Wessel in his Sturmführer uniform leading an SA unit at a Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, 1929. Wessel is at the front left (Image - Bundesarchiv, Bild 147-0503 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia)
Horst Wessel, author of the song of the same name, was the elder of two sons of a German parson, Dr.Ludwig Wessel. Born at Bielefeld on 9th October, 1907, he spent his childhood at Mülheim in the Ruhr but in 1913 moved to Berlin, on his father's appointment to the church of St. Nicholas there. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Dr. Wessel volunteered as an Army Chaplain, and served in that capacity first on the Western and afterwards on the Eastern Front.
Horst Wessel (Image - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1978-043-14
/ Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia)
Horst Wessel was intended for the legal profession, and having duly passed a classical course became a law student, first in Berlin and afterwards in Vienna. Always politically inclined and intensely nationalist in spirit, after the usual membership of students' corps, he became a member first of the Bismark League and afterwards of the Viking League. But he failed to find what he desired until in the summer of 1926 he came in touch with the National Socialist Party. He became an enthusiastic and active member, and by May, 1929, was leader of no 34 Troop in Berlin. Under him was developed the celebrated No 5 Storm Division, which achieved the honour of becoming a special object of hate and fear to the Red terrorists. He declined offers of promotion to other parts of Germany, preferring to carry on his work in Berlin.
His younger brother Werner Wessel, who had also joined the party, had lost his life on 23rd December, 1929, being one of the party from the Ski group who were caught in a violent snowstorm on that day, and frozen to death before they could be extricated.
The Communists had for some time past determined to find an opportunity to rid themselves of Horst Wessel, who frequently shifted his quarters. It happened that the landlady of a room which he took at 62, Frankfurt Street was a member of a Communist organisation. On the evening of the 14th January 1930, she reported to her Communist H.Q. that Horst Wessel was at her house. A party was immediately got together, under a Communist leader named Albrecht Höhler, by profession a pimp and bully in the lower haunts of Berlin, and commonly known as " Ali " from the tattooed oriental pictures with which his body was covered; with him was one Elsie Cohn. The party consisted of about a dozen persons many of whom were Jews. Introduced by the landlady, they knocked on the door of Horst Wessel's room and as he opened the door himself, expecting a friend, Höhler fired into his mouth. Other shots were fired, and Horst Wessel fell to the ground, horribly wounded. The gang hastily ransacked the room for papers and withdrew.
Horst Wessel was removed to hospital, where he lingered for some weeks in great pain, dying on the morning of 23rd February. At his funeral, on the 1st March, the attendants were limited by police orders, and accompanied by a police escort. At one point they were attacked by a Communist crowd collected for the purpose, who endeavoured to seize and smash the coffin, but were eventually driven off by the police.
The perpetrators of the murder were apprehended and brought to trial. They pleaded in defence that Horst Wessel had incited the public against the State and against the Jews. They received most inadequate sentences. Höhler and Rückert, found guilty of wilful murder and being in posession of a firearm without a licence, to 6 years 1 month's penal servitude. Kandulski, for wilful murder only, one year less. The remainder were given terms of imprisonment, Max Sambrowski, 2 years, Willi and Walter Sambrowski, 1 year and 6 months each, and Elsie Cohn and Foncek, one year each. The landlady who had invited the murderers in and shown them the room was given 18 months imprisonment. And the four remaining members of the party were given four months' imprisonment each as accessories.
Horst Wessel did not live to see the regeneration of his country for which he laboured, and for which he sacrificed his life. But today when his countrymen are gathered together, and, as a symbol of that regeneration, unite in singing the song which he made for his Stormtroopers, his spirit is always with them, and so realises the words of his song, "The spirits of our comrades by the Redfront slaughtered, march in our ranks forever at our side."
H. C. Bruce Wilson
Horst Wessel - born 9 October, 1907, died 23 February, 1930.
First verse of the Horst Wessel Lied
Up with the flag! Our serried ranks press forward,
S. A. moves on with steady swinging stride,
Our comrades, by the Redfront and Reaction slaughtered,
March in the spirit ever at our side.
Original shellac 78s of the Horst Wessel Lied
