One day in late 1919, when Klemperer was strolling down a sidewalk in Munich, a soldier leveled his rifle and called on him to halt. “Oh, it’s you,” Klemperer said, upon looking at the soldier more carefully. The little man beneath the helmet was a professor of Catholic philosophy from the university, a “peaceable” and “pleasant colleague” who belonged to the left wing of the Weimar coalition. Klemperer showed him how to engage the safety on his gun: “There could be an accident otherwise,” he warned, “if you swing that rifle around so boldly.” “I know,” the man replied. “I shot the ceiling earlier.”

Peter E. Gordon [aqui]