On June 13, 1936 at a Nazi rally, a man gave a crossed-arm stance Amidst a sea of men literally fall over themselves while giving the ?Seig Heil? during Hitler’s christening of a new German war vessel the Horst Wessel.? This took place at the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The photo has become one of the most symbolic photos of World War II representing Independence and Bravery for generations to come.
Here’s a fun fact: Horst Wessel? would later be adopted by the United States, it is now called “the Eagle” and is part of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The ?Sieg Heil?(meaning ?hail victory?) , is one of the most recognizable and offensive hand gestures in the world, right after the middle finger. I was a mandatory salute for all German citizens to demonstrate loyalty to the Fuhrer, his party, and the German nation.
There is still some debate over the origin of the Nazi salute. It’s widely believed that it was originally used in ancient Rome as a military salute. Many Nazis at the time would not accept that explanation, as they considered the Italian origins to be un-Germanic. They instead tried to adopt the tradition after the fact stating that they used the salute prior to the Italians. Oh, the politics of symbolic fascist hand gestures, but I’ll save that for another article.
So in 1931 A man named August Landmesser, joined the Nazi party. He worked his way up the ranks of what soon became the only legal political affiliation allowed in Germany.
Two years later Landmesser fell in madly in love with a beautiful woman named Irma Eckler seen below
This young and upcoming Nazi seemed to have the wind at his back, except for one tiny issue: Landmesser’s Fiancee was Jewish. After the party discovered his engagement to a Jewish woman, Landmesser was expelled from the Nazi party.
Landmesser and Eckler went on to file a marriage application in Hamburg, but the union was denied under the new Nuremberg Laws.
The couple had their first daughter, Ingrid, in October of 1935.? In 1937 Landmesser and Eckler tried to escape to Denmark but was caught. Landmesser was tried for Rassenschande roughly translated it means “dishonoring the race”.
During the trail, Landmesser claimed that he didn’t know Eckler was Jewish and was acquitted the following year. Landmesser was warned after his acquittal to stop seeing Eckler, but he ignored this warning. Two months later they arrested both Landmesser and Eckler again, but this time the charges stuck.
Eckler was arrested by the Gestapo and held at the prison camp Fuhlsbuttel, where she gave birth to a second daughter, named Irene. From there she was sent to at least three more concentration camps before she was finally sent to the Nazi Euthanasia Centre at Bernburg. Eckler is believed to be among the 14,000 murdered at that camp. She was pronounced legally dead on the date of April 28, 1942.
Landmesser was thrown in prison, he was later forced to work in a German shipyard in 1939. He would never see his wife or children again. After the shipyards, Landmesser was drafted and sent to the Croatian front where he was declared M.I.A. It’s believed that he died on the front.
Wasn?t that a sad but beautiful symbolic story? Well like so many urban legends, this may have only been a story. It seems that in 1995 when the photo was discovered by a German newspaper, the paper sent out front page edition requesting information on the man in the photo.
A woman claiming to be Irene Eckler, the daughter of August Landmesser came forward and told an incredible story fit for a movie on the lifetime channel. However this story may have nothing to do with the photo.
You see originally the German newspaper got the date of the photograph wrong. This was the edition Irene Eckler replied to. The article originally stated that the photo was taken in 1939, however, they later made a correction saying the photo was taken in 1936. As far as anyone knows, Landmesser did not work at the shipyards until 1939, and there are no records of him being in that area for any reason.
A smaller minority say the man in the photo was this man, Gustov Wegert.
Wegert was a committed Christian and did not believe in the ideals of the Nazi party. According to his certificate of employment, Wegert worked at the same shipyard from 1934 to 1945. It is said that he never hid his beliefs, but was never persecuted by the Nazis. He died in 1959, 23 years after the iconic photo was taken. Wegert’s story is admittedly not as intriguing as Landmesser’s.
If Wegert’s story is the real story behind the photo, it may prove just how easily history can be manipulated by a popular and widely excepted story. How many stories like this do you think are in the history books we learned from and teach to our children? That is something to really think about. Here’s a video on this story.
Here’s another fun fact for you.
