Albrecht Höhler

Albrecht "Ali" Höhler (April 30, 1898 – September 20, 1933) was a member of the Red Front Fighters Association (RFB). He is known for the killing of Horst Wessel, a local leader in Berlin of the Nazi Party's SA stormtroopers. After the Nazis came to power, Höhler was taken out of prison and assassinated by the SA.

Mug shot of Albrecht Höhler, 1933.[1]

Life

Born in Mainz,[2] Höhler was a carpenter and a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1924. He was also a member of the Red Front Fighter Association and continued to be active in the RFB after its prohibition in 1929.[3] By 1930, he was residing in the Mitte borough of Berlin.[4]

Killing of Horst Wessel

The Red Front Fighter Alliance was alerted about a rental dispute between the communist affiliated landlord Elisabeth Salm and her tenant Horst Wessel on January 14, 1930. According to information revealed in court, the notorious SA man was targeted for a "proletarian beating". This action was most likely politically motivated; Horst Wessel was called out as the "murderer of workers" in neighborhood posters put up by the Communist Party. Wessel was involved in numerous violent actions against communists in Berlin and was well known to Nazi Party Gauleiter (regional leader) Joseph Goebbels.[5] Since it was known that Wessel had a firearm, Höhler took his gun in the RFB-led confrontation with Wessel. Höhler later stated in court that he shot Wessel as he reached for his pocket. The seriously injured Wessel died on February 23, 1930, as a result of the gunshot wound.

Imprisonment and assassination

Höhler first fled to Prague, but then returned to Berlin where he was arrested.

On September 26, 1930, Höhler was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years imprisonment at Wohlau Prison. After the seizure of power by the Nazi Party, Höhler was transferred to a Gestapo prison in Berlin, allegedly to interrogate him about a retrial. He demanded to be returned to Wohlau.

On September 20, 1933, Höhler was taken on the orders of SA Gruppenführer Karl Ernst by three detectives, including the SA-member Willi Schmidt. He was transferred from the police prison at Alexanderplatz on the basis of a Gestapo signed delivery order. Near Potsdamer Platz, several more vehicles approached the prisoner van. The vehicle column drove towards Frankfurt on the Oder. About 12 km from Frankfurt, the column stopped. Höhler was ordered to leave the transport and was led by a group of at least eight people away from the road to a nearby forest. There, Gruppenführer Ernst gave a short speech in which he condemned Höhler to death as murderer of Horst Wessel. Höhler was then shot by several of those present near the Berlin-Frankfurt Chaussee. The body was barely buried on the spot. The official report on the incident allegedly stated that the transport had been intercepted on the street by a group of seven to eight SA men and that the officers had been forced to surrender Höhler under threat of violence, which had then been abducted with an unknown destination.

Later investigation

After an investigation of the Berlin prosecutor's office in the 1960s, the murderers of Höhler were identified as Ernst, his adjutant Walter von Mohrenschildt, the SA-Standartenführer Richard Fiedler, the Sturmbannführer Willi Markus, the Gruppenführer Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia,[6] the Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels (who veiled the facts in his memoirs), the detectives Maikowski and Pohlenz and possibly the legal adviser of the SA group in Berlin-Brandenburg, Gerd Voss. The fatal shots were probably made by Ernst and Mohrenschildt, according to the findings of the prosecutor. Ernst was then said to have organized the murder on the orders of Ernst Röhm, who had in turn received orders from Adolf Hitler that the killer of Wessel was to be summarily shot.

In 1933, investigations into the murder of Höhler were quickly stopped due to political pressure. Even the police's official report to the prosecutor stated that Diels falsely disclosed that Höhler had been kidnapped from police custody and that "the act was perpetrated on Höhler's person for special reasons." After the resumption of investigations in the 1960s, the true course of events were discovered by interrogating Willi Schmidt and the chauffeur of Karl Ernst. The investigation of the surviving perpetrators Schmidt, Pohlenz, Markus and Fiedler were finally discontinued in 1969 because they could only prove aiding and abetting the murder, which was already time-barred at that time.

References
  1. Siemens, Daniel (2013). The Making of a Nazi Hero: The Murder and Myth of Horst Wessel. Burnett, David (trans.). London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0857733139.
  2. Karny, Thomas. ""Aus Eifersucht umgelegt"". Archiv (in German). Archived from the original on 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  3. "Höhler, Albrecht u.a - Lexikon der Politischen Strafprozesse". Lexikon der Politischen Strafprozesse (in German). Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  4. Knobloch, Heinz (1993) Der arme Epstein – Wie der Tod zu Horst Wessel kam. Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag. ISBN 3-86153-048-1
  5. Mix, Andreas. "Wie der Student und Propagandamusiker Horst Wessel zum Vorzeige-Märtyrer der Nazis wurde: Er liebte eine Prostituierte". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  6. "Der Nazi-Prinz". Einestages.
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