Johann Georg Elser

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Johann Georg Elser : biography

4 January 1903 – 9 April 1945

Vocational career and social life

Elser was born in Hermaringen, Württemberg to Ludwig Elser and Maria Müller, who married one year after their son’s birth. He attended elementary school in Königsbronn from 1910–17 and showed ability in drawing and handicrafts. His father was a farmer and lumber dealer, and expected his son to succeed him in this trade. Georg, who had helped his father in his work, however, instead pursued his own interests. He began an apprenticeship as a lathe operator in a foundry, which he quit two years later for health reasons. He completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter in 1922. He then worked as a carpenter in several joineries in Königsbronn, Aalen and Heidenheim. From 1925–29, he worked in a watch factory in Konstanz, where he acquired the knowledge enabling him to build the timer for the bomb he was later to use in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. From 1929–32 he worked as a carpenter, in Switzerland.

After his return to Königsbronn, he worked with his parents. From 1936, he worked in a fitting factory in Heidenheim. While working here, he became aware of the Nazis’ rearmament program. Elser was a quiet yet sociable character, joining in different cultural societies and clubs, amongst others, a Tracht club. He played the zither and the double bass for the local choir. He also enjoyed to hike with his friends. In 1930, his girlfriend, Mathilde Niedermann, became pregnant and gave birth to his son Manfred. The pregnancy was unplanned and mirrored his parents’ situation at his birth. Unlike his parents, Elser did not marry Mathilde and separated from her soon afterwards.

He became a member of the federation of wood workers union. In 1928, a colleague persuaded him to join the Red Front Fighters’ Association, the paramilitary organization of the Communist Party. He did not devote much time to these memberships. Though not a committed Communist, he was a devoted church-going Protestant, he voted for the Communist Party until 1933, as he considered them to be the best defenders of workers’ interests. He opposed Nazism from the beginning of the regime in 1933, and refused to perform the Hitler salute, or to join others in listening to Hitler’s speeches broadcast on the radio. Nor did he vote in the Third Reich’s elections or referendums.

Legacy

There are many streets and places named after Elser in Germany and several monuments.

Arrest

Elser was arrested by chance at 20:45, about 35 minutes before the bomb exploded, by the customs border police in Konstanz when he tried to cross the border into Switzerland. At first the officers did not suspect his involvement in the assassination attempt, but then they found picture postcards from the Bürgerbräukeller in Elser’s coat. Elser was transferred to Munich, where he was interrogated by the Gestapo. Elser remained silent and denied any involvement in the explosion, but the evidence pointing to his complicity became increasingly clear. What finally pointed to Elser as the would-be assassin were his bruised, scraped knees. As it turned out, the hollow space in the column where the explosives had been hidden could only have been reached by an assassin crawling on his knees. Waitresses then identified Elser as a frequent patron of the Bürgerbräukeller, and he eventually confessed. After his confession to the crime in Munich, Elser was taken to the Berlin headquarters of the Gestapo where he was severely tortured. The SS-Leader Heinrich Himmler did not believe that a diminutive Swabian, a craftsman with a grade-school education, could have almost managed to assassinate the Führer without accomplices. The protocol from the Gestapo was recovered at the end of the 1960s. This 203 page document is the most important source of information about Elser.

Elser was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Although he consistently claimed to have been acting on his own, the Nazis, especially Goebbels persisted in suspecting a British-led conspiracy, and intended to stage a trial exposing this alleged plot after the war. Elser was kept in special custody. The mystery about the identity of this "special security prisoner" sometimes led to malicious rumours among his fellow inmates. Even after the war, Martin Niemöller, also in custody at Sachsenhausen, claimed that Elser had been a member of the SS and that the whole assassination attempt had been staged by the Nazis to portray Hitler as being protected by Providence. However, historical research by Anton Hoch in 1969 confirmed that Elser acted alone, and no evidence involving the regime, or any outside group has been found. Hoch, Anton: Das Attentat auf Hitler im Muenchner Buergerbraeukeller 1939. Vierteljahrheft fuer Zeitgeschichte, 17.Jahrg., 4.H. (Okt. 1969), pp. 383-413