Georg Elser Lesung

In the organizer's words:

I wanted to prevent more bloodshed

GEORG ELSER. Assassination attempt on Hitler in 1939

JENS HARZER READS THE INTERROGATION TRANSCRIPT
HELMUT BUTZMANN - PICTURES AND FACTS

How did Georg Elser plan his 1939 assassination attempt on Hitler and the entire NSDAP leadership?

We describe Elser's life and his preparations for the assassination attempt. We also talk about the attack by Stauffenberg in 1944, when he and Elser came very close to Hitler. We show photos and film clips, show the people and illustrate the time.

Who was Georg Elser? A carpenter from Baden-Württemberg who made resistance against the Nazis the purpose of his life. He planned and carried out his assassination attempt alone, without confidants, without involving others and thus endangering them. Today, there are no reasons for an assassination attempt. But we can learn from Elser's thoughts, from his doubts about Nazi politicians.

Georg Elser is no longer unknown in Hamburg. For fifteen years, Jens Harzer and Helmut Butzmann have been putting on this documentary evening on November 8, 1939, the day of the assassination. Like a kind of "mobile memorial", it is erected on November 8 every year. There is now a Georg Elser Square in Hamburg and a hall on the roof of the Feldstraße bunker is named after Georg Elser. Hamburgers who know Elser and his story also keep turning up at the Elser Museum in Königsbronn.

In 1938, it was clear to Elser that the Nazis were a disaster for Europe. He wanted to radically eliminate their rule. He planned his attack with tremendous determination and precision. He spent more than 30 nights building his "infernal machine" and installed it above the lectern in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, where Hitler gave a speech on the failed Nazi coup attempt of 1923 every November 8 since 1933.

The story is very exciting. Jens Harzer reads from Elser's interrogation transcript, Helmut Butzmann describes the facts.