In April 1933, Annmarie Kohler, a doctor in the town of Pirna wrote about how ‘fanatical’ the staff at her hospital had become. Kohler said ‘They sit around the radio and when the “Horst Wessel Song” is played … they all stand up and perform the raised-arm Nazi salute.’ That salute became a part of every day life for many German families during the time Hitler was the leader. A letter was sent to the ‘honourable Führer’ from a family in Mannheim in March 1933 which read: ‘Our little Rita would like to send her regards to the Führer with a Heil Hitler! For that reason, we have taken the liberty of enclosing a photo of her performing the German salute. She is ten months old and is the youngest of five. Whenever we show her a picture of Uncle Adolf, she immediately salutes.’

In this programme I’m going to tell you who Horst Wessel was, and how the US Coast Guard comes to be still operating this very Nazi tall ship today. Stay tuned. So you’ll know the music, called the Horst Wessel.

Tag words: Annmarie Kohler; Horst Wessel Song; Nazi Party; National Socialism; Adolf Hitler; Rudolf Hess; Horst Wessel; Communist; Red Front; SA; Sturm Abteilung; Sturm Abteilung; Joseph Goebbels; Heinz Neumann; Erna Jaenicke; Ali Höhler; Erwin Rückert; Der Angriff; Horst Wessel Lied; Third Reich; World War 2; Blohm und Voss Shipyard; Bismarck; Parteiadler; Gorch Fock Class; Kaiserliche Marine; Tido Holtkamp; B-17 bombers; Bei Mir Bistu Shein; St Louis Blues; Billi Holliday; Albert Leo Schlageter; swastika; US Coast Guard; Eagle; President Truman; President Nixon; President Kennedy