WESSEL, HORST

born Sept. 9, 1907, Bielefeld, Ger. died Feb. 23, 1930, Berlin martyr of the German Nazi movement, celebrated in the song Horst Wessel Lied, adopted as an anthem by Nazi Germany. A 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.