Horst Wessel

Horst Ludwig Wessel (September 9, 1907 – February 23, 1930), German Nazi activist, was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the lyrics to the song "Die Fahne hoch" ("The Flag on High"), usually known as Horst-Wessel-Lied ("the Horst Wessel Song"), which became the Nazi Party anthem, and which was also part of Germany's national anthem from 1933 to 1945. Image File history File links WesselHorst. ... Image File history File links WesselHorst. ... September 9 is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years). ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... The Horst Wessel Lied (Horst Wessel Song), also known as Die Fahne Hoch (The flag on high, from its opening line), was the anthem of the NSDAP of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi martyr. ... The Nazi Party (German: , or NSDAP, English: National Socialist German Workers Party), was a far-right, racist political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ...

Early life

Wessel was born in Bielefeld in Westphalia, the son of a Lutheran pastor, Dr Ludwig Wessel, who from 1913 until his death in 1923 was the minister at the Nikolaikirche, one of Berlin's oldest churches. His mother also came from a family of Lutheran pastors. The family lived in the nearby Jüdenstraße (the Jews' Street),^[1] which in mediaeval times had been the centre of Berlin's Jewish community (and ghetto). Bielefeld is an district-free town in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Westphalia (German: Westfalen) is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Bielefeld, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Münster, and Osnabrück and included in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... The Nikolaikirche today The Nikolaikirche (German for church of Saint Nicholas) is a church in Berlin, the capital of Germany. ... The Rotes Rathaus (right), on the corner of Jüdenstraße The Jüdenstraße (German: street of the Jews), is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. ...

Although he was later portrayed by hostile sources as an illiterate thug, Wessel had a good education and was of at least average intelligence. He attended the Volksschule des Köllnischen Gymnasiums (primary school) from 1914 to 1922, and the Gymnasium (secondary school) in Königstadt from 1922. For his final year of school he attended the Luisenstadt Gymnasium, where he sat and passed his Abitur (the German school exit examination). In April 1926 he enrolled in the law faculty of Friedrich-Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University) in Unter den Linden, and appears to have been a satisfactory student until he decided to devote all his time to the Nazi movement. Alternative meaning: Humboldt State University, located in Arcata, California Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (German Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) is the successor to Berlins oldest university, the Friedrich Wilhelm University (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität), founded in 1810 by the liberal Prussian educational reformer... A view of Unter den Linden, showing the linden trees for which it is named Unter den Linden (in English: Under the Lindens), is a street in the centre of Berlin, the capital of Germany. ...

Wessel was politically active from an early age. His father was a supporter of the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), and when he was 15 Wessel joined the DNVP youth group, the Bismarckjugend. He soon became a local leader, engaging in street battles with the youth groups of the Social Democrats and Communists. 1924 electoral poster, using the Admiral Tirpitz as a figurehead The German National Peoples Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei) (DNVP) was a right wing national-conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. ... The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD – Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) is the second oldest political party of Germany still in existence and also one of the oldest and largest in the world, celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2003. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period. ...

Nazi activist

By 1926, however, Wessel had grown too radical for the DNVP, and in December of that year he joined the Nazi Party and its paramilitary organisation, the SA. Until this time the Nazis had been very weak in "Red Berlin," but from 1926 under the energetic leadership of the new Gauleiter, Dr Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis rapidly displaced the other parties of the right. Wessel was one of the wave of new young recruits Goebbels brought into the party. The Nazi Party (German: , or NSDAP, English: National Socialist German Workers Party), was a far-right, racist political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ... The seal of SA The   or SA (German for Storm division, usually translated as stormtroop(er)s ), functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP — the German Nazi party. ... A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ...

Wessel soon impressed Goebbels and in January 1928, during the period when the Berlin city authorities had banned the SA in an effort to curb political street violence, he was sent on a study trip to Vienna, to study organizational and tactical methods of the Nazi movement there. In May 1929 Wessel was appointed leader of SA-Troop 34, based in the Friedrichshain district where he was now living. In October 1929 he decided to devote himself fulltime to the Nazi movement and dropped out of his university studies. Vienna (German: , see also other names) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Location of Friedrichshain in Berlin Friedrichshain is a part of Berlins borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. ...

In addition to his political activities, Wessel had some musical talents. He played the schalmei (shawm), a kind of oboe popular in Germany, and founded an SA Schalmeienkapelle, or shawm band, which was used to provide music during SA parades and meetings and to attract new followers. In early 1929 Wessel wrote the lyrics for a new Nazi "fighting song" (Kampflied), which was published for the first time in Goebbels's newspaper Der Angriff in September, under the title "Der Unbekannte SA-Mann" (the Unknown SA-Man). This was the song later known as "Die Fahne hoch" from its opening line, or as the "Horst Wessel Song". It was later claimed by the Nazis that he also wrote the music, but in fact the tune was taken from a World War I German Navy song, and is probably originally a folk tune. The shawm was a Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family, made in Europe from the late 13th century until the 17th century. ... Der Angriff (meaning The Attack in English) was a newspaper published by Berlin Gau of NSDAP since 1927. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

The Alexanderplatz, the centre of Berlin's nightlife at this time, was part of the territory of Wessels's SA troop, and in September 1929 he met an 18-year-old prostitute, Erna Jänicke, in an Alexanderplatz bar. Shortly after he moved in with her, at her apartment in Große Frankfurter Straße (today Karl-Marx-Allee). The landlady was one Frau Salm, whose late husband had been an active Communist. Frau Salm seems to have developed an active dislike for Wessel. After a few months a dispute blew up over unpaid rent. Alexanderplatz from Fernsehturm Alexanderplatz is a large open square and public transport hub in central Berlin, near the Spree river and the Berliner Dom. ... Karl-Marx-Allee, towards Strausberger Platz. ...

On the evening of 14 January 1930 Wessel answered a knock on his door, and was shot in the face by an assailant who then fled the scene. He was gravely wounded and lingered in hospital until he died on 23 February. His assassin was Albrecht Höhler, an active member of the local Communist Party (KPD) branch (Höhler was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the assault, but was killed by the Gestapo after the Nazi accession to power in 1933). The KPD denied any knowledge of the attack and said it resulted from a dispute over money between Wessel and his landlady. The matter was never resolved. It is possible that Frau Salm asked her late husband's old comrades to help deal with her recalcitrant tenant. It is also possible that the shooting was revenge by local Communists for Wessel's alleged role in the murder by local Nazis of a 17-year-old Communist, Camillo Ross, earlier in the day. This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

Posthumous fame

Wessel was buried on 1 March in the graveyard of the Nikolaikirche, his father's old church. It was reported that 30,000 people lined the streets to see the funeral procession. Goebbels delivered the eulogy in the presence of Hermann Göring and Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, son of former emperor Wilhelm II, who had joined the SA. Hermann Wilhelm Göring ( ) (also Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the Third Reich, and commander of the Luftwaffe. ... Prince Augustus Wilhelm (January 29, 1887–March 25, 1949), called Auwi, was the fourth son of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Augusta Viktoria, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein. ... Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern (January 27, 1859 - June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and the last King (König) of Prussia from 1888 - 1918. ...

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, an elaborate memorial was erected over the grave, and it became the site of annual pilgrimages by the Nazis, at which the Horst Wessel Song was sung and speeches made. With the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, the memorial was destroyed and Wessel's remains were apparently disinterred and also destroyed. The grave site has recently been discovered by amateur historians.^[2] Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Wessel was elevated by Goebbels' propaganda apparatus to the status of leading martyr of the Nazi movement. Nazi propaganda glorified his life. Die Brünnen, the SA journal, declared, "How high Horst Wessel towers over that Jesus of Nazareth - that Jesus who pleaded that the bitter cup be taken from him. How unattainably high all Horst Wessels stand above Jesus!"^[3] Wessel was commemorated in memorials, books and films. Hans Heinz Ewers wrote a novelistic biography of him. One of the first films of the Nazi era was an idealised version of his life, based on Ewers's book. Goebbels, however, disliked the film and temporarily banned it, eventually allowing its release with alterations and with the main character's name changed to the fictional "Hans Westmar".^[4]

The Berlin district of Friedrichshain, where Wessel died, was renamed Horst Wessel, and a square in the Mitte district, Bülowplatz, was renamed Horst-Wessel-Platz, as was the U-bahn station nearby. After the war the name Friedrichshain was restored, and Horst-Wessel-Platz (which was in East Berlin), became Liebknechtplatz (after Karl Liebknecht). In 1969 it was renamed Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz after the communist heroine Rosa Luxemburg, the name by which it is still known.^[5] Location of Friedrichshain in Berlin Friedrichshain is a part of Berlins borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. ... U-Bahn is the German abbreviation for Untergrund-Bahn (literally, underground railway), referring to a means of urban rapid transit, internationally known as subway, underground or metro. ... East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... â–¶ (help· info) (August 13, 1871 - January 15, 1919) was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. ... Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 - January 15, 1919, in Polish language Róża Luksemburg) was a Polish and German Jewish Marxist politician, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 – January 15, 1919, in Polish Róża Luksemburg) was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ...

In 1936, the German Navy commissioned a three-masted training ship and named it the Horst Wessel. The ship was taken as a war prize by the United States after World War II. After repairs and modifications, it was commissioned on 15 May 1946 into the United States Coast Guard as the USCGC Eagle, and is still in service. German frigate Karlsruhe rescuing shipwrecked people off the coast of Somalia while participating in the international anti-terror operation ENDURING FREEDOM, April 2005 The Laboe Naval Memorial for sailors who lost their lives at sea during the World Wars and while on duty at sea and U 995 Modern Air... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... USCG HH-65 Dolphin The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is a branch of the United States armed forces and is involved in maritime law enforcement, mariner assistance, search and rescue, and national defense. ... The USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) (ex-Horst Wessel) is a 295 barque used as a training cutter for members of the US Coast Guard. ...

The "martyrdom" of Horst Wessel led directly to the promotion of his song "Die Fahne hoch" as the official Song of Consecration (Weihelied) for the Nazi Party. From 1933 it was adopted as the unofficial second part of the German National Anthem, to be played and sung immediately after the Deutschlandlied. The song was banned along with all other Nazi symbols in 1945, and both the lyrics and tune remain illegal in Germany to this day. Das Lied der Deutschen (The Song of the Germans) or Das Deutschlandlied (The Song of Germany) has since 1922 been the national anthem of Germany. ...

See Also

• Horst wessel song (including lyrics)

The Horst Wessel Lied, also known as Die Fahne Hoch (The flag on high) (from its opening line) was the anthem of the Nazi Party of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi martyr. ...

References

External links

• Hans Westmar at the Internet Movie Database
• For occurrences of the song Die Fahne hoch in film, see Horst Wessel at the Internet Movie Database.