May 27, 1857 - Max Hödel

Emil Max Hödel (27 May 1857 – 16 August 1878) was a German tinsmith and anarchist from Leipzig. He is best known for committing the Hödel assassination attempt on Kaiser Wilhelm I, one of the first instances of propaganda by the deed in history.

Fatherless and raised in an environment of extreme poverty, Hödel began working as a tinsmith at the age of fifteen after running away multiple times and being publicly whipped for theft. He scraped by in this position before joining the newly founded Social Democratic Party, where he became a young cadre. Originally seeking to infiltrate anarchist groups to gather intelligence for his party, he found himself seduced by their ideas and gradually became increasingly aligned with anarchist positions.

On 11 May 1878, Hödel carried out a plan to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm I. Catching the Emperor during a public appearance, he stepped forward and fired three shots, missing every time. Arrested and violently beaten, Hödel was sentenced to death shortly after his capture, a fate that did not seem to trouble him excessively. After writing a final letter signed 'Long live the Commune!', he was executed.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max Hödel under CC BY-SA 4.0.