Draft:Gustav Wegert

• Comment: too much original research here Theroadislong (talk) 13:51, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

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Gustav Wegert (1890–1959) is suggested to be the man appearing in a 1936 photograph, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, conspicuously refusing to perform the Nazi salute.

1936, worker at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg not doing the Nazi Salute. (sz-photo)

Wegert was a metalworker at Blohm+Voss who was known to habitually refuse to perform the Nazi salute. Wegerts family have presented documentation of Wegert's employment at Blohm+Voss at that time as evidence. As well as family photographs that better resemble the man in the photograph from 1936, which advocates stronger for the man to be Gustav Wegert

Gustav Wegert (to the left), (private picture Wegert family)

Gustav Wegert with his wife and son about 1948 (private picture Wegert family).

(However, the identity of the man in the photograph is not known with certainty. Another family claims that the man is August Landmesser (1910–1944). Landmesser had run afoul of the Nazi Party over his unlawful relationship with Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman. For this, he was imprisoned and eventually drafted into penal military service, where he was killed in action. Years after his death, his daughter suggested that he was the man in the famous photograph.)

Biography

According to Gustav Wegerts son - Wolfgang Wegert, his father who was working at Blohm & Voss attended at the shipyard when sliding the training sailing ship "Horst Wessel" into the water. Adolf Hitler was there and the employees greeted him with the mandatory Nazi salute. Among the workers was a man who did not lift up his arm. A picture later found of the occasion and published several times, shows the man with his arms crossed in front of his chest in the masses. November 1995 the newspaper "Hamburger Abendblatt" appealed to it's readers to give a report if they knew the worker. Wolfgang writes that on that November morning as he was reading the newspaper, coming across the picture, he surprised exclaimed to his wife that he had discovered his father Gustav Wegert. Some days later the newspaper reported that the daughter of a man named August Landmesser believed to identify her father on that picture. In connection with this information the newspaper published the story of the persecution of Mr. Landmesser because of his Jewish fiancée. Deeply moved by their story Wolfgang did not inform the newspaper of his own discovery, even though he still was convinced that the hero in the picture was his father.

According to the original Certificate of Employment (shown at the side) Gustav Wegert was a metal worker at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg between 1934 and 1945.

Gustav Wegerts Certificate of Employment, 1934-1945, at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (private picture Wegert family)

Gustav Wegerts general behaviour during the time of the Nazis fits to the worker in the picture. According to Wolfgang Wegert, his father Gustav, his mother, their friends and a fellow worker reported to him that Gustav never raised his arm for the Nazi salute. From the beginning of the Nazi regime this was Gustav's basic principle. If someone greeted him with "Heil Hitler“ he would answer with a simple "Guten Tag“ (German for "Have a good day“). Apparently Adolf Hitler used to come to significant ship launches at the factory, not only at the launch of "Horst Wessel“. To prevent loss of production the propagandistic launches were placed on Sunday mornings.

Documentation does not confirm weather Gustav Wegerts was a very Christian man or/and simply an intelligent, very brave individual man, but he choose to retrieve to Sunday service at his church, under the motto "You should obey God more than men“. According to his son Wolfgang, Gustav explained that no severe harm hit him from the Nazis because of his boss, who summoned and warned him several times but covered him lightly. Qualified employees were necessary, so Gustav was repeatedly requested by Blohm & Voss and therefore never enlisted to be sent to the front.

Apparently Gustav's wife, Wolfgang's mother, often expressed anxiety about her husband getting imprisoned after having received several warnings. In her eyes it was a miracle that this did not happen.

Private pictures of Gustav Wegerts from the Wegerts family, shows a large resemblance to the man in the shipyard picture from 1936.

References

Dr. Simone Erpel writes in "Zivilcourage – Schlüsselbild einer unvollendeten Volksgemeinschaft“ that the search for the man in the picture from 1936 was without success, despite the report of the Landmesser family.

"Irene Eckler (daughter of August Landmesser), who published the story of the persecution of her family in the publication "Die Vormundschaftsakte“ assumed that her father worked in 1939 for the dockyard Blohm&Voss as a prisoner. If he was engaged there at the time when the picture was taken in 1936 – before he was under arrest – is uncertain. Even though there are reasonable doubts, the presence of August Landmesser in that picture is considered as a fact.“

Dr. Simone Erpel continous:

"In the meantime another Family from Hamburg has identified the man as a relative. It should be Gustav Wegert (1890-1959) who worked as a metalworker at Blohm & Voss. As a believing Christian he generally refused the Nazi Salute. Despite his distance to the Nazi Regime Gustav Wegert did not get in the eye of the Nazi persecution administration. Portraits from Wegert and Landmesser prove in both cases great similarity with the worker on that picture. At this time it has to remain unsettled who the man in the picture is“.

References

1. 1936 - Just one refused the nazi salute, http://wegert-familie.de/home/English.html
2. Gerhard Paul, "Das Jahrhundert der Bilder 1900 bis 1949, Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht 2009, Page 494. Dr. Simone Erpel "Zivilcourage – Schlüsselbild einer unvollendeten Volksgemeinschaft“. "Irene Eckler (daughter of August Landmesser), who published the story of the persecution of her family in the publication "Die Vormundschaftsakte“ assumed that her father worked in 1939 for the dockyard Blohm&Voss as a prisoner. If he was engaged there at the time when the picture was taken in 1936 – before he was under arrest – is uncertain. Even though there are reasonable doubts, the presence of August Landmesser in that picture is considered as a fact.“
3. Gerhard Paul, Das Jahrhundert der Bilder 1900 bis 1949, Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009, Seite 494 rechte Spalte Absatz 3. Dr. Simone Erpel "Zivilcourage – Schlüsselbild einer unvollendeten Volksgemeinschaft“. "In the meantime another Family from Hamburg has identified the man as a relative. It should be Gustav Wegert (1890-1959) who worked as a metalworker at Blohm & Voss. As a believing Christian he generally refused the Nazi Salute. Despite his distance to the Nazi Regime Gustav Wegert did not get in the eye of the Nazi persecution administration. Portraits from Wegert and Landmesser prove in both cases great similarity with the worker on that picture. At this time it has to remain unsettled who the man in the picture is“.