158-724: Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel (9 October 1907 – 23 February 1930) was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party , who became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany following his murder in 1930 by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After his death, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels elevated him into a martyr for the Nazi Party. Wessel first joined
316-410: A big tent party of the centre-left. The SPD led the federal government from 1969 to 1982 (under Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt ), 1998 to 2005 (under Gerhard Schröder ) and again since 2021. It served as a junior partner to a CDU/CSU-led government from 1966 to 1969, 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2021. During Scholz's chancellorship, the party has set out principles of a new German defence policy in
474-597: A 1952 Soviet suggestion for Germans to form a neutral state was ignored by the CDU/CSU–FDP government. After 17 years in opposition, the SPD became the junior partner in a grand coalition with the CDU/CSU which lasted from 1966 to 1969. After the 1969 federal election , the SPD's Willy Brandt became chancellor in a coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party. His government sought to normalise relations with East Germany and
632-954: A battalion of stormtroopers. They were first used during the 8th Army 's siege of Riga , and again at the Battle of Caporetto . Wider use followed on the Western Front in the German spring offensive in March 1918, when Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers. The DAP ( Deutsche Arbeiterpartei , German Workers' Party ) was formed in Munich in January 1919, and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and propaganda were quickly recognized. By early 1920 he had gained authority in
790-794: A cell-structure similar to that used by the German Communist Party (KPD). Wessel did this despite SA rules forbidding its members from working for the Party. In 1929, Wessel became the Street Cell Leader of the Alexanderplatz Storm Section of the SA. In May, he was appointed district leader of the SA for Friedrichshain where he lived, SA-Sturm 5. with the rank of Sturmführer . In October 1929, Wessel dropped out of university to devote himself full-time to
948-515: A consequence of the Stennes revolt in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new Oberster SA-Führer . He sent a personal request to Röhm, asking him to return to serve as the SA's chief of staff. Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on January 5, 1931. He brought radical new ideas to the SA and appointed several close friends to its senior leadership. Previously,
1106-574: A death march of Hungarian Jews from a work camp at Engerau (modern Petržalka , Slovakia ) to Bad Deutsch-Altenburg that saw 102 of the Jews being killed, being either shot or beaten to death. The SA ceased to exist in May 1945 when Nazi Germany collapsed. It was formally disbanded and outlawed by the Allied Control Council enacting Control Council Law No. 2 on October 10, 1945. In 1946,
1264-529: A few soldiers each. The first official German stormtrooper unit was authorized on March 2, 1915, on the Western Front. The German high command ordered the VIII Corps to form a detachment to test experimental weapons and develop tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western Front . On October 2, 1916, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form
1422-459: A group of fifty SA men to the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg , which he described as "Flags, enthusiasm, Hitler, all of Nuremberg a brown army camp. It made an enormous impression." Wessel was with other Berlin-based Nazis making up a group of 400, led by Goebbels. At that time the SA was banned in Berlin. When they returned, they were arrested. Wessel soon impressed Goebbels; and in January 1928,
1580-585: A key role in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 . On 9 November 1918, leading SPD member Friedrich Ebert was designated chancellor and fellow Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann , on his own authority, proclaimed Germany a republic . The government introduced a large number of reforms in the following months, introducing various civil liberties and labor rights . The SPD government, committed to parliamentary liberal democracy , used military force against more radical communist groups, leading to
1738-692: A large shipment of Lettow - shirts , originally intended for the German colonial troops in Germany's former East Africa colony , was purchased in 1921 by Gerhard Roßbach for use by his Freikorps paramilitary unit. They were later used for his Schill Youth organization in Salzburg, and in 1924 were adopted by the Schill Youth in Germany. The "Schill Sportversand" then became the main supplier for
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#17327733587221896-405: A life without exploitation, suppression and violence, hence in social and human security", the realization of which is emphasized as a "permanent task". Social democracy serves as the "principle of our actions". The party platform of the SPD espouses the goal of democratic socialism, which it envisions as a societal arrangement in which freedom and social justice are paramount. According to
2054-469: A memorial service at the Berlin Sportpalast , at which the "Funeral March" from Richard Wagner 's Götterdämmerung was played, and the stage was set as an altar made from "laurel trees, branches, candelabra and a larger-than-lifesize portrait of Wessel". Hitler lavished praise on "those fanatics who are consumed by the great task of their age" – "fanaticism" being a positive virtue among
2212-535: A mêlée in which a small company of SA thrashed the opposition. The Nazis called this event the Saalschlacht ( transl. Meeting hall battle ), and it assumed legendary proportions in SA lore with the passage of time. Thereafter, the group was officially known as the Sturmabteilung . The leadership of the SA passed from Maurice to the young Hans Ulrich Klintzsch in this period. He had been
2370-541: A naval officer and a member of the Ehrhardt Brigade , which had taken part in the failed Kapp Putsch attempted coup. When he took over command of the SA, he was a member of the notorious Organisation Consul (OC). The Nazis under Hitler began to adopt the more professional management techniques of the military. In 1922, the Nazi Party created a youth section, the Jugendbund , for young men between
2528-578: A nearby tavern for Albrecht "Ali" Höhler , an armed pimp , perjurer and petty criminal. Höhler, a heavily tattooed cabinetmaker who had recently been released from prison, was a Communist and a member of the Red Front Fighters' League. At around 10 p.m. on 14 January 1930, Höhler and Erwin Rückert, another member of the KPD, knocked at the door of the room where Wessel and Jänicke lived, while
2686-405: A number of youth groups and extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, but later resigned from them and joined the SA, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. He rose to command several SA squads and districts. On 14 January 1930, he was shot in the head by two Communists. Albrecht "Ali" Höhler was arrested and charged with his murder. Höhler was initially sentenced to six years in prison but
2844-596: A period in which the Berlin city authorities had banned the SA in an effort to curb political street violence, Wessel was sent to Vienna to study the National Socialist Youth Group, as well as the organizational and tactical methods of the Nazi Party there. He returned to Berlin in July 1928 to recruit local youths, and was involved in helping to implement a reorganization of the NSDAP in the city into
3002-615: A permanent split between the SPD and the USPD , as well as the Spartacist League which would go on to form the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and integrate a majority of USPD members as well. The SPD was the largest party during the first 13 years of the new Weimar Republic . It decisively won the 1919 federal election with 37.9 per cent of votes, and Ebert became the first president in February. The position of chancellor
3160-492: A retirement home in West Germany. In 1943, Viktor Lutze was killed in an automobile accident, and Wilhelm Schepmann was appointed as leader. Schepmann did his best to run the SA for the remainder of the war, attempting to restore the group as a predominant force within the Nazi Party and to mend years of distrust and bad feelings between the SA and SS. On the night of 29–30 March 1945, Austrian SA members were involved in
3318-504: A third defendant, Peter Stoll, a tailor. In 2009, the sentences against all three of them were rescinded by the Berlin public prosecutor's office. Goebbels had been looking for someone to turn into a martyr for the Nazi cause. His first attempt was with Albert Leo Schlageter , a Freikorps member and saboteur, who was caught attempting to blow up a train in the Ruhr region, which at the time
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#17327733587223476-604: A training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilization as well, in the future is the task of the SA." Blomberg and von Reichenau began to conspire with Göring and Himmler against Röhm and the SA. Himmler asked Reinhard Heydrich to assemble a dossier on Röhm. Heydrich recognized that for the SS to gain full national power, the SA had to be broken. He manufactured evidence to suggest that Röhm had been paid 12 million marks by French agents to overthrow Hitler. Hitler liked Röhm and initially refused to believe
3634-458: Is a social democratic political party in Germany . It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together with Lars Klingbeil , who joined her in December 2021. After Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor in 2021, the SPD became the leading party of the federal government , which the SPD formed with
3792-471: Is still used in folk celebrations. Wessel founded an "SA Schalmeienkapelle" band, which provided music during SA events. In early 1929, Wessel wrote the lyrics for a new Nazi fight song Kampflied ("fight song"), which was first published in Goebbels's newspaper Der Angriff in September, under the title Der Unbekannte SA-Mann ("The Unknown SA-Man"). The song later became known as Die Fahne Hoch ("Raise
3950-596: The Saalschutzabteilung (meeting hall protection detachment) for the DAP, gathered around Emil Maurice after the February 1920 incident at the Hofbräuhaus. There was little organization or structure to this group. The group was also called the "Stewards Troop" ( Ordnertruppen ) around this time. More than a year later, on August 3, 1921, Hitler redefined the group as the "Gymnastic and Sports Division" of
4108-575: The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and intimidating Romani , trade unionists , and especially Jews . The SA were colloquially called Brownshirts ( Braunhemden ) because of the colour of their uniform's shirts , similar to Benito Mussolini 's blackshirts . The official uniform of the SA was a brown shirt with a brown tie. The color came about because
4266-585: The Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The SPD played a leading role in the German revolution of 1918–1919 and in the foundation of the Weimar Republic . The SPD politician Friedrich Ebert served as the first president of Germany from 1919 to 1925. After the rise of the Nazi Party to power, the SPD was the only party in the Reichstag which voted against the Enabling Act of 1933 ; the SPD
4424-669: The Eastern Bloc , a policy known as Ostpolitik . The party achieved its best ever result of 45.8 per cent in 1972 , one of only three occasions in which it formed the largest Bundestag faction. After Brandt's resignation in 1974, his successor Helmut Schmidt served as chancellor until 1982, when the SPD returned to opposition. During the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany, the East German SPD
4582-671: The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg formally ruled that the SA was not a criminal organization . The leader of the SA was known as the Oberster SA-Führer , translated as Supreme SA-Leader. The following men held this position: In September 1930, to quell the Stennes Revolt and to try to ensure the personal loyalty of the SA to himself, Hitler assumed command of the entire organization and remained Oberster SA-Führer for
4740-1111: The Jüdenstraße . Wessel attended four different secondary schools in Berlin: firstly the Köllnische Gymnasium from 1914 to 1922, then briefly the Königstädtisches Gymnasium [ de ] and the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster ("Protestant Grey Cloister Gymnasium"). For his final two years of schooling, he attended the Luisenstädtisches Gymnasium [ de ] , where he passed his Abitur examination and which would later be renamed in his memory. On 19 April 1926, Wessel enrolled in Friedrich Wilhelm University to study law. The Wessel family, influenced by
4898-614: The Knappschaft , the purpose of which was to "raise our boys to be real German men". He also joined the Wiking Liga ("Viking League"), a paramilitary group founded by Hermann Ehrhardt – the stated goal of which was to effect "the revival of Germany on a national and ethnic basis through the spiritual education of its members" – near the end of 1923. Wessel himself described the Viking League as having "the ultimate aim" of
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5056-658: The Nazi government while others fled the country. The party-in-exile was called Sopade . After the end of World War II , the re-establishment of the SPD was permitted in the Western occupation zones in 1945. In the Soviet occupation zone , the SPD was forcibly merged with the KPD in 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SED was the ruling party of East Germany until 1989. In West Germany ,
5214-473: The Nikolai Church , one of Berlin's oldest churches. Wessel's mother, Bertha Luise Margarete Wessel ( née Richter), also came from a family of Lutheran pastors. Wessel's parents were married on 1 May 1906. He grew up alongside his sister Ingeborg Paula Margarethe (born 19 May 1909) and his brother Werner Georg Erich Ludwig (born 22 August 1910). When they moved from Mülheim to Berlin, the family lived in
5372-768: The Progressive Alliance and was joined by numerous other parties around the world. Previously, the SPD was a founding member of both the Second International and the Labour and Socialist International . The Social Democratic Party has its origins in the General German Workers' Association , founded in 1863, and the Social Democratic Workers' Party , founded in 1869. The two groups merged in 1875 to create
5530-583: The Reformed Protestant region of East Frisia directly to the north, with its strong traditional streak of anti-Catholicism , is one of their strongest constituencies. Further south, the SPD also enjoys solid support in northern Hesse , parts of Palatinate and the Saarland . The social democrats are weakest in the south-eastern states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia , where the party's percentage of votes dropped to single-digit figures in
5688-519: The Reichstag , except for the one of 1919 which was called the National Assembly and since 1949 the parliament is called Bundestag . Note that changes in borders (1871, 1919, 1920, 1949, 1957 and 1990) varied the number of eligible voters whereas electoral laws also changed the ballot system (only constituencies until 1912, only party lists until 1949 and a mixed system thereafter), the suffrage (women vote since 1919; minimum active voting age
5846-534: The Second International 's agreement to oppose militarism, the SPD supported the German war effort and adopted a policy, known as Burgfriedenspolitik , of refraining from calling strikes or criticising the government. Internal opposition to the policy grew throughout the war. Anti-war members were expelled in 1916 and 1917, leading to the formation of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). The SPD played
6004-605: The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany [ de ] (German: Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands ). From 1878 to 1890, the Anti-Socialist Laws banned any group that aimed at spreading socialist principles, but the party still gained support in elections. In 1890, when the ban was lifted, the party adopted its current name. The SPD was the largest Marxist party in Europe and consistently
6162-626: The Vrana Palace . As the ambassador in Bratislava , Ludin arranged the deportation of 50,000 Slovak Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. On 23–24 August 1944, Killinger notably bungled the German response to King Michael I's Coup that saw King Michael I of Romania dismiss Antonescu, sign an armistice with the Allies, and declare war on Germany, thereby costing the Reich its largest source of oil. Of
6320-538: The Waffen-SS , known as Feldherrnhalle . This formation expanded from regimental size in 1940 to a fully-fledged armored corps ( Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle ) in 1945. As for units formed outside of Germany, after the success of the invasion of Poland in 1939, an SA unit, "Great Government" was formed. The units were renamed SA Wehrschützen-Bereitschaften in 1942. The title was abbreviated to SA Wehrbereitschaften , thereafter. In his 1936 Hitler: A Biography , German historian Konrad Heiden remarked that within
6478-495: The Zeitenwende speech . The SPD holds pro-European stances and is a member of the Party of European Socialists and sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament . With 14 MEPs , it is the third largest party in the group. The SPD was a founding member of the Socialist International , but the party left in 2013 after criticising its acceptance of parties they consider to be violating human rights. The SPD subsequently founded
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6636-400: The political centre . After World War II , the SPD was re-formed in West Germany after being banned by the Nazi regime ; in East Germany , it merged with the Communist Party of Germany to form the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany . Under the chairmanship of Kurt Schumacher , the SPD was a socialist party representing the interests of the working class and of trade unions. With
6794-399: The "establishment of a national dictatorship". He soon became a local leader, engaging in street battles with youth members of their adversarial groups, such as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist Party (KPD). Later, Wessel joined groups with a more sinister reputation, including the "Olympia German Association for Physical Training", a powerful paramilitary group which was
6952-410: The 1920s and into the 1930s, members of the SA were often involved in street fights, called Zusammenstöße (collisions), with members of the Communist Party (KPD). In 1929, the SA added a Motor Corps for better mobility and a faster mustering of units. It also acquired an independent source of funds: royalties from its own Sturm Cigarette Company . Previously, the SA had been financially dependent on
7110-461: The 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally , a group of Hitler Youth sang an anti-Christian song which included the lines "We don't need any Christian truth ... We follow not Christ but Horst Wessel". Wessel's name was frequently invoked by the Nazis to bolster the core tenets of National Socialist ideology during the remaining existence of Nazi Germany. For example, a wartime article from the Nazi-owned Völkischer Beobachter newspaper called Wessel "the hero of
7268-439: The 1959 Godesberg Program, the party evolved from a socialist working-class party to a modern social democratic party working within democratic capitalism . The SPD's Hamburg Programme, adopted in 2007, describes democratic socialism as "the vision of a free and fair society in solidarity", which requires "a structure in economy, state and society guaranteeing civil, political, social and economic basic rights for all people living
7426-502: The 1990s, the left and moderate wings of the party drifted apart, culminating in a secession of a significant number of party members which later joined the socialist party WASG , which later merged into The Left ( Die Linke ). Much of the SPD's current-day support comes from large cities, especially northern and western Germany and Berlin . As of 2019, 10 of the country's 15 biggest cities are led by SPD mayors. The metropolitan Ruhr Area , where coal mining and steel production were once
7584-453: The 2018 and 2019 elections. In 2021, it significantly increased its vote share in the states of the former east. The federal leader is supported by six Deputy Leaders and the party executive . As of 2021, the leaders are Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans . The previous leader was Andrea Nahles , who announced her pending resignation on 2 June 2019. As Germany is a federal republic , each of Germany's states have their own SPD party at
7742-575: The 25-point National Socialist Program . However, historian Thomas Friedrich reports that the repeated efforts by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to appeal to the working-class backgrounds of the SA were "doomed to failure", because most SA men were focused on the nationalistic cult of Hitler and destroying the "Marxist enemy", a term that was used to identify both the KPD and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The "beefsteak" name also referred to party-switching between Nazi and Communist party members, particularly involving those within
7900-443: The Brown Revolution" and referred to his "sacrificial death" that "passionately inflamed millions who followed". The paper further referred to Wessel as "the driving force behind the struggle for freedom of the armed services and the homeland of the Greater German Reich". Wessel played the schalmei (Martinstrompete), a brass instrument which featured in groups called Schalmeienkapellen ("Schalmeien orchestras or bands"), and which
8058-422: The CDU/CSU after the 2013 federal election . This arrangement was renewed after the 2017 federal election . SPD narrowly won against the CDU/CSU in the September 2021 federal election , becoming the biggest party in the federal parliament (Bundestag). Social Democrat Olaf Scholz became the new chancellor in December 2021, and formed a coalition government with the Green Party and the Free Democrats. The SPD
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#17327733587228216-414: The Communist Party and other parties on the left, had become a virtual civil war the Prussian police were powerless to control. This physical violence was encouraged by Goebbels, the Nazi Gauleiter of Berlin, to whom Hitler had given the difficult task of establishing a reorganized Nazi presence in "Red Berlin" – a city sympathetic to the Communists and the Socialists – one that was under the firm control of
8374-447: The Communists were not interested in helping Salm, as she was not well-liked by them because she had given her husband a church funeral instead of allowing the KPD to give him the standard burial rite used for members of the Red Front Fighters' League. Nevertheless, when they realized that Horst Wessel was involved in the dispute, they agreed to beat him up and get him out of Salm's flat by force. Knowing they needed muscle, they sent word to
8532-419: The Flag") and finally the " Horst-Wessel-Lied " ("Horst Wessel Song"). The Nazis made it their official anthem and, after they came to power, the co-national anthem of Nazi Germany, along with the first stanza of the Deutschlandlied . The song was also played in some Protestant places of worship, as elements of the Protestant Church in Germany had accepted and promulgated the Horst Wessel cult, built as it
8690-501: The Greens and the Free Democratic Party , after the 2021 federal election . The SPD is a member of 11 of the 16 German state governments and is a leading partner in seven of them. The SPD was founded in 1875 from a merger of smaller socialist parties, and grew rapidly after the lifting of Germany's repressive Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890 to become the largest socialist party in Western Europe until 1933. In 1891, it adopted its Marxist -influenced Erfurt Program , though in practice it
8848-463: The KPD met were often visited by a mere handful of loyal supporters, and our standpoint was made unequivocally clear to the landlord and all who were present. In the East End [of Berlin] Horst Wessel opened up a route through which a brown storm tide poured in unceasingly and conquered the area inch by inch. By the period 1929–30, the continual violence in Berlin between the street fighters of the Nazi Party and other extreme right-wing groups, and those of
9006-440: The Many was one of the first films of the Nazi era to idealize a version of Wessel's life. Goebbels, however, disliked the film, considering it to be crude in its use of propaganda, and on the day of its intended premiere issued a ban prohibiting it from being shown. Putzi Hanfstaengl – an old friend of Hitler's – who was one of the film's backers, and had composed its music, went personally to Hitler and Goebbels to complain about
9164-400: The Minister of Defence, and General Walter von Reichenau , the chief of the Reichswehr 's Ministerial Department, became increasingly concerned about the growing power of the SA. Röhm had been given a seat on the National Defence Council and began to demand more say over military matters. On October 2, 1933, Röhm sent a letter to Reichenau that said: "I regard the Reichswehr now only as
9322-465: The National Socialists and the Communists offered different accounts of the events. The police, led by Chief Inspector Teichmann, and several courts determined that both political and private reasons had led to Wessel's assassination. By 17 January 1930, the police had announced that Höhler, whom Jänicke had identified as the gunman, was their prime suspect. It was then reported by a non-Nazi and non-Communist newspaper that Jänicke had known Höhler prior to
9480-438: The Nazi Sturmabteilung . The Nazis overtook the SPD as the largest party in July 1932 and Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. Of the parties present in the Reichstag during the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 , the SPD was the only one to vote against; most of the communist deputies had been arrested ahead of the vote. The SPD was banned in June. Many members were subsequently imprisoned and killed by
9638-511: The Nazi Party headquarters in Munich and which was not controlled by the northern branch of the party under the Strasser brothers with their socialist leanings. Goebbels' violent approach was appreciated by Wessel, who preferred it to the official restraint he experienced as a member of the Bismarck Youth and the Viking League. Wessel kept two journals, one specifically about his political life. In neither does he describe his physical participation in these street skirmishes: he refers to "we" – i.e.
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#17327733587229796-462: The Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first verse of the previous " Deutschlandlied " , also known as "Deutschland über alles" . Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel was born on 9 October 1907 in Bielefeld , Westphalia , the son of Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Wessel (born 15 July 1879), a Lutheran minister in Bielefeld , and later in Mülheim an der Ruhr , then at
9954-419: The Nazi movement. In that same year, Wessel wrote the lyrics to "Die Fahne hoch!" ("Raise the Flag!"), which would later be known as the " Horst Wessel Song ". Wessel wrote songs for the SA in conscious imitation of the Communist paramilitary, the Red Front Fighters' League – in fact, the music to Die Fahne hoch!" was taken from a Communist song book – to provoke them into attacking his troops, and to keep up
10112-864: The Nazis increased attacks against Jews in the early 1930s and used the SA to carry these out. In November 1938, after the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan (a Polish Jew), the SA was used for "demonstrations" against the act. In violent riots, members of the SA shattered the glass storefronts of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses. The events were referred to as Kristallnacht ('Night of Broken Glass', more literally 'Crystal Night'). Jewish homes were ransacked throughout Germany. This pogrom damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 200 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death and more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps . Thereafter,
10270-492: The Nazis – "who live for that task and who die for it ... [they would] later be not only the martyrs of their struggle but also the seed from which the subsequent harvest [would come]". Three months later, on 21 March 1933, elaborate celebrations organized by Goebbels were held on Potsdam Day for the inauguration of a new Reichstag. The day began with services at both the Catholic and Lutheran churches there, but Hitler and Goebbels did not attend. Instead, they laid wreaths at
10428-438: The SA ambassadors, Killinger and Jagow committed suicide in 1944 and 1945 respectively while Kasche and Ludin were executed for war crimes in 1947 in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia respectively. Beckerle spent 11 years in a Soviet POW camp, was released to West Germany in 1955, was charged with war crimes in 1966 for his role in the deportation of Macedonian Jews, which were dropped on grounds of ill health in 1968 and died in 1976 at
10586-408: The SA and the Nazi Party. Part of the attraction of the NSDAP to Wessel was Joseph Goebbels , the Party's newly appointed Gauleiter (regional leader) of Berlin, about whom he would later say: There was nothing [Goebbels] couldn't handle. The party comrades clung to him with great devotion. The SA would have let itself be cut to pieces for him. Goebbels – he was like Hitler himself. Goebbels – he
10744-417: The SA became overshadowed by the SS; by 1939 it had little remaining significance in the Nazi Party, though it was never formally disbanded and continued to exist until the war ended. In January 1939, the role of the SA was officially established as a training school for the armed forces, with the establishment of the SA Wehrmannschaften (SA Military Units). With the start of World War II in September 1939,
10902-457: The SA formations were subordinate to the Nazi Party leadership of each Gau . Röhm established new Gruppen that had no regional Nazi Party oversight. Each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by a SA- Gruppenführer who answered only to Röhm or Hitler. Under Röhm as its popular leader and Stabschef (Staff Chief), the SA grew in importance within the Nazi power structure and expanded to have thousands of members. In
11060-573: The SA had the power to remove him as leader. Göring and Himmler played on this fear by constantly feeding Hitler with new information on Röhm's proposed coup. A masterstroke was to claim that Gregor Strasser , whom Hitler felt had betrayed him, was part of the planned conspiracy against him. With this news, Hitler ordered all the SA leaders to attend a meeting in the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee . On June 30, 1934, Hitler, accompanied by SS units, arrived at Bad Wiessee, where he personally placed Röhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. Over
11218-404: The SA in any way he saw fit. When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong Frontbann into the SA, Röhm resigned from all political movements and military brigades on May 1, 1925. He felt great contempt for the "legalistic" path the party leaders wanted to follow and sought seclusion from public life. Throughout
11376-722: The SA lost most of its remaining members to military service in the Wehrmacht (armed forces). In January 1941, long-standing rivalries between the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office) and the SS exploded with the attempted coup d'état in Bucharest that saw SS back the coup by the Iron Guard under its leader Horia Sima against the Prime Minister, General Ion Antonescu , while the Auswärtiges Amt together with
11534-543: The SA on behalf of the party". He felt that the Communists had "a loss of prestige that could never again be made good", as they were relegated to fuming on the side streets. Once the "enormous procession ... led by Hitler, Goebbels, Ernst Röhm , and other top officials of the [party], ... marched to the St. Nicholas Cemetery ... Hitler spoke of Wessel's death as a symbolic sacrifice." That night, Hitler addressed
11692-399: The SA ranks, there were "large numbers of former Communists and Social Democrats" and that "many of the storm troops were called 'beefsteaks' – brown outside and red within." The influx of non-Nazis into the Sturmabteilung membership was so prevalent that SA men would joke that "In our storm troop there are three Nazis, but we shall soon have spewed them out." The number of "beefsteaks"
11850-423: The SA ranks. Similar paramilitary organizations Informational notes Citations Bibliography Further reading Final solution Parties Social Democratic Party (Germany) The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( German : Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands , [zoˈtsi̯aːldemoˌkʁaːtɪʃə paʁˌtaɪ ˈdɔʏtʃlants] , SPD , German pronunciation: [ɛspeːˈdeː] )
12008-528: The SA was reorganized into a front organization known as the Frontbann to circumvent Bavaria 's ban on the Nazi Party and its organs. (This had been instituted after the abortive Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923). While Hitler was in prison, Ernst Röhm helped to create the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed SA. In April 1924, Röhm had also been given authority by Hitler to rebuild
12166-420: The SA – and not to "I". Wessel had broken one arm several times while horseback riding as a schoolboy which deformed it, and had been given a permanent exemption from physical education. Nonetheless, he boxed and practiced martial arts while in the Viking League, and boasted in one journal of having mastered ju-jitsu , a primarily defensive art he may have needed to compensate for his lack of physical power. Still,
12324-400: The SA's brown shirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with ranks that were later adopted by several other Nazi Party groups. Following Adolf Hitler 's rise to Nazi Party leadership in 1921, he formalized the party's militant supporters into the SA as a group that was to protect party gatherings. In 1923, owing to his growing distrust of the SA, Adolf Hitler ordered
12482-457: The SA, a force of by then over three million men, absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership. Since the officers had developed the Reichswehr as a professional force of 100,000, they believed that it would be destroyed if merged with millions of untrained SA thugs. Furthermore, the army commanders were greatly concerned about reports of a huge cache of weapons in
12640-521: The SA, and illegally executed . On 10 April 1935, five years after Wessel's assassination, and two years after the SA murder of Höhler, two people accused of being involved in Wessel's killing were put on trial and subsequently beheaded in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison : Sally Epstein, a Jewish painter, and Hans Ziegler, a barber. The two had been arrested in August 1933, and were put on trial in May 1934 with
12798-494: The SA, the Schutzstaffel (SS) was placed under the control of Heinrich Himmler , in part to restrict the power of the SA and their leaders. The younger SS had evolved to be more than a bodyguard unit for Hitler and demonstrated that it was better suited to carry out Hitler's policies, including those of a criminal nature. Although some of the conflicts between the SS and SA were based on personal rivalries of leaders,
12956-417: The SA, which was always interested in a good street fight, he was immersed in the antisemitic attitudes typical of the extreme right-wing paramilitary culture of the time. His study of jurisprudence at school was seen through the filter of his belief that the application of the law was primarily an instrument of power; and his personal beliefs, already geared toward anti-Jewish attitudes, were further hardened by
13114-555: The SPD became one of two major parties, alongside the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) . In the inaugural 1949 federal election , it placed second with 29.2 per cent of votes and led the opposition to the CDU government. In its 1959 Godesberg Program , the party dropped its commitment to Marxism and sought to appeal to middle class voters, becoming a big tent party of the centre-left. Although strongly leftist ,
13272-455: The SPD initially opposed both the social market economy and Konrad Adenauer 's drive towards Western integration fiercely; after Schumacher's death, however, it accepted the social market economy and Germany's position in the Western alliance in order to appeal to a broader range of voters. It still remains associated with the economic causes of unionised employees and working class voters. In
13430-509: The SPD was willing to compromise. Only through its support did the governing CDU/CSU pass a denazification law that its coalition partner the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the far-right German Party voted against. At the same time, the SPD opposed the pro-West integration of West Germany because they believed that made a re-unification of Germany impossible. Austria could have become a sovereign neutral state in 1956, but
13588-662: The SS members and nearly one-third of the instant stormtroopers were with the Free Corps, vigilantes, or militant veterans' groups during their first 25 years of life. They also came in disproportionate numbers from left-wing youth groups such as the Socialist or Communist Youth or the Red Front (RFB)." Some have argued that since most SA members came from working-class families or were unemployed, they were more amenable to Marxist -leaning socialism, expecting Hitler to fulfill
13746-514: The SS. The role of the SA ambassadors was that of "quasi- Reich governors" as they aggressively supervised the internal affairs of the nations they were stationed in, making them very much unlike traditional ambassadors. The SA leaders ambassadors fulfilled Ribbentrop's hopes in that all had distant relations with the SS, but as a group they were notably inept as diplomats with Beckerle being so crude and vulgar in his manners that King Boris III almost refused to allow him to present his credentials at
13904-845: The Wehrmacht backed Antonescu. In the aftermath of the coup, the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop made an effort to curb the power of the SS to conduct a foreign policy independent of the Auswärtiges Amt . Taking an advantage of the long-standing rivalries between the SS and the SA, in 1941, Ribbentrop appointed an assemblage of SA men to head the German embassies in Eastern Europe, with Manfred Freiherr von Killinger going to Romania, Siegfried Kasche to Croatia, Adolf-Heinz Beckerle to Bulgaria, Dietrich von Jagow to Hungary, and Hanns Ludin to Slovakia in order to ensure that there would be minimal co-operation with
14062-499: The ages of 14 and 18 years. Its successor, the Hitler Youth ( Hitlerjugend or HJ), remained under SA command until May 1932. Hermann Göring joined the Nazi Party in 1922 after hearing a speech by Hitler. He was given command of the SA as the Oberster SA-Führer in 1923. He was later appointed an SA- Obergruppenführer (general) and held this rank on the SA rolls until 1945. From April 1924 until late February 1925,
14220-420: The agitators "flew down the stairs with gashed heads". The next year on February 24, he announced the party's Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2,000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former army companions, armed with rubber truncheons , ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed. A permanent group of party members, who would serve as
14378-487: The apartment, which she rented and did not own, if Jänicke, who she assumed was a working prostitute, was found to be living there. (She had already been in danger of losing her legal claim when she moved out of Berlin to live, and then had to move back because she found out that living in Berlin was a legal requirement.) She asked Jänicke to leave but the latter refused, so on the evening of 14 January 1930 Salm appealed to Communist friends of her late husband for help. At first,
14536-415: The ban, which was eventually reversed when enough of the Nazi Party hierarchy weighed in on Hanfstaengl's side. Goebbels, however, insisted on alterations to the film, the primary one being that the main character's name was changed to the fictional "Hans Westmar". Part of the problem with the film was that the authentic depiction of stormtrooper brutality, including violent clashes with Communists, did not fit
14694-501: The classical social democrats continue to defend classical left-wing policies and the welfare state. The Keynesian left-wing of the SPD claims that in recent years the welfare state has been curtailed through reform programs such as the Agenda 2010, Hartz IV , and the more economic liberal stance of the SPD which were endorsed by centrist social democrats. In reaction to Agenda 2010, an inner-party dissident movement developed, leading to
14852-594: The creation of a bodyguard unit , which was ultimately abolished after the failed Beer Hall Putsch later that year. Not long after Hitler's release from prison, he ordered the creation of another bodyguard unit in 1925 that ultimately became the Schutzstaffel (SS). During the Night of the Long Knives ( die Nacht der langen Messer ) in 1934, the SA's then-leader Ernst Röhm was arrested and executed. The SA continued to exist but lost almost all its influence and
15010-399: The dedication of a memorial. The memorial, which was cubic in design, had a metal leaning flag and wreath on the top, and featured Horst's name on the front, and on the back featured both the name of Horst's father Ludwig, and the name for Horst's brother Werner. Hitler called Wessel a "blood witness" whose song had become "a battle hymn for millions". He said that Wessel's sacrifice of his life
15168-513: The defiant and rebellious culture encouraged before the seizure of power had to give way to using these forces for community organization. But the SA members resented tasks such as canvassing and fundraising, considering them Kleinarbeit ("little work"), which had typically been performed by women before the Nazi seizure of power. Rudolf Diels , the first Gestapo chief, estimated that in 1933 Berlin, 70 percent of new SA recruits were former Communists. In 1933, General Werner von Blomberg ,
15326-518: The display of swastikas at the funeral procession, with the exception of a few Nazi Party vehicles. Wessel's coffin was paraded through large parts of the center of Berlin in a procession lasting many hours. As the coffin reached Bülowplatz (now Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ), Communist hecklers began singing " The Internationale " in an attempt to disrupt the event. The police were unable to prevent abusive shouts and, at some points, flying rocks. No major clashes occurred, although someone had written "To Wessel
15484-579: The dossier provided by Heydrich. Röhm had been one of his first supporters and, without his ability to obtain army funds in the early days of the movement, it is unlikely that the Nazis would have ever become established. The SA under Röhm's leadership had also played a vital role in destroying the opposition during the elections of 1932 and 1933. Hitler had his own reasons for wanting Röhm removed. Some of his powerful supporters had been complaining about Röhm for some time. The generals opposed Röhm's desire to have
15642-447: The early 1930s, the Nazis expanded from an extremist fringe group to the largest political party in Germany, and the SA expanded with it. By January 1932, the SA numbered approximately 400,000. Many of these stormtroopers believed in the strasserist promise of nazism . They expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy, once they obtained national power. By
15800-661: The entire SA was the Oberste SA-Führung , located in Stuttgart . The SA supreme command had many sub-offices to handle supply, finance and recruiting. The SA also had several military training units. The largest was the SA-Marine , which served as an auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and performed search and rescue operations as well as harbor defense. The SA also had an "army" wing, similar to
15958-406: The excitement of the Nazi Party's highly visible activism. For a few years Wessel lived a double life, as a middle-class university law student and as a member of the primarily working-class SA, but in some ways the two worlds were converging in ideology. At university, Wessel joined a dueling society dedicated to "steeling and testing physical and moral fitness" through personal combat, while with
16116-718: The foundation of the new party Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative ( Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative , WASG) in 2005, which later merged into The Left ( Die Linke ) in 2007. The Parlamentarische Linke comprises left-wing SPD Members of the German Bundestag . Prior to World War II, as the main non-revolutionary left-wing party, the Social Democrats fared best among non- Catholic workers as well as intellectuals favouring social progressive causes and increased economic equality. Led by Kurt Schumacher after World War II,
16274-586: The graves of various Nazi "martyrs of the revolution", including Wessel's. The death of Wessel and the proliferation of the " Horst Wessel Song " was an extension of the Nazi cult of martyrs, which included Freikorps member Leo Schlageter and the 15 Nazis and one bystander killed in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, who were reburied in Munich with great fanfare on 8 November 1935. For years, Goebbels continued to use Wessel's "martyrdom" as propaganda. At
16432-470: The hands of SA members. Industrialists, who had provided the funds for the Nazi victory, were unhappy with Röhm's socialistic views on the economy and his claims that the real revolution had still to take place. President Hindenburg informed Hitler in June 1934 that if a move to curb the SA was not forthcoming, he would dissolve the government and declare martial law . Hitler was also concerned that Röhm and
16590-582: The limitations of his physicality would have prevented him from taking as full a role in the street brawls, and he may therefore have ratcheted up his rhetoric in an attempt to compensate for his physical disability. Wessel became well-known among the Communists when – on orders from Goebbels – he led a number of SA incursions into the Fischerkiez, an extremely poor Berlin district where Communists mingled with underworld figures. Several of these agitations were only minor altercations, but one took place outside
16748-419: The main industries, have provided a significant base for the SPD in the 20th century. In the city of Bremen , the SPD has continuously governed since 1949. In southern Germany, the SPD typically garners less support except in the largest cities. At the 2009 federal election , the party lost its only constituency in the entire state of Bavaria (in Munich ). Small town and rural support comes especially from
16906-426: The man he is and causing him to act in this way and no other. One man must set an example and offer himself up as a sacrifice! Well, then, I am ready! Goebbel's plan was to turn Wessel's funeral into a mass demonstration full of speeches and processions of SA men in uniform, but he could not get the necessary police permits to do so, even after Wessel's sister requested President Paul von Hindenburg to relent. Wessel
17064-505: The many unremembered storm troopers. In an editorial in the Völkischer Beobachter ("People's Observer"), Alfred Rosenberg wrote that Wessel was not dead, but had joined a combat group that still struggled alongside them; afterwards, Nazis spoke of how a man who died in conflict had joined "Horst Wessel's combat group" or had been "summoned to Horst Wessel's standard". The Prussian police had outlawed public gatherings and
17222-420: The mass of members had key socio-economic differences and related conflicts. SS members generally came from the middle class , while the SA had its base among the unemployed and working class . Politically speaking, the SA was more radical than the SS, with its leaders arguing the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power, but rather needed to implement Strasserism in Germany. Hitler believed that
17380-488: The more reasonable tone the Nazis initially attempted to present after coming to power; unlike Wessel, Westmar preaches class reconciliation and does not alienate his family. It was among the first films to associate dying for Hitler as a glorious death for Germany, resulting in his spirit inspiring his comrades. Sturmabteilung The Sturmabteilung ( German: [ˈʃtʊʁmʔapˌtaɪlʊŋ] ; SA ; lit. ' Storm Division ' or 'Storm Troopers')
17538-441: The most popular party in German federal elections from 1890 onward, although it was surpassed by other parties in terms of seats won in the Reichstag due to the electoral system. In the years leading up to World War I , the SPD remained radical in principle, but moderate in reality. According to Roger Eatwell and Anthony Wright, the SPD became a party of reform, with social democracy representing "a party that strives after
17696-444: The murder because Wessel had used her to spy on those of her former clients who were Communists. The Communists, in turn, claimed that Höhler had been Jänicke's pimp until Wessel stole her from him, and that this was the motive behind the shooting. Jänicke denied these stories, saying that she had never been a spy for Wessel, and that she knew Höhler only as an "acquaintance from the streets". The police and courts believed her, and Höhler
17854-413: The next 48 hours, 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on the way to Wiessee. Many were shot and killed as soon as they were captured, but Hitler decided to pardon Röhm because of his past services to the movement. On July 1, after much pressure from Göring and Himmler, Hitler agreed that Röhm should die. Hitler insisted that Röhm should first be allowed to commit suicide. When Röhm refused to do so, he
18012-600: The novel From Double Eagle to Red Flag by White emigre General Pyotr Krasnov , which is set between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Red Guards ' victory at the end of the Russian Civil War , and which was first published in the Weimar Republic in 1922. According to Wessel's sister, General Krasnov's novel was enormously influential upon her brother. In August 1927, Wessel traveled in
18170-473: The other political parties. By September 1921 the name Sturmabteilung (SA) was being used informally for the group. Hitler was the official head of the Nazi Party by this time. The Nazi Party held a large public meeting in the Munich Hofbräuhaus on November 4, 1921, which attracted many Communists and other enemies of the Nazis. After Hitler had spoken for some time, the meeting erupted into
18328-437: The party ( Turn- und Sportabteilung ), perhaps to avoid trouble with the government. It was by now well recognized as an appropriate, even necessary, function or organ of the party. The future SA developed by organizing and formalizing the groups of ex-soldiers and beer-hall brawlers who were to protect gatherings of the Nazi Party from disruptions from Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists (KPD), and to disrupt meetings of
18486-478: The party leadership, as it charged no membership fees; the SA recruited particularly among the many unemployed in the economic crisis. The SA used violence against shops and shopkeepers stocking competing cigarette brands; it also punished any SA member caught with non-Sturm cigarettes. Sturm marketing was also used to make military service more appealing. Cigarettes were sold with collectible sets of images of historical German army uniforms. In September 1930, as
18644-613: The party platform, political freedom , justice and social solidarity form the basis of social democracy. The SPD is mostly composed of members belonging to either of the two main wings, namely the Keynesian social democrats and Third Way moderate social democrats belonging to the Seeheimer Kreis . While the more moderate Seeheimer Kreis generally support the Agenda 2010 programs introduced by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder ,
18802-769: The party to grow through propaganda, convinced the leadership committee to invest in an advertisement in the Münchener Beobachter (later renamed the Völkischer Beobachter ) for a mass meeting in the Hofbräuhaus , to be held in Munich on October 16, 1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for November 13 in the Eberl-Bräu beer hall, also in Munich. About 130 people attended; there were hecklers, but Hitler's military friends promptly ejected them by force, and
18960-446: The party, which changed its name to the NSDAP ( Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers' Party) in February 1920. The party's executive committee added "Socialist" to the name over Hitler's objections, to help the party appeal to left-wing workers. The precursor to the Sturmabteilung had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Hitler, with an eye to helping
19118-412: The pimp, a last Heil Hitler" in white paint on the cemetery wall. In attendance at Wessel's funeral were Goebbels, who delivered the eulogy, Franz Pfeffer von Salomon , Hermann Göring , and Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia . Prior to the event, Goebbels and Göring had discussed the possibility of Hitler attending. In his diary entry on the day of the funeral, Goebbels recalled: "Hitler isn't coming. Had
19276-451: The politics of the father, avidly supported the monarchist German National People's Party (DNVP), and when he was 15, Wessel joined the DNVP's youth group Bismarckjugend ("Bismarck Youth"), from which he resigned in 1925. At the time, the DNVP was the most influential right-wing party. Wessel soon began to frequent bars and hang out in flophouses , and also founded his own youth group,
19434-445: The remainder of the gang of at least a dozen men waited on the street outside. When Wessel, who was expecting a visit from the leader of another SA Sturm group, opened the door, he was almost immediately shot at point-blank range. Although it was later claimed that Wessel had attempted to draw a gun and so had been shot in self-defense, this was denied by eyewitnesses, who said that he had been given no time to react. The attackers searched
19592-599: The remainder of the group's existence until 1945. The day-to-day running of the SA was conducted by the Stabschef-SA (SA Chief of Staff), a position Hitler designated for Ernst Röhm. After Hitler's assumption of the supreme command of the SA, it was the Stabschef-SA who was generally accepted as the Commander of the SA, acting in Hitler's name. The following personnel held the position of Stabschef-SA : The SA
19750-481: The replacement for the "antiquated" Reichswehr . Röhm's ideal was to absorb the army (then limited by law to no more than 100,000 men) into the SA, which would be a new "people's army". This deeply offended and alarmed the professional army leaders and threatened Hitler's goal of co-opting the Reichswehr . The SA's increasing power and ambitions also posed a threat to other Nazi leaders. Originally an adjunct to
19908-560: The room, removed a pistol from the wardrobe and a rubber truncheon , and fled the scene, returning to the rest of the men in the street. The entire group then returned to their usual nighttime activities. Even as Wessel was lying seriously wounded in hospital, Goebbels was already releasing reports asserting that those who had carried out the attack were "degenerate communist subhumans". Wessel received medical attention and recovered somewhat, but eventually died in hospital on 23 February from sepsis contracted in hospital. Following his death,
20066-637: The situation explained to him over the telephone and he actually declined. Oh well". Goebbels blamed Rudolf Hess for dissuading Hitler from coming, but, in reality, Hitler's decision was based on Göring's advice that the danger of an attack on him in the heart of "Red Berlin" was too great. [Horst Wessel] did a great deal more for the Nazi image as a dead pimp than he had ever done as a live Party member. —Alan Wykes, The Nuremberg Rallies (1970), p. 121 Although Goebbels could not persuade Hitler to attend Wessel's funeral, Hitler did speak at Wessel's grave three years after his death, on 22 January 1933, for
20224-464: The socialist transformation of society by the means of democratic and economic reforms". They emphasise this development as central to understanding 20th-century social democracy, of which the SPD was a major influence. In the 1912 federal election , the SPD won 34.8 per cent of votes and became the largest party in the Reichstag with 110 seats, although it was still excluded from government. Despite
20382-604: The spirits of his men. Wessel was recognized by Goebbels and the Berlin Nazi hierarchy as an effective street speaker; in the first 11 months of 1929, for instance, he spoke at 56 separate NSDAP events. Wessel's Friedrichshain Sturm 5 unit had a reputation as being "a band of thugs, a brutal squad". One of his men described the way they fought against the Communists (KPD): Horst made Adolf Hitler's principle his own: terror can be destroyed only by counterterror ... The places where
20540-399: The state level. From August until October 2010, senior Bundestag member Joachim Poß served as interim Bundestag leader in the absence of Frank-Walter Steinmeier , who was recovering from donating a kidney to his wife. The SPD, at times called SAPD, took part in general elections determining the composition of parliament. For elections up until 1933, the parliament was called
20698-598: The successor of the disbanded Reinhard Regiment. On 22 December 1929, Wessel's brother Werner and three other members of the Sturmabteilung and Nazi Party froze to death on a skiing trip. The Viking League and the Olympia Association were banned in Prussia in May 1926, when it was discovered they were planning a coup against the government. Realizing the League would not achieve its self-defined mission and
20856-403: The tavern which the local Communist Party (KPD) used as its headquarters. As a result of that melée, five Communists were injured, four of them seriously. The Communist newspaper accused the police of letting the Nazis get away but arresting the injured Communists, while the Nazi newspaper claimed that Wessel had been trying to give a speech when shadowy figures emerged and started the fight. Wessel
21014-439: The third floor of 62 Große Frankfurter Straße (today Karl-Marx-Allee ), which he sublet from 29-year-old Elisabeth Salm, whose late husband had been an active Communist Red Front Fighter, although she described herself as apolitical. After a few months, there was a dispute between Salm and Wessel over unpaid rent in which Salm claimed that Wessel had threatened her. The landlady may have feared that she could lose her legal rights to
21172-459: The time Hitler assumed power in January 1933, SA membership had increased to approximately 2,000,000—twenty times as large as the number of troops and officers in the Reichswehr (German Army). After Hitler and the Nazis obtained national power, the SA leadership also became increasingly eager for power. By the end of 1933, the SA numbered more than 3 million men, and many believed they were
21330-408: The traditionally Protestant areas of northern Germany and Brandenburg (with previous exceptions such as Western Pomerania where CDU leader Angela Merkel held her constituency, which the SPD gained in 2021) and a number of university towns. A striking example of the general pattern is the traditionally Catholic Emsland , where the Social Democrats generally gain a low percentage of votes, whereas
21488-628: Was "a monument more lasting than stone and bronze". Sixteen thousand members of the Berlin and Brandenburg SA and SS marched past the Communist Party headquarters on Bülowplatz (now the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ) – the Karl Liebknecht House – in a deliberately provocative act that Goebbels was very proud of having staged, calling it a "terrible defeat" for the Communists and "a proud and heroic victory of
21646-488: Was 'our' Goebbels. Writing in his diaries – he kept two, one for his political life and one for other matters – Wessel described the differences between the groups he had been a part of, and the appeal of being involved in the Nazi Party: Bismarck League, that was pleasure and enjoyment, the Viking League was adventure, the atmosphere of the coup, playing at soldiers, albeit against a background that
21804-607: Was built for them in Munich. With two other party members who headed the list that the party later made of "Those Members of the Movement Who Have Been Murdered", Goebbels did not even make an effort to martyr them. Goebbels saw in Wessel's shooting the possibility of a propaganda bonanza. He eulogized Wessel in his newspaper, Der Angriff , in overtly Christian tones: A Christian Socialist! A man who calls out through his deeds: 'Come to me, I shall redeem you!' ... A divine element works in him. making him
21962-482: Was buried in Berlin on 1 March 1930. Contrary to Nazi claims, there were no attacks on the funeral procession, which Goebbels claimed was watched by 30,000 people. The funeral was filmed and turned into a major propaganda event by the Nazi Party. Wessel was elevated by Goebbels' propaganda apparatus to the status of a leading martyr of the Nazi movement. Many of Goebbels's most effective propaganda speeches were made at gravesides, but Wessel received unusual attention among
22120-414: Was by Goebbels on the model of past Christian martyrs. It was later claimed by the Nazis that Wessel also wrote the music to the song, but it was considered more likely that the tune was in reality adapted from a World War I German Imperial Navy song, and was probably originally a folk song. A German court finally determined in 1937 that Wessel was not the composer of the melody. Hans Westmar: One of
22278-611: Was effectively superseded by the SS, which took part in the purge. The SA remained in existence until after Nazi Germany's final capitulation to the Allies in 1945, after which it was disbanded and outlawed by the Allied Control Council . The term Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919. Originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used infiltration tactics based on being organized into small squads of
22436-545: Was established as a Marxist party in 1875. It underwent a major shift in policies, reflected in the differences between the Heidelberg Program of 1925 which called for "the transformation of the capitalist system of private ownership of the means of production to social ownership" and the Godesberg Program of 1959 which aimed to broaden the party's voter base and to move its political position toward
22594-457: Was estimated to be large in some cities, especially in northern Germany, where the influence of Gregor Strasser and Strasserism was significant. The head of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1934, Rudolf Diels , reported that "70 percent" of the new SA recruits in the city of Berlin had been communists. This is evidenced further by historians, "As for the prior youth group memberships, nearly half of
22752-468: Was forcibly removed from jail and killed by the SA after the Nazis came to power in September 1933. Wessel's funeral was given wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany . A march for which he had written the lyrics was renamed the " Horst-Wessel-Lied " ("Horst Wessel Song"), and became the official anthem of
22910-457: Was held by Social Democrats until the 1920 federal election , when the SPD lost a substantial portion of its support, falling to 22 per cent of votes. After this, the SPD yielded the chancellery to other parties, although it remained part of the government until 1924. Ebert died in 1925 and was succeeded by conservative Paul von Hindenburg . After making gains in the 1928 federal election , the SPD's Hermann Müller became chancellor. As Germany
23068-399: Was made public to add "shock value", although Hitler and other Nazi leaders had known for years about the sexuality of Röhm and other named SA leaders. After the Night of the Long Knives , the SA continued to operate, under the leadership of Stabschef Viktor Lutze , but the group was significantly downsized. Within a year's time, the SA membership was reduced by more than 40%. However,
23226-484: Was marked for death by the KPD, with his face and address featured on street posters. The slogan of the KPD and the Red Front Fighters' League became "Strike the fascists wherever you find them". In September 1929 Wessel met Erna Jänicke [ de ] , a 23-year-old ex-prostitute, in a tavern not far from Alexanderplatz. Later sources claim Wessel earned money as Jänicke's procurer, however this has never been substantiated. On 1 November, she moved into his room on
23384-470: Was moderate and focused on building working-class organizations. In the 1912 federal election , the SPD won 34.8 percent of votes and became the largest party in the Reichstag , but was still excluded from government. After the start of the First World War in 1914, the party split between a pro-war mainstream and the anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party , some members of which later formed
23542-421: Was moving in the direction of tolerating the parliamentary political system, Wessel resigned from it on 23 November 1926 at age 19. Two weeks later, on 7 December, he joined the paramilitary Sturmabteilung ("Storm Detachment" or SA) of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party). He later commented that over two-thirds of his colleagues from the Viking League had already joined
23700-511: Was not without its dangers. But the NSDAP was a political awakening. ... The movement's centrifugal force was tremendous. ... One meeting followed hard on the heels of the last one. ... Street demonstrations, recruiting drives in the press, propaganda trips into the provinces creating an atmosphere of activism and high political tension that could only help the movement. It was Goebbels who had created this atmosphere, which prompted right-wing youth to leave organizations they felt had let them down for
23858-508: Was occupied by French troops in retaliation for Germany's not adhering to its schedule of reparation payments. Schlageter had been executed by the French and his grave later became a Nazi shrine. There were also the 16 Nazis who had died during the Beer Hall Putsch , and who were honored with a public ceremony every year on the anniversary of the Putsch. A memorial, which passers-by had to salute,
24016-563: Was organized into several large regional Gruppen ("Groups"). The group leader answered only to the Stabschef-SA or Hitler. Each Gruppe was made up of subordinate Brigaden ("Brigades"). Subordinate to the Brigaden were the smaller regiment -sized Standarten . SA-Standarten operated in every major German city and were split into even smaller units, known as Sturmbanne and Stürme . The command nexus for
24174-429: Was quickly arrested. After a trial, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for the shooting; the light sentence was the result of the court's finding of extenuating circumstances. Seven accomplices were also found guilty and sentenced to jail. Three years later, after the Nazi ascension to national power in 1933, Höhler was taken out of prison under false pretenses by then Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels and members of
24332-505: Was refounded. It merged with the West German party in 1990, shortly before German reunification . The SPD returned to government under Gerhard Schröder after the 1998 federal election in a coalition with The Greens . This government was re-elected in 2002 but defeated in 2005 . The SPD then became junior partner of a grand coalition with the CDU/CSU until 2009 . After a term in opposition, they again served as junior partner to
24490-463: Was shot by two SS officers, Theodor Eicke and Michael Lippert . Though the names of 85 victims are known, estimates place the total number killed at between 150 and 200 men, the rest of whom remain unidentified. Some Germans were shocked by the executions, but many others perceived Hitler to have restored "order" to the country. Goebbels' propaganda highlighted the "Röhm-Putsch" in the days that followed. The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders
24648-485: Was struck hard by the Great Depression , and unable to negotiate an effective response to the crisis, Müller resigned in 1930. The SPD was sidelined as the Nazi Party gained popularity and conservatives dominated the government, assisted by Hindenburg's frequent use of emergency powers . The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , the SPD's paramilitary wing, was frequently involved in violent confrontations with
24806-588: Was subsequently banned, and operated in exile as the Sopade . After the Second World War from 1939 to 1945, the SPD was re-established. In East Germany , it merged with the KPD under duress to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany . In West Germany , the SPD became one of two major parties alongside the CDU/CSU . In its Godesberg Program of 1959, the SPD dropped its commitment to Marxism, becoming
24964-561: Was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party . It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and
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