Who was Horst Wessel
Steve Chambers
Nazi regime. But just who was he? What did he do? Did he ever even exist?
I keep seeing references to the name, but nothing ever explains this
importance. Maybe he was an early Nazi martyr, I am now extremly curious.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Glenn A. Steinberg
I don't know a lot of details, but Horst Wessel was in fact an early Nazi
martyr. According to some accounts, he was a pimply street fighter whom
Goebbels made into a propaganda bonanza. As part of the propaganda, the
Horst Wessel song became the Nazi party anthem. When Hitler was appointed
Chancellor in January 1933, Nazis all over Germany rose and sang the Horst
Wessel song.
I don't know much else off the top of my head, but I'm sure others do.
M.J.Powell
>Horst Wessel seems to me to be someone who was obviously important to the
>Nazi regime. But just who was he?
AFAIK Horst Wessel was just a thug in the Brownshirts. Killed in a
street brawl.
--
M.J.Powell.
Saku Levonpera
his death he was 21 years old, a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) who
had fought against the Communists in many street- and barfights. He
wrote a poem called "Raise High the Flag" which was dedicated to
comrades killed by the Communists which was soon turned into a song,
Horst Wessel Lied (the melody was borrowed from an older cabaret song).
He fell in love with a prostitute named Erna. However her landlady
wanted to evict the couple from her flat and asked if the Communists
would help. They did so by storming in Erna's room and shooting Horst.
Horst died soon in the hospital but not before Goebbels had made a
famed martyr of him. The Communists tried to blacken the image by
claiming that Horst was actually a pimp, but there's probably no truth
behind that (this version is told in Sam Fuller's The Big Red One by an
reluctant Afrika Korps lieutenant, in both the film and the book,
IIRC). Horst Wessel's funeral also served the Nazi propaganda and the
Reds probably managed to harm their cause by attacking the mourners.
Sources are notes I've written from John Toland's Hitler.
Saku
dbja...@toronto.cbc.ca
where's he buried? and are there any descendants?
bluh...@onlink.net
"Steve Chambers" <stephen....@tesco.net> wrote:
> Horst Wessel seems to me to be someone who was obviously important to the
> I keep seeing references to the name, but nothing ever explains this
> importance. Maybe he was an early Nazi martyr, I am now extremly curious.
> Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Cynical or unflattering biographies about heroes of the "wrong" con-
viction are commonplace. Horst Wessel’s is no exception. He was neither
a thug nor a pimp, but an immature, idealistic, and patriotic student
with a gift for writing. He wrote what later became the German "second"
national anthem. In 1930 at the age of 23 he was murdered by communists.
It was his misfortune to believe in the dogma of National Socialism.
hdietrich
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Donald Phillipson
> Horst Wessel seems to me to be someone who was obviously important to the
> Nazi regime. But just who was he? What did he do? Did he ever even exist?
> I keep seeing references to the name, but nothing ever explains this
> importance. Maybe he was an early Nazi martyr, I am now extremly curious.
> Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Horst Wessel was a Nazi thug (probably in the SA) killed in
street fighting/rioting before the Nazis took power in
1933. Once dead he was turned into a propaganda hero via
the Horst Wessel Lied (Song). (This was common early in
century, cf. Stakhanov (Soviet Russian model), sundry
Chinese Communist heroes etc.) Wessel was a genuinely
obscure character and little recorded, although historians
like Shirer say his regular occupation was as pimp. The
song is a rousing march with exceptionally bloodthirsty
words.
--
| Donald Phillipson, 4180 Boundary Road, Carlsbad Springs, |
| Ontario, Canada, K0A 1K0, tel. 613 822 0734 |
Keith B. Rosenberg
> AFAIK Horst Wessel was just a thug in the Brownshirts. Killed in a
> street brawl.
The Nazis named a steel hulled sail powered training vessel
after him. It became war booty after the war and is now
known as "Eagle" in the U.S. Coast Guard.
********************************************************************
enor...@ix.netcom.com (Keith B. Rosenberg) (EN][)
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
********************************************************************
Saku Levonpera
dbja...@toronto.cbc.ca wrote in message
<7dp866$isg$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu>...
>
>
>where's he buried? and are there any descendants?
According to the limited sources I have he had no descendants. I believe
though, that we would have heard of his child or children as the Nazi
party would've probably used his child for propaganda purposes - Horst
Wessel's child would have offered a great human interest value.
Also I could not find any sources which would state the exact location
where he was buried or the city or the cemetary where his grave, if still
exists, lies. My best guess is, that he was buried in Berlin. The exact
location would be interesting to know as I intent to travel to Germany in
next autumn for a few weeks.
Few specifications:
At the time of his death Horst Wessel was 23 years old. He was 21 when he
wrote the poem "Raise High the Flag" in 1927. He was a member of SA and
his rank was SA-Sturmf|hrer. His girlfriend's full name was Erna Jdnicke.
Horst Wessel was born September 9th 1907 in Bielefeld (his father was a
preacher and belonged to freemasons). He was shot in Erna's flat January
14th 1930 and died to his wounds in Berlin, February 23rd 1930.
Some sources claim, that he died in a street-fight on Barricades at
Wedding, Berlin but I guess that this inherits from the original Nazi
propaganda version.
Additional info:
A tree-masted training ship (for Marine-Hitler Jugend?) was named Horst
Wessel. Which would make it a Horst Wessel-vessel. (bad joke but couldn't
resist)
A German flight squadron, Jagdgeschwader 6 "Horst Wessel" was named after
him.
Also in Berlin a street and a square were renamed after him.
After WWI Schvnhauser Tor was named in 1934 (according to telephone
directory of 1932 H-W-Strasse existed in Berlin in 1932) to
Horst-Wessel-Platz and again in 1945 to Schvnhauser. In East-Berlin it was
renamed again to Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.
Weysingerstrasse (street) was named to Horst-Wessel-Strasse in 1940?
Probably there's existed many things named after him, but these are just
the ones which crossed my eyes when looking for more information.
Saku
Bettina Kempf&Klaus Weese
Hamburg during a fight with some communists. The Nazis made him a heroe,
but he was not an important politican or any figure of specific
interest. The Nazis dedicated a political song to him, which was not
famous among soldiers but mostly party members. Sorry I can not name a
proper source for this, just what I have read in some books.
Cheers
Klaus
Glenn A. Steinberg schrieb:
steven j forsberg
>Horst Wessel seems to me to be someone who was obviously important to the
>Nazi regime. But just who was he? What did he do? Did he ever even exist?
>importance. Maybe he was an early Nazi martyr, I am now extremly curious.
>Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Horst Wessel was a fairly early Nazi party official who was
killed and then lionized as a martyr by the Nazi public relations machine.
IIRC, the accounts I've read stated that Wessel was killed by a communist
(hence his elevation to sainthood), but it was not politics but rather the
affections of a women that lead to the event. As far as I know, he didn't
really play any major role, other than being a victim of a commie and
serving as martyr.
regards,
--------------------------------------------------------------
sfor...@prodigy.net Wizard 87-01
William Wright
Saku Levonpera <Saku.Le...@dlc.fi> wrote in article
<7dr5m8$mp9$1...@tron.sci.fi>...
> <snip>
> A tree-masted training ship (for Marine-Hitler Jugend?) was named Horst
> Wessel. Which would make it a Horst Wessel-vessel. (bad joke but couldn't
> resist)
Now the US Coast Guard Barque Eagle home ported at New London, Connecticut
William Wright
Senior Systems Analyst
The Boeing Company
George Hardy
(Bettina Kempf&Klaus Weese) says:
>Well, AFAIK Horst Wessel was a SA-member and a pimp. He was killed in
>Hamburg during a fight with some communists. The Nazis made him a heroe,
>but he was not an important politican or any figure of specific
>interest. The Nazis dedicated a political song to him, which was not
>famous among soldiers but mostly party members. Sorry I can not name a
>proper source for this, just what I have read in some books.
Virtually everything posted here is incorrect. We have already had
an accurate post, by bluh...@onlink.net, so I will not repeat it.
It is so typical that such inaccurate and propagandized "information"
has no "proper source" and is "just what I have read in books".
Just consider one fact -- he wrote the words to the poem, which
became the "song". For reasons beyond my understanding, Germans
are often far less informed about the Nazi era than others. It
must be the "reeducation" that the Allies instituted. Re-education
got a bad name in Korea and Vietnam. But the origin is found in
the actions of the victorious western Allies after WWII. Again,
as ye sow, so ye reap.
GFH
***************************************************************
http://www.ankerstein.org/
The Anchor Stone Building Set (Anker-Steinbaukasten) Home Page
See what makes me tick.
***************************************************************
Cliff Kennedy
and was one of the leaders of the SA who would frequently engage in street
battles with the communists. In January 1930 a group of communists went to
his house led by a Albert Hohler and shot him in front of his girlfriend, a
former prostitute. He died later of his wounds and Goebbels turned Wessels
into a symbol of the Nazi movement and their anthem was dedicated to him:
"Oh, raise the flag and close your ranks up up tight.
SA men march with bold determinded tread.
Comrades felled by reds and ultras in fight
March at our side, in spirit never dead".
A large headstone was erected to him in St Nicholas cemetry in Berlin. I
wonder is it still there ?
Cliff Kennedy
Rob Davis
> "Oh, raise the flag and close your ranks up up tight.
> SA men march with bold determinded tread.
> Comrades felled by reds and ultras in fight
> March at our side, in spirit never dead".
I have this as a .WAV file being sung in German, I'll email it to any
interested parties.
=====================
Rob Davis MSc MIAP
Telford Shropshire UK
Teal Ray
Cliff Kennedy wrote in message
<370ab50f...@news.curie.dialix.com.au>...
> "Oh, raise the flag and close your ranks up up tight.
> SA men march with bold determinded tread.
Ironic comment: did they rewrite the lyric after Hitler eliminated the SA
and his most irritating enemies in the night of the long knives?
Am I allowed a diverting question? Recently I saw a Bio of Hitler in a
bookstore which claimed his SA/ pre-government days were heavily influenced
by sexual purversion. Any evidence for the same? How do people feel about
the evidence. This is a subject generally of marginal imnterest
Dirk Lorek
wrote:
>> "Oh, raise the flag and close your ranks up up tight.
>> SA men march with bold determinded tread.
>
>Ironic comment: did they rewrite the lyric after Hitler eliminated the SA
>and his most irritating enemies in the night of the long knives?
The SA was only beheaded, it continued to exist as a mass movement but
now with leaders handpicked by Hitler.
>Am I allowed a diverting question? Recently I saw a Bio of Hitler in a
>bookstore which claimed his SA/ pre-government days were heavily influenced
>by sexual purversion.
Apart from having a sexual relation with his nice, I do not know of
any reliable histories about Hitler's sexual perversions. Some higher
SA leaders, and in particular SA leader Roehm, were homosexual though.
Joke from the Third Reich:
After the SA purge Hitler complained publicly about the sexual
perversions of the SA leadership. First now the German people realized
what Roehm really meant with the phrase: 'In every boy of the Hitler
Youth, you'll find an SA leader!'
Dirk
_______________________________________________________________________
What am I, Life ? A thing of watery salt, held in cohesion by unresting
cells, which work they know not why, which never halt, myself unwitting
where their Master dwells. - John Masefield -
Alex Walkling-Ribeiro
As I fairly "stumbled" over this thread while reading the Goebbels
diary, I thought I could add some more facts to the discussion.
Saku Levonpera schrieb:
<Snip>
> According to the limited sources I have he had no descendants. I believe
> though, that we would have heard of his child or children as the Nazi
> party would've probably used his child for propaganda purposes - Horst
> Wessel's child would have offered a great human interest value.
>
> Also I could not find any sources which would state the exact location
> where he was buried or the city or the cemetary where his grave, if still
> exists, lies. My best guess is, that he was buried in Berlin. The exact
The Cemetery of St. Nicholas, Berlin, I think.
> location would be interesting to know as I intent to travel to Germany in
> next autumn for a few weeks.
>
> Few specifications:
>
> At the time of his death Horst Wessel was 23 years old. He was 21 when he
> wrote the poem "Raise High the Flag" in 1927. He was a member of SA and
> his rank was SA-Sturmf|hrer. His girlfriend's full name was Erna Jdnicke.
>
> Horst Wessel was born September 9th 1907 in Bielefeld (his father was a
> preacher and belonged to freemasons). He was shot in Erna's flat January
> 14th 1930 and died to his wounds in Berlin, February 23rd 1930.
There are also accords of the conflict between himself and his bourgeois
family, for Erna coming from some "lower class" background. It fits that
his murderer was a pimp, named Albrecht "Ali" Hoehler. This fellow had
been arrested on 3.2.1930, the second main accused was Erwin Rueckert.
Additional 16 (!) people under accusation of participating in the murder
were arrested some days after. Hoehler was shortly after
"Machtuebernahme" 1933 taken from prison and murdered by SA himself.
Opposed to Wessel, who died on 23.2.1930 after week-long battling death,
he died rather quickly. On 1.3.1930 Wessel received his funeral under
not so "great" circumstances as the police strictly forbade
demonstrations (though the KPD wanted to field one).
As for evidence, there are the official trial documents [1 polbK 13/34
(60/34)] against "Stoll und Mittäter" (LA Berlin, Rep.58/Nr.22). That
was however from the 2nd trial 1934. The original documents from the
first trial (Schwurgericht Moabit) from September 1930 were taken on
14.8.1947 upon request by the SMAD into the soviet sector. Since then,
they've disappeared.
His role in the NS movement wasn't that small IMO, no matter what many
(disinformed? unwilling? propagandistic?) authors claim. As deriving
from Goebbels private diaries (Vol. 1&2, edited by R.G. Reuth), he
played quite a role in the Berlin branch of the "movement". Also seems
to have been quite close to Goebbels, who shows some affection for him
in his diaries. Fits his "law student" background IMO. He'd never been a
"major player" like Goering, Goebbels or Strasser though.
> Some sources claim, that he died in a street-fight on Barricades at
> Wedding, Berlin but I guess that this inherits from the original Nazi
> propaganda version.
Yes, Goebbels really produced a masterpiece of propagandistic work. But
as it was targeted against the KPD, noone really cared that much about
its facticity (except the communists, of course). The probably best
source for this (in earlier stages) is the article in the "Angriff" nazi
newspaper volume from 21.1.1930.
<Snip>
Regards, Alex.
--
"Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't
ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight."
(MTG, Black Knight)
Saku Levonpera
Alex Walkling-Ribeiro wrote in message
>
>As I fairly "stumbled" over this thread while reading the Goebbels
>diary, I thought I could add some more facts to the discussion.
>
>> Also I could not find any sources which would state the exact
location
>> where he was buried or the city or the cemetary where his grave, if
still
>> exists, lies. My best guess is, that he was buried in Berlin. The
exact
>The Cemetery of St. Nicholas, Berlin, I think.
Do you know if the grave still exists?
>There are also accords of the conflict between himself and his
bourgeois
>family, for Erna coming from some "lower class" background.
Also various sources suggest one reason why he enlisted to the SA was
his desire to fight against his family's values.
>It fits that
>his murderer was a pimp, named Albrecht "Ali" Hoehler.
Was he Erna Jaenicke's former pimp or lover? I understood that Erna
had quit her career as a prostitute at least when Horst moved into her
flat and she knew Hoehler beforehand.
-snip-
>On 1.3.1930 Wessel received his funeral under
>not so "great" circumstances as the police strictly forbade
>demonstrations (though the KPD wanted to field one).
However many fights took place during funeral procession and the
Communist threw stones at the SA when Horst's coffin was lowered down
to his grave. Hitler didn't participate because the Nazis expected
trouble, official explanation was that he's sick.
>His role in the NS movement wasn't that small IMO, no matter what
many
>(disinformed? unwilling? propagandistic?) authors claim.
-snip-
It's incredible how the most colorful propaganda can be sold as truth
after few years. And Horst here was a target of two opposite parties.
One side told that he was a low pimp and other that he died in a
streetfight on barricades - today we can read that Horst, a low pimp
died a hero's death on barricades.
Saku
A. Walkling-Ribeiro
Saku Levonpera schrieb:
<Snip>
> >> Also I could not find any sources which would state the exact
> location
> >> where he was buried or the city or the cemetary where his grave, if
> still
> >> exists, lies. My best guess is, that he was buried in Berlin. The
> exact
> >The Cemetery of St. Nicholas, Berlin, I think.
>
> Do you know if the grave still exists?
The original monument is surely gone. But who should bother to exhume
the body and for what? I don't kknow it by sight, but I think it's
apretty fair aassumption, that i's still existing. Hell, I ould take a
look at it in July, when I'm visiting Berlin again.
> >There are also accords of the conflict between himself and his
> bourgeois
> >family, for Erna coming from some "lower class" background.
>
> Also various sources suggest one reason why he enlisted to the SA was
> his desire to fight against his family's values.
Although he did have relatively close ties to his mother. According to
Goebbels, she did even profit from acertain prominence after his death.
Even upset Dr. Goebbels with her "arrogance". I wonder what it must have
been a feeling for her, being mother to a murdered supreme hero of the
new "Reich".
> >It fits that
> >his murderer was a pimp, named Albrecht "Ali" Hoehler.
>
> Was he Erna Jaenicke's former pimp or lover? I understood that Erna
> had quit her career as a prostitute at least when Horst moved into her
> flat and she knew Hoehler beforehand.
As far as my accounts state it, there was a strong political motivation
in it. Hoehler was at least "sympathetic" towards the Nazi opponents. If
he was HER pimp is hardly conceivable nowadays. With a lot of the trial
documents gone/destroyed and the contemporary newspapers all not very
"objective" on the cause, IMO we lack the sources to clarify it
sufficiently. That is, if not the missing documents surface somewhere.
> -snip-
> >On 1.3.1930 Wessel received his funeral under
> >not so "great" circumstances as the police strictly forbade
> >demonstrations (though the KPD wanted to field one).
>
> However many fights took place during funeral procession and the
> Communist threw stones at the SA when Horst's coffin was lowered down
> to his grave. Hitler didn't participate because the Nazis expected
> trouble, official explanation was that he's sick.
According to Goebbels, Hitler staying in Munich caused much unrest in
the Berlin branch of the party. The SA especially, not that saturated
and often quite unhappy with the "munich bureaucrats", did question his
ignorance of the "hero's" funeral. IMHO it was his personal laziness
more than fear from confrontation. Another bit of the puzzle frequently
mentioned by Goebbels. Before 1932 Hitler seldom came farther north than
Weimar (and even that mainly for party conventions).
<Snip agreed>