Excerpt from p. 181 of Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Germany Between the World Wars by Otto Grünwald, 1946
The strange silence which blanketed the industrial districts before the march was not a coincidence. Through a coordinated action, the KPD had used its influence in the workers' committees to get work cancelled in all of the major factories, and the usual sounds of machines running, steam whistling and hammers striking were replaced by an ominous peace. Interestingly enough, by silencing the city, the KPD had inadvertently made its own propaganda more effective. According to one shop clerk who had just gotten into work when the march started:
"I didn't really notice how quiet it was until I was nearly at work. For some reason I kept noticing those big posters with the face...most days I just walked right past them, but they stood out to me that day, especially the eyes--it felt like he was watching me from every street corner. I couldn't understand why I kept noticing them all the time, and then it hit me--without all the usual racket you heard in those parts, there was nothing to distract you...It felt like it was just you and him."
Though this was indeed the calm, the storm had in fact been brewing in secret all throughout the night. The evening of 8 November, every able-bodied KPD member had made his way incognito to a factory on the north side of the river, where they prepared, in secret, for the coming day. Secret passwords were given and lookouts were posted; through the night they stayed awake in deep anticipation. Maps were examined, routes were reviewed, guns were loaded. Signs and uniforms were gathered, slogans rehearsed, marching patterns practised; cold sandwiches were washed down with lukewarm coffee and quiet excitement. The main event of the night, however, and the climax of the rancor in each of the KPD's makeshift bases was the direct appearance of the Party leader. All through the night, Thälmann hurried from factory to factory, conducting at each one what a young Party member described as "the best meeting [he'd] ever been to"...
From the Journal of Paul Meitner, Sunday, 9 November 1925
...But by far the best part tonight has been the meeting. Thälmann was there and it was absolutely marvelous. It was the best meeting I've ever been to. First he read out loud what that bastard Stalin had to say about world revolution, how we're all wasting our time and how socialism should stay in Russia, well we're going to show him where he can stuff that then won't we! And Thälmann read it so loud and so hard you'd think the bastard was really there and, then someone started shouting traitor and everyone else just joined in. I didn't, I just wanted to hear what he had to say but pretty soon I couldn't help it and I just started screaming my head off, I didn't care what he said anymore because I knew it was all wrong and nonsense and awful and sooner or later they'd get him they'll find him and when they do goddamnit we'll bash his head in! We were all fired up beforehand what with us knowing we were going to bring down the Chancellery and all but after the speech he gave everyone was ready to tear them all apart, all the damned traitorous Social Democrats and all the horrible National Socialists they've all abandoned the cause, they've stomped it to death, we're the only ones who're going to uphold the truth, if they get to power it'll all be over that's why we're here that's why we're marching tomorrow we're going to make history me and everyone else here we're going to save Germany from those swine, those capitalist swine, just one more day before we do what we've been waiting to do once and forever!