Horst Wessel?

[De Ruyter]

Hi everyone!

I just flicked the channels on my TV and came across a german documentary film about the SA. In this film they stated that Horst Wessel might not have been a real person, just some hoax by Goebbels and the other dudes into propaganda. They made him up as a martyr from scratch in other words. Thus he never wrote the "Horst Wessel Lied".

Does anyone else know anything about this supposed hoax?

regards,
Dustin

[reichpilot]

I never heard that before.

Don

[Max Williams]

Utter nonsense. Wessel stands far right back row.
Max

[reichpilot]

He was a social worker killed by the communists. His song lived on. There were streets named after him, as well as plazas. There was also a Horst Wessel Division named in his honor.

I found this site awhile back that I thought it was interesting. We (U.S.) are sailing the Horst Wessel (ship) in our present day Coast Guard. Have a look. We call her the Eagle now.

Don

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEB ... _1946.html

[Max Williams]

Don,
An excellent link. Thank you.
Max

[Michael Miller]

And here are some biographical notes on him:


SA-Sturmführer
Horst Ludwig Wessel



Born: 9. October 1907 in Bielefeld.
Died: 23. February 1930 in Berlin (of gunshot wounds in the Krankenhaus am Friedrichshain, Berlin).

Promotions:
SA-Truppführer: 1. May 1929
SA-Sturmführer: 1929(?)

Career:
As student, member of the "Bismarck-Jugend" (BJ), youth organization of the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP): 1922 - 12 February 1925.

Member of the Berlin BJ-Ortsgruppe 47 "Prinz Oskar von Preußen": 1922 - 1924.

Military leader of the Berlin BJ-Ortsgruppe 21 "Kronprinzessin": 1924 1925.

Member of the "Wiking-Bund": 1924 - 1926.

Studied law at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität in Berlin; Member of the fraternity "Normannia - Berlin": 19 April 1926 - January 1928.

Joined the NSDAP and SA: 7 December 1926

Studied law in Wien; member of the fraternity "Alemania - Wien": January 1928 - July 1928 (sent to Vienna by Joseph Goebbels to observe the organization and methods of Nazi youth organizations in Austria).

Resumed his studies in Berlin: October 1928.

Straßenzellenleiter of the SA-"Sturmsektion Alexanderplatz" in Berlin: 1928 - 1929.

Gauredner of the NSDAP in Gau Groß-Berlin: 1929.

Führer of SA-Trupp 34, then SA-Sturm 5 in Sturmbezirk Berlin-Friedrichshain: 1 May 1929 - 23 February 1930.

Wrote the marching song "Die Fahne hoch..." (later known as the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" and from 1933, as a second "Nationalhymne" (after the "Deutschlandlied")

Living with the former prositute, Erna Jaenicke, he was shot and mortally wounded in his apartment by the Red Front members Albert "Ali" Höhler and Erwin Rückert on 14 January 1930. His death, and the song he'd written, were a propaganda windfall for Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who turned Horst Wessel- a young man who had died as a result of a dispute over a prostitute, into a martyr of the National-Socialist cause.

Literature on the subject of Horst Wessel:
Wilhelm Albert, "Horst Wessel" (1933)
Ernst Balk, "Horst Wessel" (1933)
Fritz Daum, "SA-Sturmführer Horst Wessel" (1933)
Ernst Dieckmann, "Horst Wessel. Leben und Schicksal eines deutschen Kämpfers" (1933)
Karl Erhart, "Horst Wessel. Leben und Sterben eines Freiheitskämpfers" (1933)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, "Horst Wessel. Ein deutsches Schicksal" (1933)
Erwin Reitmann, "Horst Wessel. Leben und Sterben" (1933)
Willi Kelter, "Horst Wessel" (1933)
Frido Lindemann, "Horst Wessel und sein Lied" (1933)
Erich Malitius, "Horst Wessel - Eines deutschen Helden Leben und Sterben" (1933)
Albert Schlageter, "Horst Wessel" (1933)
W. Schoenknecht, "Horst Wessel" (1933)
Josef Viera, "Horst Wessel. Kinder und Kämpfer des 3. Reichs" (1933)
Ingeborg Wessel, "Horst Wessel. Sein Lebensweg" (1933)
Max Kullak, "Horst Wessel. Durch Sturm und Kampf zur Unsterblichkeit" (1934)
Erwin Reitmann, "Horst Wessel. Leben und Sterben" (1934)
Annemarie Stiehler, "Horst Wessel. Eine Geschichte aus der Kampfzeit" (1937)
Ingeborg Wessel, "Mein Bruder Horst. Ein Vermächtnis" (1937)
Annemarie Stiehler, "Horst Wessel" (1941)
Imre Lazar, "Der Fall Horst Wessel" (1980)

Notes:
Son of the pastor Dr. Ludwig Wessel (died 1922; pastor in Mülheim/Rhein, 1908 - 1913, then at the St. Nikolai-Kirche in Berlin; volunteered for service as a frontline chaplain during World War I, then served as a military government chaplain in Berlin and Kowno [Kaunas, Lithuania]).


'Die Fahne Hoch' (the 'Horst Wessel Lied')

Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S.A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
|: Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit

Die Straße frei den braunen Batallionen
Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann
|: Es schau'n auf's Hakenkreutz voll Hoffnung schon Millionen
Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an

Zum letzten Mal wird nun Appell geblasen
Zum Kampfe steh'n wir alle schon bereit
|: Bald flattern Hitler-fahnen über allen Straßen
Die Knechtschaft dauert nur mehr kurze Zeit

Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S.A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
|: Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit

[De Ruyter]

Hi!

Thanks everyone! I didn't really think it was a hoax, but you never know! Shit, my dad grew up a strong believer in the "Adolf had only one ball" theory. It turned out that probably wasn't true at all!

have a nice day,
Dustin

[R.M. Schultz]

… he never wrote the "Horst Wessel Lied".

Just because there really was a Horst Wessel, doesn't mean he actually wrote the song. Supposedly, the song was found in his pocked when he died and, though I don't actually doubt this, it is entierly concieveable that Dr. Goebbels could have planted it there.

… my dad grew up a strong believer in the "Adolf had only one ball" theory. It turned out that probably wasn't true at all!

FACT: Hitler had monorchism.

viewtopic.php?t=24685

[xcalibur]

? he never wrote the "Horst Wessel Lied".

Just because there really was a Horst Wessel, doesn't mean he actually wrote the song. Supposedly, the song was found in his pocked when he died and, though I don't actually doubt this, it is entierly concieveable that Dr. Goebbels could have planted it there.

? my dad grew up a strong believer in the "Adolf had only one ball" theory. It turned out that probably wasn't true at all!

FACT: Hitler had monorchism.

viewtopic.php?t=24685

Ah, no. That thread doesn't prove anything conclusively. That you choose to believe it (which is your prerogative) is nothing more than a personal opinion based on what may well be a flawed (perhaps purposefully) autopsy.

As it stands now, given the evidence available, the issue falls into the area of conjecture rather than "fact".

[Brig]

let's keep Hitler and his testicles in the various treads about that

[Durand]

Hallo,

R.M. Schultz wrote:

Just because there really was a Horst Wessel, doesn't mean he actually wrote the song. Supposedly, the song was found in his pocked when he died and, though I don't actually doubt this, it is entierly concieveable that Dr. Goebbels could have planted it there.

R.M.S., I am a bit confused by your statement. Are you stating that Goebbels (or someone under him) wrote the song and then planted it on Wessel's body?

Regards,

Durand

[R.M. Schultz]

Are you stating that Goebbels (or someone under him) wrote the song and then planted it on Wessel's body?

It certainly is possible. Planting a catchy tune on a Nazi "martyr" would certainly get the song into circulation with a jump-start. I have seen no evidence that this actually happened, but it certainly is the kind of thing that Goebbels would do.

[Durand]

Hallo R.M.S.,

Thank you for the clarification. I agree that Goebbels was quite adept at such lies and manipulations, but he did not write and then plant/discover the song on Wessel's body. Wessel wrote the poem and set it to the music of an old marching tune in 1927. The song became popular within SA circles in Berlin and was sung at the Nuremberg Rally in 1929. Goebbels may have had a hand in making it more popular after Wessel's death, but he did not "discover" a previously unknown song on Wessel's body.

Regards,

Durand

[Germania]

The Link upwards is very interesting and it couldn´t be an hoax because pictures exist, etc.

[Abbeyville Kid]

It was always my understanding That Horst Wessel was a thug and a pimp,and being in the SA was killed in a pitched street battle with the Communists.And then was bestowed as a martyr to the national Socialist cause.Another Goebbels front.I have seen a photo of the funeral of Wessel,and Hitler, Goebbels,and other early NSDAP personalities were present.The expressions on their faces of grief is almost comical.