Born: 9. October 1907 in Bielefeld.
Died: 23. February 1930 in Berlin (of gunshot wounds in the Krankenhaus am Friedrichshain, Berlin).
Promotions:
SA-Sturmführer:
SA-Truppführer: 1. May 1929
Career:
As student, member of the "Bismarck-Jugend" (BJ) of the 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 -.
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 und 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.
Literatur 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 Wesssel (died 1922; pastor in Mülheim/R., 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 :|
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