Further, Hitler was allowed to stay in the army and receive his weekly pay of 20 gold marks a week.[9] At the time when Hitler joined the party, there were no membership numbers or cards. It was in January 1920 when a numeration was issued for the first time and listed in alphabetical order Hitler received the number 555. In reality, he had been the 55th member, but the counting started at the number 501 in order to make the party appear larger.[10] In his work Mein Kampf, Hitler later claimed to be the seventh party member, and he was in fact the seventh executive member of the party's central committee.[11] After giving his first speech for the DAP on 16 October at the Hofbräukeller, Hitler quickly became the party's most active orator.