Horst Wessel, celebrated by the Nazis as a martyr, has been coming up a lot the last few days

Numerous observers including Roy Edroso have been reflecting on the similarities between the celebration of the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk – whose Presidentially-sponsored memorial this past weekend was from any decent Christian standard was sacrilegious as well as the kind of hatemongering which was Kirk’s signature political function – has invited comparisons to the National Socialist cultish celebration of Horst Wessel.

Roy Edroso gives his own distinctive take in Worst Wessel.

The ever-sober Encyclopedia Britannica describes Wessel:

A perennial student and low-life bohemian, Wessel joined the Nazi Party in 1926 and became a member of the SA (Storm Troopers). In 1930 political enemies, possibly Communists, killed him in a brawl in his room in the Berlin slums. Nazi propagandists, led by Joseph Goebbels, elevated him to martyrdom. (1)

Lindley Hanlon described in 1975 how the Nazis in a 1937, after the Horst Wessel martyr image had been promoted for years, had developed the martyr cult to the point that “the cult of heroism surrounding Horst Wessel had been eclipsed by Hitler's own myth builders and their stress on formal structures and organization, on symbol and personality, on paramilitary organization of the masses, and ritual ceremonies dominated by Hitler.” (2)

If the Trump cult continues to use Kirk as such a martyr figure, that’s the likely course for the his martyrdom narrative to take.

Jay Baird describes the martyrdom image as the Nazis used it:

The development of the myth of resurrection and return must be viewed against the background of Nazi ideology and practice. The epic of the fighting, dying warrior who through his sacrifice won not only glory but eternal life struck a responsive chord in the period. Party leaders [symbolically] baptised their following in the blood of the fallen, and they inspired them with irrational motifs which, taken together, formed a coherent ideological structure. Based on the primacy of Aryan racial superiority and the theory of ’Jewish-Bolshevik subhumanity’, the Hitlerian world view proferred a heroic, elitist, warrior ethos and explained the battle for Germany and the soul of the Volksgeineinschaft by employing neo-romantic, quasi-religious themes. (3)

And today’s Trump-cult Christian nationalists certainly have a lot in content in their usage of the martyr theme, though Hitler’s National Socialism was not an explicitly Christian ideology As Baird observes:

[Joseph] Goebbels learned through his experiences as a graveside orator that through the proper use of propaganda, defeat can be transformed into victory. The homilies he delivered in Berlin cemeteries over the bodies of slain SA men [Brownshirts] celebrated the noble dead fighter theme, and occasioned an emotional response among those present which approached religious transcendence. Utilizing rhapsodic flights from reality, Goebbels merged Nazi myths with pagan warrior motifs, and shrouded the whole in the incense of mysticism.

With Trump himself, his thinking is so disjointed and he is so lacking in self-control on top of being about as impious a nominal Christian as it is possible to imagine that he can’t evoke “religious transcendence” beyond unquestioning adoration of his own reality-TV persona.

But Trump also has the performer’s feel for what works, and he understands the point of symbolism. As Baird writes, Goebbels “was convinced that generalities do not move the masses; only easily identifiable symbols would serve such a purpose.” And the image of the martyred Horst Wessel functioned well for that purpose.

But it did take some imagination and the gullibility of many of Hitler’s fans to make that work: “Goebbels delivered Wessel from a banal death in questionable circumstances to an ennoblement as a warrior hero, a prince among the Party’s immortals.” Baird writes, “Wessel was able to transform a small pack of intimidated, ragamuffin SA [Brownshirt] men [in his Friedrichshain district of Berlin] into a fighting corps of desperadoes.”

One wonders if some German liberal columnist of his day mourned Wessel as someone who “practiced politics the right way,” as Ezra Klein did for Charlie Kirk.

Russel Lemmons gives this description of how Goebbels used the theme of martyrdom in his propaganda paper, Der Angriff [The Attack]:

Der Angriff also had much to say about Nazi victims of political violence. They were ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances and rose to the occasion. Horst Wessel, for example, had not intended to martyr himself for his cause. In the end, however, he was willing to do so if it came to that. Germany, not his own welfare, was his primary interest. Even on his deathbed [in Goebbels’ propaganda version], Wessel's foremost concern was the success of the movement. Those who remembered him, Der Angriff contended, would do him a great service by continuing his mission.

The paper consistently used Christian themes in portraying Nazi martyrs. They had died not to destroy Germany but to save it. They were "holy sacrifices." A storm trooper, like Christ, died so that others might live. ... As long as their ideas lived, these men would not truly be dead.

These themes were powerful propaganda weapons. They depicted Nazism as a dynamic movement. People were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for its ideas. To espouse Nazism was, therefore, by implication to adopt a noble cause. [my emphasis] (4)

The LA Progressive compares Kirk and Wessel as far-right martyr figures in this report: (5)

Notes:

(1) Ray, Michael and Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2025): "Horst Wessel". Encyclopedia Britannica, 09/10/2025. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horst-Wessel> (Accessed: 2025-23-09).

(2) Hanlon, Lindley (2025): Film Document and the Myth of Horst Wessel: A Sampler of Nazi Propaganda. Film & History 3:Sept 1975). <https://doi.org/10.1353/flm.1975.a402696>

(3) Baird, Jay (2025): Goebbels, Horst Wessel, and the Myth of Resurrection and Return. Journal of Contemporary History 17:1982, 633-650.

(4) Lemmons, Russel (1994): Goebbels and Der Angriff, 79. Lexingtonn: University Press of Kentucky.

(54) How Charlie Kirk Echoes Horst Wessel. LA Progressive YouTube channel 09/21/2025. <https://youtu.be/9dETFTC2Ehs?si=BtOpxsxzpaWRZfel> (Accessed: 2025-24-09).