Albert Leo Schlageter arrested

© Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin Apologetic booklet about the national socialist Schlageter

On 7 April 1923, Albert Leo Schlageter, a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), is arrested by French military police. As head of a resistance group which had committed acts of sabotage against allied occupation troops in the Ruhr District, the 28-year-old former officer is tried before a military court. Found guilty, he is executed by firing squad on 26 May in Düsseldorf. For national socialists, Schlageter becomes the first martyr of their movement.