Stumbling block for Christian Pleß

Christian Pleß was born in Offenbach on October 31, 1908. He was a portefeuiller, lived at Ellenbogengasse 11 and was a member of the Social Democratic Reichsbanner. With 3 million members, this was the largest democratic mass organization in the Weimar Republic, whose national salute is still "Frei Heil!" or "Freiheit!" today.

On the day of the so-called March elections, 5 March 1933, the National Socialists had been in power for just over a month and wanted to have this confirmed once again with an election. During the election campaign, a total of 51 people were killed in public in the Reich. The open violence that followed Hitler's seizure of power continued outside polling stations on election day.

On the afternoon of the election in Offenbach, there were clashes between men from the "Iron Front" and the "Reichsbanner" on the one side and the SA on the other. The polling station was located at the beginning of Kaiserstrasse in the Pestalozzi School. There the NSDAP supporters began to shout at them. The men of the "Iron Front" wanted to prevent this.

The SA had its headquarters on the left-hand corner of Kaiserstrasse, the Democrats on the opposite corner. A brawl quickly broke out on the street, with more and more people being called out from both sides. From Bismarckstraße, a lorry with more SA men raced up, firing indiscriminately into the crowd from the lorry.
24-year-old Christian Pleß was hit by a shot and then kicked in the face. It was only with great difficulty that he was brought into the pub and then into the ambulance that had been called. He died on the way to hospital. Four other people were seriously injured on the side of the democrats.

Christian Pleß's funeral in the old cemetery became the last major protest rally against the Nazi terror that had begun. Even the Gestapo could not prevent this, although they observed the funeral from a distance.

Christian Pleß' gravestone reads: "He died for his ideal".

The patron of the Stolpersteine for Christian Pleß is the historical commission of the SPD. It was laid on October 21, 2006.