God’s Kingdom against Horst Wessel’s “Storm Troop”

Shortly after his forcible transfer to Dickenschied and Womrath on Hunsrück, Paul Schneider came into conflict with the National Socialists once again in June of 1934.

During the church funeral of an eighteen-year-old member of the Hitler Youth (HJ), Schneider vigorously protested when the Nazi district leader twice started speaking and wishing the deceased that he might be drafted into Horst Wessel’s heavenly storm troop. Schneider felt this was a disruption of the worship service.

Schneider contrasted the Christian hope of the resurrection and the Kingdom of God with the heavenly storm troop of the SA storm troop leader Horst Wessel, who had been shot to death by Communists at the age of twenty-two in 1930 and was revered by the Nazis as a martyr. The following day, Schneider was taken into protective custody for one week.