Goetz Medal - Kienast 300. Albert Leo Schlageter
Zohar
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Kienast 300. 1923. Albert Leo Schlageter. 60mm. Cast Bronze.
Obv: Albert Leo Schlageter, head, front. A flaming torch and laurel branch lie below. Inscription "Glow Holy Flame! Glow! Glow! Never Die Out For The Fatherland"
Rev: Schlageter standing proudly before the French firing squad. Inscription, "Murdered by the French". Dated, May 26, 1923.
Albert Leo Schlageter (12 August 1894 — 26 May 1923) was a member of the German Freikorps. After the outbreak of the First World War, he became a voluntary emergency worker for the military. During the war, he participated in several battles earning the Iron Cross both first and second class. After the war he became a member of a right-wing Catholic student group. Soon he also joined the Freikorps and took part in the Kapp Putsch and other battles between military and communist factions that were active in Germany. In 1922 his Freikorps unit in Upper Silesia merged with the Nazi Party. During the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, he led an illegal "combat patrol" that tried to resist the French occupying forces by means of sabotage. A number of trains were derailed in order to disrupt supplies to the occupiers. On 7 April 1923 Schlageter was betrayed, possibly from within his own ranks, and was arrested (on 8 April) by the French. Tried by court-martial on 7 May 1923, he was condemned to death. On the morning of 26 May he was executed on the Golzheimer heath near Düsseldorf.
After his execution he became a hero to some sections of the German population. Immediately after his death a Schlageter Memorial Society was formed, which agitated for the creation of a monument to honour him. The German Communist Party sought to debunk the emerging mythology of Schlageter by circulating a speech by Karl Radek portraying him as an honourable but misguided figure. It was the Nazi party who most fully exploited the Schlageter story. Hitler refers to him in his book "Mein Kampf". Rituals were constructed to commemorate his death, and in 1931 the Memorial Society succeeded in getting a monument erected near the site of his execution. This was a giant cross placed amid sunken stone rings. Other smaller memorials were also created.
After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Schlageter became one of the principal heroes of the regime and its propaganda machine. Hanns Johst, the Nazi playwright, wrote Schlageter (1933), a heroic drama about his life dedicated to Hitler as a theatrical manifesto of Nazism. Several important military ventures were also named for him, including the Schlageter fighter-wing of the Luftwaffe, and the naval vessel Albert Leo Schlageter. His name was also given as a title to two SA groups. After the war, the main Schlageter memorial was destroyed by occupying Allied forces as part of the de-nazification process.
Obv: Albert Leo Schlageter, head, front. A flaming torch and laurel branch lie below. Inscription "Glow Holy Flame! Glow! Glow! Never Die Out For The Fatherland"
Rev: Schlageter standing proudly before the French firing squad. Inscription, "Murdered by the French". Dated, May 26, 1923.
Albert Leo Schlageter (12 August 1894 — 26 May 1923) was a member of the German Freikorps. After the outbreak of the First World War, he became a voluntary emergency worker for the military. During the war, he participated in several battles earning the Iron Cross both first and second class. After the war he became a member of a right-wing Catholic student group. Soon he also joined the Freikorps and took part in the Kapp Putsch and other battles between military and communist factions that were active in Germany. In 1922 his Freikorps unit in Upper Silesia merged with the Nazi Party. During the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, he led an illegal "combat patrol" that tried to resist the French occupying forces by means of sabotage. A number of trains were derailed in order to disrupt supplies to the occupiers. On 7 April 1923 Schlageter was betrayed, possibly from within his own ranks, and was arrested (on 8 April) by the French. Tried by court-martial on 7 May 1923, he was condemned to death. On the morning of 26 May he was executed on the Golzheimer heath near Düsseldorf.
After his execution he became a hero to some sections of the German population. Immediately after his death a Schlageter Memorial Society was formed, which agitated for the creation of a monument to honour him. The German Communist Party sought to debunk the emerging mythology of Schlageter by circulating a speech by Karl Radek portraying him as an honourable but misguided figure. It was the Nazi party who most fully exploited the Schlageter story. Hitler refers to him in his book "Mein Kampf". Rituals were constructed to commemorate his death, and in 1931 the Memorial Society succeeded in getting a monument erected near the site of his execution. This was a giant cross placed amid sunken stone rings. Other smaller memorials were also created.
After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Schlageter became one of the principal heroes of the regime and its propaganda machine. Hanns Johst, the Nazi playwright, wrote Schlageter (1933), a heroic drama about his life dedicated to Hitler as a theatrical manifesto of Nazism. Several important military ventures were also named for him, including the Schlageter fighter-wing of the Luftwaffe, and the naval vessel Albert Leo Schlageter. His name was also given as a title to two SA groups. After the war, the main Schlageter memorial was destroyed by occupying Allied forces as part of the de-nazification process.
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