A photo taken in 1936 purportedly depicts August Landmesser standing with his arms crossed as the crowd around him salutes the Führer. He would go on to be imprisoned by the Nazis for "dishonoring the race."
Public DomainIrma Eckler believes that the man silently resisting Hitler in this 1936 photo is her father, August Landmesser.
In June 1936, a camera captured a group of German shipyard workers saluting Adolf Hitler as a new training vessel was launched in Hamburg. But one man stood with his arms crossed, seemingly refusing to join his colleagues in their praise for the Führer. Decades later, a woman came forward claiming that the lone dissident was her father, August Landmesser.
Landmesser joined the Nazi Party in 1931 to find employment, but he didn’t agree with many of the regime’s beliefs. In fact, he fell in love with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler, and he tried to marry her in 1935. The newly-enacted Nuremberg Laws prevented their union.
Two years later, Landmesser tried to flee Germany with Eckler and their young daughter, but he was arrested for “dishonoring the race.” In 1938, he and Eckler were sent to concentration camps. Landmesser was ultimately released, but Eckler didn’t make it out alive.
Landmesser was then drafted into a penal battalion, and he was likely killed in action in Croatia in 1944. His story could have been lost, but his daughter Irene saw the photo from the shipyard published in a German newspaper in 1991. She believed that August Landmesser was the man seen crossing his arms, and she spent the next several years ensuring that the world didn’t forget her father’s bravery.
August Landmesser’s Life Before World War II
August Landmesser was born in Germany in May 1910. He joined the Nazi Party in his early 20s, hoping that his membership would make it easier for him to secure a job. However, he was expelled just four years later — because he’d fallen in love with a Jewish woman.
Public DomainIrma Eckler was killed at an extermination center during the Holocaust.
Irma Eckler was from a Jewish family, but she didn’t grow up practicing the religion, and she’d reportedly converted to Protestantism in 1931. But this didn’t matter to the Nazis. According to their beliefs, Eckler’s blood was tainted, and Landmesser was making the Aryan race impure through his relationship with her.
Around September 1935, Landmesser tried to marry Eckler. However, the Nuremberg Laws had just gone into effect. These new rules stated, “Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or related blood are forbidden. Marriages contracted in spite of this fact are invalid.”
A month later, Landmesser and Eckler’s first daughter, Ingrid, was born. Desperate to save his family from the danger looming on the horizon, Landmesser tried to take them to Denmark in 1937. When they reached the German border, Landmesser was detained and charged with “dishonoring the race.” He was let off with a warning after he argued that Eckler may not be fully Jewish, but he was informed that a repeat offense would lead to prosecution.
Public DomainAugust Landmesser before his arrest for “dishonoring the race.”
Still, August Landmesser refused to abandon his family. Eckler was pregnant with their second child, and he tried everything in his power to keep them all together.
Tragically, his efforts were not enough.
The Grim Fate Of August Landmesser And Irma Eckler
Many sources state that Irma Eckler was arrested while pregnant and gave birth to her second daughter, Irene, in prison. She was never released, and Landmesser never met his youngest child. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
According to A Family Torn Apart by “Rassenschande,” the book Irene Eckler published about her family in the 1990s, her entire family was together at least once. Landmesser was likely in custody when Irene was born, but he was released in May 1938 and reunited with Eckler and their daughters.
Family PhotoThe only known photo of August Landmesser with his wife and two daughters, taken in the summer of 1938.
But two months later, he was arrested once more for his relationship with Eckler. Landmesser was sentenced to two years at Börgermoor Prison Camp. He would never see Irma Eckler again.
Eckler was detained by the Gestapo in July 1938. Ingrid and Irene were sent to an orphanage, though Ingrid was eventually able to live with her maternal grandmother.
Eckler, meanwhile, was imprisoned at various concentration camps over the next four years before she was sent to Ravensbrück, the all-female concentration camp. There are few records pertaining to Eckler’s arrest, but she likely died in a gas chamber at Bernburg Euthanasia Center in 1942.
August Landmesser finished his prison sentence in early 1941. He visited his daughters from time to time, but for reasons that are unclear, they never lived together. This may be because Landmesser was considered “Aryan” while his daughters were classified as Jewish. It’s also possible that he didn’t want to unnecessarily draw the government’s attention to the girls.
Public DomainIt’s believed that August Landmesser died fighting in Croatia in 1944, at age 34.
Regardless, Landmesser’s freedom didn’t last long. In February 1944, he was drafted into a German penal battalion. That November, his family was informed that he was missing. It’s most likely that August Landmesser died in battle in Croatia in October 1944 at age 34.
His tragic story wouldn’t come to light for nearly 50 years, when Irene Eckler recognized her father’s face in a crowd at Hamburg’s Blohm+Voss shipyard.
Who Is The Man Refusing To Salute Hitler?
In 1991, the German newspaper Die Zeit published a photo taken on June 13, 1936. It showed the crowd at Blohm+Voss shipyard during the launch of the Horst Wessel, a Kriegsmarine training ship.
Public DomainA closer view of the man believed to be August Landmesser.
Everyone in the image is raising their arm in a salute to Hitler — except for one man. He stands at the back of the crowd with his arms crossed, refusing to join the Heil to the Führer.
Irene was convinced that the man was her father, August Landmesser. But not everyone agrees.
Another family came forward claiming that the man in the photo was Gustav Wegert, a shipyard employee who always refused to salute Hitler on religious grounds. According to a website created by Wegert’s daughter, “Gustav never raised his arm for the Nazi salute. If someone greet[ed] him with ‘Heil Hitler,’ he answered with a simple, ‘Guten Tag.'”
Wegert FamilyThe family of Gustav Wegert (right) believes that he may be the man pictured with his arms crossed, not August Landmesser.
Both Wegert and Landmesser resemble the man in the photo, so we may never know the truth about the dissident’s identity. Landmesser’s story has spread further due to its tragic outcome, but based on historical evidence, Wegert may very well be the mysterious figure in the image.
But even if August Landmesser isn’t the man refusing to salute Hitler, he certainly stood up to the Nazi regime in his own way. His dedication to Irma Eckler was absolute. Indeed, their marriage was retroactively recognized by the German government in 1951.
Unfortunately, it was far too late for the doomed couple.
After reading about the tragic life and death of August Landmesser, learn about Franz Jägerstätter, the man who chose to die rather than obey Hitler. Then, go inside the story of Paul Grüninger, the Swiss border commander who saved thousands of Jewish people during World War II.
