The bravest man you've never heard of

Buy that man a beer

Sometimes, when you’re having a couple of beers with friends and as the sun is going down, someone will ask that old chestnut – “who would you invite to a dinner party, if you could invite anybody in history.”

Up until now my response has always been;

“Nobody because I hate dinner parties and if I had to invite anyone, I’d invite people I know and liked, as opposed to somebody who’s been dead for a couple of centuries. Oh, you’d invite Joan of Arc – suddenly become fluent in mediaeval French, have you?”

But now I’ve given it a bit of though and if my German could ever miraculously expand beyond asking for a beer and inquiring where the toilet was, I’d like to invite Otto Wels.

Who, what, where, what the fuck, I hear you cry. Who is Otto Wels.

I’m glad you asked..

Otto Wels was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the German Parliament in 1933, when the vote on the Enabling Act – the piece of legislation establishing the Nazi dictatorship – came.

Wels lead the 93 other SPD MPs through lines of jeering, violent Nazi Party members. While speaking, guns were aimed from at public gallery at Wels’ head, for fuck’s sake, yet he could still get to his feet and say this

At this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism. No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible ... From this new persecution too German Social Democracy can draw new strength. We send greetings to the persecuted and oppressed. We greet our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty deserve admiration. The courage with which they maintain their convictions and their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future.

Looking directly at Hitler, Wels proclaimed, "You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour".

With those words, the SPD voted against the Bill, the only party to do so (the Community Party of Germany having already been banned) and left the Reichstag – many of them to imprisonment and death in concentration camps.

I think anybody who can do that deserves a couple of beers.