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| Attribution |
As you might expect from the fancy duds, Horst was an officer in the Nazi SA, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. When he was a teen during the 1920s, he founded his own youth group, the Knappschaft, to "raise our boys to be real German men". He also joined the Wiking Liga, which had the purpose of "the revival of Germany on a national and ethnic basis through the spiritual education of its members".
Hmm. I think I read something similar on Twitter recently.
During the Weimar Republic, German political parties engaged in street violence against other parties. Horst was one of those who engaged in street fighting, mostly with the Communists. Once he had joined the SA at the wizened age of 19, he engaged in fun activities like public speaking, recruiting, the Nuremberg rallies, terror and murder. In January, 1930, Horst was injured, eventually resulting in his death, when a Communist knocked on his door and shot him point-blank.
The Nazis, led by propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, made Horst a Nazi martyr, which he remained until the end of the Third Reich in 1945. The Nazis made films about him, named plazas and ships after him, and made The Horst Wessel Song, which he had written before he died, a mainstay of Nazi gatherings. Horst died before the Nazis came to power, but they used his death to inspire their hatred for the next 15 years.
No reason, but here's an interesting article about Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by Capitol police while trying to lead a charge into the U.S. House Chambers where members of Congress were sheltering during the insurrection on January 6, 2021. You should read it.
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