h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

History is written by the victor. It is often forgotten, both in Britain and in Germany, that there were individuals who were prepared to act against Nazi tyranny. This is the story of one of them.

Georg Elser, born Hermaringen, Württemberg in 1903 was a carpenter. He had sympathies with and connections with various socialist and left-wing organistions, but does not appear to havve been a member of any. Acting alone, he carried out an assasination attempt against Hitler on 8th November 1939.

The venue for the attempt was Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, at a celebration the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch (9th November 1923). This Beer Hall was a totemic location for the Nazis. It was where the "old comrades" gathered to organise their coup, and the key event of the celebration was to be a speech by Hitler.

Elser began planning his attempt over a year before, and visited the hall for the 1938 celebration. He worked in secret over 30 nights in the hall, using his carpenter's tools to hollow out a pillar near which Hitler would make his speech. Here he planted his bomb, timed to go off during the speech.

In the event, Hitler arrived slightly early, made a shorter speech than expected, and departed early. The bomb blast killed eight of the old comrades, but none of the Nazi leaders, who had left with Hitler.

Elser was arrested (coincidentally, for un-related reasons) en route for Switzerland. He later died in Dachau.

The reasons why Elser's heroic story is not more widely known are worthy of speculation. To some, Hitler's lucky escape demonstrated his "Vorsehung" (fate) and showed he was destined to be lead the Reich, strengthening his popularity and support amongst ordinary Germans. Certainly at the time, Elser was widely seen as a traitor, and this perception carried on even after the war. But perhaps It was also the fact that the assasination had been planned before the outbreak of war and before the implementation of The Final Solution - raising issues about whether one is morally justified in killing a "potentially" evil figure? Or maybe it his left-wing sympathies which also, at the time, gave some retrospective justification to the demonisation of van der Lubbe (who was wrongly accused of the Reichstag arson). Or perhaps it is that, unlike the White Rose students or the November 20th officers, Elser was a working class figure, working to his self-acquired political beliefs, rather than a member of a respectable elite?

Whatever the reasons, I believe that Elser was a heroic figure who deserves to be written back into history.

Hi again Edward

This would make a fantastic entry, is this was you were working on when you couldn't find the buttons?

Journal entries aren't eligible for review because they're kind of like diaries, we write what we want, when we want, about whatever we want. Regular entries are a little more structured .

There is a link somewhere on your homepage (I'll see if I can find it for you or get you a link) to "Create a New Entry", and it will give you an edit box similar to the one used to create your personal space.

Ok --
On your homepage on any of the gray header bars are links to different parts of your page. Go to 'My Guide Entries', at the bottom of this section is a link to 'Create New Entry'.

Or you can try using this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/useredit

I apologise if I'm giving you information you've already found. If I can be of help just ask

broe

Ah, yes, got it now. And when I get to the edit page, I can check the GuideML box too. I can see why I was confused, though.

Many thanks. And, yes, it was this entry I was going to submit.

Very interesting

Something I didn't know.

An important point you make there, that history isn't easily written without some kind of bias coming thro. It's by different accounts that one forms a clearer picture - altho this always isn't the case either.

One can get mired in what they said, what they saw, and how they percieved it as to how it's viewed *now* in light of what we know.

Nicely composed, I enjoyed reading it.