Goebbels used the death of Horst Wessel

Goebbels used the death of Horst Wessel (pictured) in 1930 as a propaganda tool against "Communist subhuman". By 1930 Berlin was the party's second-strongest base of support after Munich. That year the violence between the Nazis and communists led to local SA troop leader Horst Wessel being shot by two members of the Communist Party of Germany. He later died in hospital. Exploiting Wessel's death, Goebbels turned him into a martyr for the Nazi movement. He officially declared Wessel's march Die Fahne Hoch (Raise the flag), renamed as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, to be the NSDAP anthem.