Thursday, April 9, 2015

THE CARPENTER ASSASSIN JOHANN GEORG ELSER (JANUARY 4, 1903 TO APRIL 9, 1945)



            70 years ago on this date, April 9, 1945, the German Resistance member, Johann Georg Elser was executed for his role in attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. We, the comrades of Unit 1012, recognize him as a murdered victim and also a hero where we will not forget him. We will post information about him from Wikipedia and other links.

Johann Georg Elser

Born
4 January 1903
Hermaringen, Württemberg
Died
9 April 1945 (aged 42)
Dachau concentration camp
Cause of death
Executed for murder
Nationality
German
Occupation
Carpenter
Known for
Attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler

Johann Georg Elser (4 January 1903 – 9 April 1945) was a German cabinet maker who planned and carried out an elaborate assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi leaders, on 8 November 1939 at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. He was held without trial as a special prisoner of Adolf Hitler for over five years until executed in Dachau concentration camp.

Background

Family and early life

Career and social life

Ideology and religion

Prelude

Motive

Plot

Bürgerbräukeller

Bombing

Hitler's escape

Honouring the victims

Arrest

Investigation

Interrogation in Munich

Interrogation in Berlin

Interrogation report

Nazi propaganda

Torture, drugs and hypnosis

Reconstruction of the bomb

Aftermath

Consequences for associates

Imprisonment

Death

Conspiracy theories

Legacy

In contrast to the conspirators of 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler, Georg Elser was barely acknowledged in the official commemorative culture of the Federal Republic of Germany until the 1990s. A breakthrough to a positive way of looking at Elser came with the publication of a biography by Hellmut G. Haasis in 1999. followed by an expanded and revised edition in 2009. Since 2001, every two years the Georg-Elser Prize is awarded for courage, and on the occasion of Elser's 100th Birthday, Deutsche Post issued a special stamp in January 2003.

As well there are many streets and places named after Elser in Germany and several monuments. Claus Christian Malzahn wrote in 2005: 'That he was for so long ignored by the historians of both East and West Germany, merely goes to show just how long it took Germany to become comfortable with honestly confronting its own history. Johann Georg Elser, though, defied ideological categorization—and for that reason, he is a true German hero.'

In 2008 a music venue called Georg Elser Hallen was demolished in Munich. However in 2014 there were five venues in Munich that come under the name Georg Elser Hallen. In 2011 a 17-metre (56 ft) steel sculpture of Georg Elser was unveiled in Berlin, by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth. The memorial, which cost 200,000 euros, was built on Mr Hochhuth's initiative, after the city authorities dismissed the project as too expensive. In the end, the Berlin state senate financed the Elser sculpture. In September 1979 the Bürgerbräukeller was demolished. On its site now stands the GEMA Building, the Gastrieg Cultural Centre and the Munich City Hilton Hotel. A plaque in the pavement at the entrance to the GEMA Building marks the position of the pillar that concealed Elser's bomb.

The story of Elser is commemorated in the 2014 film 13 Minutes (German: Elser) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.

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