  After nearly two decades of design, construction and commissioning, the CMS
detector was operated with colliding LHC proton beams for the first time in
November 2009. Collision data were recorded at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9
and 2.36 TeV, and analyzed with a fast turn-around time by the CMS
collaboration. In this talk I will present a selection of commissioning results
and striking first physics resonances observed. Then I will discuss the
analysis of the transverse momentum and rapidity distribution of charged
hadrons, which led to the first CMS physics publication. The excellent
performance of the CMS detector and agreement with predictions from simulation
are impressive for a collider detector at startup and show a great potential
for discovery physics in the upcoming LHC run.
