Horst Wessel Flag

Possibly the most important Third Reich flag for sale in thirty years.

Horst Wessel was a young SA-Sturmführer, when he was murdered by Berlin Communists in 1930. After Wessel's death, Propaganda Chief, Goebbels, turned Wessel into a household name. By 1939, every city, town, even many villages, had a street named Horst Wessel. There were ships named after him, and more obviously, the SA Berlin headquarters was named the Horst Wessel House. The SS named one of their divisions after him, and Wessel's old Berlin SA regiment were given his name as a special honour. This flag is from the 4th Company of Wessel's SA Regiment , and is the only known surviving flag today.

Item description: German SA Sturmfahne for sale. The SA flag for the 4th Company, Horst Wessel Standarte,  Berlin.

The SA Sturmfahne with black mobile swastika, white roundel, on red field. The flag with typical mid- to late- 1930s silver-aluminium fringing. Cantons to the upper left corners. The canton in black (gruppe colour for Berlin-Brandenburg) with white chain-stitched Horst Wessel name and number '4.' All the silver-aluminium mounting rings intact. The original 'P'-rated RZM paper label attached to one side. Large off-white label to the upper left, near and off-side corners reads 'A.S.Collection' and Lot 28, respectively.

Condition report: Overall very good-to-excellent condition. The Horst Wessel flag looks fresh. The colours bright. A few small moth holes.

Status: Rare. Period objects and documents relating to the Third Reich martyr, Horst wessel, are rare, and coveted.

Provenance: Ex-Andrew Walker collection. The Horst Wessel flag sold, [with Walker's collection], by duty of the family's solicitors  [1990s]. One collection since the 1990s.

Notes regarding the Andrew Walker Collection: dedicated collector and vexillologist,  Andrew Walker specialised in the SA [late 1960s]. He was particularly interested - and knowledgeable- with regards to German flags and standards. The Horst Wessel sturmfahne [for sale] was believed to be one of Walker's most treasured flags.

Walker is best known for his publication, Flags and Banners of the Third Reich, [1973]. He died in a car crash in 1982.

Background to Horst Wessel: Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel, born 9th October 1907. He was  killed by Communists on  23rd February 1930. Wessel was a local [Berlin] leader of the Nazi Party's "stormtroopers" – the Sturmabteilung or "SA." An aspiring legal student, Wessel is best known for being made into a martyr for the Nazi cause by Joseph Goebbels following his murder.

Wessel  joined several youth- and  right-wing paramilitary groups, but later resigned and joined the SA; the brown-shirted street-fighting stormtroopers of the Nazi Party. He rose to command several SA squads and districts, prominently, the Berlin-based SA Standarte 5. On 14 January 1930, he was shot in the head by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Albrecht ["Ali"] Höhler was arrested and charged with his murder. Höhler's six-year prison sentence was curtailed by the SA:  he was forcibly removed from jail, and killed.

Wessel's funeral received wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany. The march for which he'd penned the lyrics was renamed "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ["Horst Wessel Song"] in his honour: it also became the official  Nazi Party Anthem. After Hitler came to power, [1933], the Anthem [and  first verse of the "Deutschlandlied"  - or "Deutschland über alles"], was selected as the co-national anthem for Germany.