SA honour guard at the funeral of Horst Wessel, Nikolaifriedhof, Berlin, 1 March, 1930.  Goebbels delivered the oration over the grave (a useful propaganda opportunity not unfamiliar to Irish Republicans).  A legend (however dodgy) is born ... Best regards, JR.

Horst Wessel funeral.

Son of a minister of religion and law school dropout Horst Wessel in SA kit, 1928-'29.  Wessel appears to have been an intelligent young man, but a fanatical National Socialist and recognized protégé of Berlin NSDAP Gauleiter, Joseph Goebbels.  A very promising Nazi career came to an end on 23 February, 1930, when he has mortally wounded in an attack by an acquaintance of his landlady, resulting (most probably) from a dispute over unpaid rent.  His assailant happened to be a Communist Party member, a friend of the landlady's deceased Communist husband.

Wessel's prominence in the Goebbels/Goering-controlled Berlin SA, the (probably coincidental) fact that his killer was a Communist, and his authorship of the lyrics to a SA marching song that became known as "Die Fahne Hoch" (Raise high the Flag) or simply "The Horst Wessel Song", made the dead Wessel an ideal subject for propaganda for his former patron, Goebbels.  Wessel was given a martyr's funeral by the Berlin NSDAP and SA, with Goebbels and (perhaps a little surprisingly) Goering in attendance.  The Nazi propaganda machine, supervised by Goebbels, elevated Wessel to the status of NSDAP sainthood - even to that of demi-god.  He was promoted as the exemplar of the Brownshirt activist, loyal even unto death.  This image may have come as something of a surprise to many of the SA and Berlin NSDAP activists who attended his funeral - but the Great Lie almost immediately covered over any doubts.  The "Horst Wessel Song" quickly became the anthem of the SA and of the Party; its distinctive air is mingled with the airs of Wagner in the opening scene of Leni Reifenstahl's  masterpiece, "Triumph of the Will".

"I made the Iliad from such a local row; Gods make their own importance" ("Epic", Patrick Kavanagh).  Best regards, JR.

Song in his heart ...

The Duce presents an Italian decoration to Franz-Xaver Schwartz, long-time Treasurer of the National Socialist German Workers Party, in the course of his 1937 visit to Berlin.  Schwartz is a somewhat enigmatic character.  A very early member of the Nazi Party (1922, original Party no. 6), and a Beer Hall Putchist (note somewhat unusually worn Blood Order medal on right breast).  He was evidently an ultra-loyal Nazi, and ran the Party's finances for many years, both before and during the Nazi accession to power, with an efficiency testified to by the lack of known scandal associated with this function.  However, as he died in prison before he could be properly interviewed (let alone tried), and as most of his papers were burned at the end of the war, our knowledge of how exactly the Party's finances worked is patchy, to say the least.  Apart from his status among the "oldest" of the old Party fighters, he enjoyed the distinction of being one of only four people afforded the rank of Oberstgruppenfuhrer-SS (Colonel-General), and the only Oberstgruppenfuhrer whose rank was counted as honorary.   Best regards, JR.