Swabian revolutionary Ernst Elsenhans was shot at fortress Rastatt on this date in 1849 for his role in the revolutions of 1848-49.

Elsenhans — that’s a German link, which is the case for almost everything readily available about this gentleman — was a democratic journalist who was already serving a prison sentence for inciting treason in the Baden installation of Germany’s 1848 revolutions when he was liberated by the May 1849 republican recrudescence. He of course went right back to inciting treason, as secretary to the revolutionary government’s War Ministry for its short interim before Prussian boots stamped out the rebellion.

Elsenhans and other revolutionaries shot in the course of this suppression are honored at a memorial slab unveiled for the sesquicentennial of their martyrdoms.

German speakers can peruse editions of the Fortress Messenger published by Elsenhans in July 1849 here.

On this day..

• 2001: Vishal and Sonu, honor killings - 2020
• 1661: Jin Shengtan, literary scholar - 2019
• 1849: Celigny Ardouin, Haitian Minister of the Interior - 2018
• 1844: William Saville, brutalising scene - 2016
• 1933: The Simele Massacre of Iraq's Assyrians begins - 2015
• 2009: Li Peiying, corrupt aviation kingpin - 2014
• 1864: Li Xiucheng, Taiping Rebellion general - 2013
• 1896: Charles Thiede, the first since Utah statehood - 2012
• 1930: Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, strange fruit - 2011
• 1936: The Sacred Heart, by Spanish leftists - 2010
• 1859: Ormond Chase, casus belli not quite - 2009
• 1777: A British spy, by Israel Putnam - 2008