August Landmesser

German shipyard worker and anti-Nazi protester (1910–1944)

Key facts

Born: 24 May 1910 ( 1910-05-24 ) , Moorrege , Schleswig-Holstein , German Empire
Died: 17 October 1944 (1944-10-17) (aged 34), Ston , Independent State of Croatia
Buried: A mass grave near Hodilje
Allegiance: none; forcible conscription by Nazi Germany
Branch: Deutsches Heer
Rank: Soldat
Unit: 999th Light Afrika Division
Conflicts: World War II , World War II in Yugoslavia
Spouses: Irma Eckler (a 1935 marriage illegal under the Nuremberg Laws , but retroactively legalized in 1951)

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: August
Gender: male
Citizenship: German Reich
Place of birth: Moorrege
Place of death: Berlin
Occupation: laborer
Political party: Nazi Party
Languages spoken: German
Image: August Landmesser.jpg
Number of children: 2
Convicted of: anti-nationalism
Significant event: Nuremberg Laws

Show 5 more facts

date of birth: 1910-05-24
Commons category: August Landmesser
name in native language: August Landmesser
date of death: 1944-10-17
P8168: race car prototype

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Encyclopedic overview

August Landmesser ( German: [ˈaʊ̯ɡʊst ˈlantˌmɛsɐ]; 24 May 1910 – 17 October 1944) was a German man who is suggested to be the man appearing in a 1936 photograph conspicuously refusing to perform the Nazi salute. 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. However, the identity of the man in the photograph is not known with certainty—another family claims that the man is Gustav Wegert.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “August Landmesser” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.