Charlie Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization that was focused on getting younger people politically active sooner.

He had a popular podcasting platform in which he engaged in free-speech-centered debates over various political topics pertaining to the United States as a whole. He identified as a Christian as well as being a husband and a father of two.

On Sept. 10, at approximately 12:23 p.m., Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a Turning Point USA-sanctioned event in Utah. It is now Oct. 15 — at the time of this writing — a month and change afterward. The past month has been scary for some and a shift in political awareness for others. Some are strengthened by the unity that has come out of such a traumatic event, and yet some are feeling that as a nation, we are as divided as ever.

We are living in the wake of an event that we will not be able to fully dissect until it is years behind us. To fully grasp the indicators of what is to come surrounding his death, we must look to the past.

Horst Wessel was born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1907, moving with his family to Berlin in 1913. After the First World War and its aftermath, he became politically active at the age of 16. In 1923, he joined what was then the “Bismarck Bund,” a conservative youth association. Afterward, with increasing radical ideologies due to the unstable period, he joined the “Wiking-Bund,” a more extremist organization that would align more with his beliefs.

In 1926, he began studying law at the University of Berlin. However, Wessel became increasingly aware of Marxist advocacy at his university, and finding it hypocritical, decided to join his local Sturmabteilung (SA) troop. He also joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). He was now among the then-new revolutionary force that was struggling to gain influence and power.

In 1928, Wessel was tasked with organizing the youth, creating the structure that would later become known as the Hitler Youth. He used his influence, age and knowledge to bring together younger and more impressionable Germans, appealing to them at a time when Germany was struggling.

For context, it is important to remember that at this time and throughout the 1920s, there was an immense economic and social pressure in Germany. Most families were unemployed, starving and struggling to keep up with the German War Debt. Political violence was common. There were constant street clashes and shootings. Wessel was fully complicit in acts of violence; he even encouraged it.

It was a time during which Wessel commanded the infamous “Storm Section 5” of East Berlin, in which they extensively used terrorism and counter-terrorism against the Red Front Fighters League. The Red Front Fighters League was a communist affiliate group of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany), which was also trying to seize power through less than democratic means.

The use of these extremist paramilitary groups was out of necessity. It came as a sought-after solution due to political stagnation; neither of the central parties was making much ground on anything pertaining to the national poverty, the invasion of Germany by France or the mounting war reparations. So more extreme ideas were instead welcomed, to force change, to entice revolution.

The death of Horst Wessel came as no surprise, common for the violence between the far-left KPD and the far-right NSDAP. He was shot on Jan. 14, 1930. The circumstances surrounding Horst Wessel’s death are not as clear as those in the death of Charlie Kirk, but it is known that Horst Wessel was shot and killed by Albrecht Höhler, a political opponent. Höhler later confessed to shooting Wessel point-blank in the face upon Wessel answering his apartment door. However, Wessel did not die immediately; he succumbed on Feb. 23, 1930, to blood poisoning.

His death was heavily propagandized, and Wessel was made a martyr for his beliefs and given a grand funeral procession. His poem “Die Fahne Hoch” or “Raise the Banner,” which he submitted to Joseph Goebbels in 1929, became the NSDAP’s anthem. It was a song of fighting against the Red Front, in which dead comrades of theirs marched in spirit, eerily echoing his own death later on. Wessel was viewed as a courageous young member who was killed too soon, his mythos solidified. Afterward, Wessel’s legacy was used as a means of propaganda to further Nazi goals. Streets were named after him, vigils were held, he was mentioned at rallies, used as a talking point and was ultimately exploited for the end goals of the Nazis attempting to seize power.

If this sounds familiar, it is. Maybe not to the same degree, but the similarities are apparent. Is this an indicator of future events to come? The current outcome of Charlie Kirk’s death mimics the death of Horst Wessel in many ways. Charlie Kirk was a founder of a breakthrough youth movement, getting younger voters politically active in our nation. He spoke to crowds, asked questions and used his education to further the goals of mainstream conservatism. His publicized memorial service also echoed that of Wessel’s, a grandstanding array of speeches, nationalist displays of patriotism and more promises of “Make America Great Again.”

In conclusion, there are some obvious correlations between the death of Charlie Kirk and that of Horst Wessel, but there are some differences. We are not living in a highly volatile time in which opposing radical political groups are openly supported. People are not dying in political civil war-like battle. But for the average reader, it is all subjective — based on one’s own experiences. We are not living in Weimar-era Germany, in which violence was commonplace; we haven’t had a civil war in over 160 years. Certainly, there is an uptick in political violence in America, but maybe it was always there to begin with, just waiting for an opportune time.

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Alexander Elderbroom is a resident of Lake Clear.