Whoever tookthe place of the dead man was sure to be blamed for all thevicissitudes which were to befall the land. A stop-gap Socialistministry was formed, but it had little authority. The CentralCouncil of Workers and Soldiers, the hope of many atone time, was now the shadow of its former self. Adolf Hitlerwas back in Munich, still wearing his uniform, and assumingan attitude of watchful waiting. Soldiers in thosedays knew they wanted something, but did not know whatthey wanted, and so they were revolutionaries. Hitler, nodoubt, did not like Eisner because he had a long beard andbecause he was a Jew.Hitler also despised the soldier‟s spokesmen. The loudestof them was a common sailor, Rudolf Eglehofer, sentencedto death for mutiny by a court martial just before the end ofthe war. If the revolution had been one day late, Eglehoferwould have been a dead man. But the rebellious soldierswere just in time to save him and there he was now in Munich,