Nazi Political Figure. Horst Wessel was a leader of the German Nazi Sturmabteilungen (SA - Storm Troopers) in Berlin. He was a public speaker and a leader in the battles with the Communists for power in Berlin in the late 1920s. His greatest fame came with death as he was turned into a martyr by the Nazi propaganda machine, after he was murdered by Communists. He was ambushed in his apartment and shot on January 14, 1930, from which wound he died on February 23, 1930. His elaborate grave marker, erected by the Nazis after their takeover in 1933, no longer exists. The only marker on the Wessel plot is that of his father Ludwig, which is badly damaged. Wessel was famous for his poem "Die Fahne Hoch" (Raise High the Flag) which was set to music and became the unofficial Nazi marching anthem.
Nazi Political Figure. Horst Wessel was a leader of the German Nazi Sturmabteilungen (SA - Storm Troopers) in Berlin. He was a public speaker and a leader in the battles with the Communists for power in Berlin in the late 1920s. His greatest fame came with death as he was turned into a martyr by the Nazi propaganda machine, after he was murdered by Communists. He was ambushed in his apartment and shot on January 14, 1930, from which wound he died on February 23, 1930. His elaborate grave marker, erected by the Nazis after their takeover in 1933, no longer exists. The only marker on the Wessel plot is that of his father Ludwig, which is badly damaged. Wessel was famous for his poem "Die Fahne Hoch" (Raise High the Flag) which was set to music and became the unofficial Nazi marching anthem.
Bio by: Geoff Walden
Family Members
Advertisement
