Editing Horst Wessel

[[File:Horst Wessel.jpeg|thumb|294x294px]]
{{Quote|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 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!|Excerpt from Wessel's eulogy}}

'''Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel''' (9 October 1907 - 23 February 1930) was a Berlin squadron leader in the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'', the stormtrooper unit of the [[Nazi Party]]. After his murder by members of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] in 1930, he was declared a martyr for the Nazi cause by propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels]], and the propaganda song [[Horst-Wessel-Lied|''Horst-Wessel-Lied'']]'' ''was published in his honour. 

== Villainous actions ==
As an avowed [[Anti-Semitism|Anti-Semite]], Wessel published a number of Nazi propaganda pieces, many of which appeared in the ''Völkischer Beobachter ''propaganda magazine by [[Alfred Rosenberg]]. He was also the leader of a notoriously violent SA squadron responsible for attacks against Communists and other opponents of Nazism, resulting in a campaign of street violence as Communists clashed with the SA and other right-wing extremist groups such as the [[Viking League]] and the [[ Black Reichswehr|Black Reichswehr]], both of which Wessel was a member of. Wessel was marked for death by the Communist Party as a result of his participation in the street violence. Wessel's main tactic of initiating violence against Communists was to use anti-Communist rhetoric to provoke Communists into attacking, allowing his squadron to brutalise and often kill them. Wessel was also supposedly a pimp, and allegedly earned money procuring clients for prostitute Erna Jänicke. 

== Murder ==
While Wessel was living with (and supposedly procuring clients for) Erna Jänicke, his landlady, Elisabeth Salm, attempted to evict them both, but they refused to leave. Salm then appealed to the Commnunist Party of Germany, of whom her late husband had been a member, and asked them to evict Jänicke, a task they agreed to after hearing Wessel was involved. 

At around ten o'clock on 23 February 1930, Wessel shot in the head by Albrecht Höhler outside his apartment. His death was a propaganda triumph for the Nazis, who used it in anti-Communist propaganda and made Wessel a martyr. Höhler was sentenced to six years in prison for the murder, but was extrajudicially executed by SA members after being frogmarched out of jail following the Nazi rise to power in 1933.
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