Martyrs for Fascism

Horst Wessel and Charlie Kirk

“Berlin, 23 February 1930. Comrade SA-Sturmführer Horst Wessel passed away today after succumbing to wounds received during a cowardly assassination attempt in his Berlin home, coordinated by members of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Wessel’s name now joins those of the Third Reich’s greatest heroes and martyrs, who march in spirit among us and will not be forgotten.

Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel was a Christian Socialist — a man called out by the Lord to help others through his good deeds. 'Come to me, I shall redeem you!' he was heard saying to new recruits. A divine element worked through Wessel, making him the man he was, causing him to act always in a Christian way. It was as if he saw himself as the person who must set the example, offering himself up as a sacrifice. ‘Well, then, I am ready!’ he declared, when standing in the face of death.” — compilation of translated obituary quotes from Nazi publications

Horst Wessel leads his SA formation.

This is the sort of obituary for Horst Wessel one might have come across almost anywhere in the German Reich of 1930, notably in Nazi-aligned publications like Der Angriff, Joseph Goebbels’ newspaper, or in the Völkischer Beobachter.

Nazi propagandist, then Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, would artfully reorder the details of Wessel’s death, changing the story of his rent dispute and the thug sent to resolve it, to one of a gang of communists hellbent on killing Wessel over past disputes — a scenario whereby Albrecht "Ali" Höhler was sent up to Wessel’s apartment, while a group of fellow communists stayed below as lookouts.

Wessel would become the sacrificial lamb for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), someone who stood up to the communists and who died as a result of his bravery. Goebbels’ goal: to stir up hatred toward communists and other perceived political enemies and build support for the Nazi cause. Horst Wessel was the perfect vehicle for Goebbels’ gaslighting — he was not widely known and therefore, the myth of his life and assassination could be embellished without challenge.

All of the NSDAP-aligned newspapers of the time were in sync on this propaganda campaign; together, they turned Wessel into the party’s mythical martyr, the purpose of which was to obscure the brutal reality of their goings on. Goebbels brilliantly transformed Wessel from a dreaded street thug, law school dropout, and pimp (for his prostitute girlfriend), and someone who couldn’t make rent on a one-room apartment in the slums of Berlin, to a heroic blood witness who, having bravely, though unsuccessfully, fended off communists, had died for the NSDAP cause.

Nazi publications also took this opportunity to portray Wessel’s attackers as “degenerate communist subhumans,” whom the party was justified in attacking and killing. Wessel’s sacrificial death was used primarily to set an example for how all Germans should fight (and die, if that be the consequence) for the Nazis.

A series of campaigns, orchestrated by Goebbels, would subsequently generate widespread veneration for Wessel. The Horst-Wessel-Lied, with lyrics by Wessel himself, was printed by numerous publishers, and recordings of the song were disseminated widely. This marching song, also known as “Die Fahne Hoch,” would go on to become the party’s anthem and eventually the co-national anthem for Germany after the Nazis assumed power.

The Vienna Boys’ Choir singing the Horst-Wessel-Lied for Hitler.

Goebbels organized a massive public funeral for the party’s young martyr with 30,000 people lining the streets of Berlin, a spectacle meant to bring attention to their cause and to give the illusion of there being a hero in their midst. Wessel’s purported bravery was a testament to the NSDAP’s noble causes, ideals worth dying for. Horst Wessel was cast as a man who represented the German people and their values, who had found his higher purpose in serving the Nazi cause.

Horst Wessel's funeral procession in Berlin..

Many Nazi faithful made a pilgrimage to Wessel’s grave, including Hitler.

Horst Wessel monuments, statues, boats, and shrines could be found all over Germany. Places and institutions were named after him, and there were streets, squares, and even a Berlin district (Horst-Wessel-Stadt) that bore his name.

The Nazis would go on to pump out copious amounts of propaganda in homage to Wessel — films, books, busts, figurines, postcards, and coins — and they organized public ceremonies celebrating his fake heroism. “Hans Westmar,” a popular film trilogy romanticizing the Nazi rise to power, is loosely based on Goebbels’ fictionalized story of Horst Wessel.

The real Horst Wessel. Is that his proud mother in the background?

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TIMELINE: The Rise of Nazi Dominance in Germany

• February 23, 1930: Horst Wessel dies. Nazis spread propaganda mythologizing his death, turning him into the party's most famous martyr, which garnered mass support for their cause and allowed them to rationalize the violence to follow.

• September 14, 1930: Nazis gain 6 million votes in national polling to emerge as the second largest party in Germany.

• Nazis capitalize on Germany’s widespread unemployment and economic instability. The Reichstag becomes the largest party in the German parliament.

• January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor, marking a rapid increase and consolidation of Nazi power which would in turn lead to the transformation of Germany into a dictatorship.

• March 23, 1933: the German Enabling Act of 1933 ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich”) is passed and allows Hitler’s government to enact new laws without getting the consent of the Reichstag or the President, effectively ending democracy in Germany. There are numerous correlations here to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and his stifling of Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as his dismantling of the vast bureaucratic arm of the government. Trump and the GOP have effectively created a federal government with one branch: the Executive Branch, bringing the United States a hair’s breadth from becoming a fascist state.

• 1933 onward: Germany’s facist state grows and strengthens. Nazis gain control of all media, and use mass rallies to stir ultranationalism and promote the concept of superiority of the German nation and Aryan race. There is much demonizing of opponents and non-White, non-Christian citizens and other marginalized populations.

• Discrimination is institutionalized, starting with the purging of Jews, women and political opponents from the workplace, the same being banned from civil service and the judiciary.

• Concentration camps are established in March of 1933. Dachau becomes the model for all future camps.

• Censorship and control of educational institutions and industry become the norm.

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”I’ve seen so many of you say, so many on social media talk about “for Charlie.” We must do this for Charlie. For Charlie, we will speak the truth every single day. For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness. For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter even when staring down the barrel of a gun.

For Charlie, we will remember that it is better to stand on our feet defending the United States of America and defending the truth than it is to die on our knees. My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America and he is a martyr for the Christian faith.

May our Heavenly Father give us the courage to live as Charlie lived. That is what we must do for Charlie. You ran a good race, my friend. I love you. We’ve got it from here. We’ve got it. We’ve got it. We’ve got it.” — JD Vance eulogy at the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service, 9/21/25

The full transcript of JD Vance’s eulogy for Charlie Kirk can be found here. His speech makes clear the GOP no longer considers there to be a separation of church and state.

And so, the propaganda begins…

For more on Charlie Kirk, read “Saving My Tears.”

And thus the United States embarks on the road to fascism, starting with a convenient messiah. The correlations with Nazi Germany are uncanny and would lead one to believe there are those in Project 2025 and the Trump administration who would follow Hitler’s 1925 political manifesto, Mein Kampf, verbatim.

If there is any mourning to be done, it should be for our democracy, which is nearing its end.