4 4 V O L . 1 5 , D O C . 5 1 3 a A P P E A L F O R H O E L Z Published in Kisch 1927, pp. 119–121. [1] Hoelz (1889–1933) was a member of the KPD and had organized Communist uprisings in the industrial regions of Saxony in March 1921. [2] Dated by the date of the appeal cited in Kisch 1927, p. 120. [3] Hoelz was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment for high treason, manslaughter, attempted man- slaughter, and use of explosives by the special court in Moabit, Berlin (see Vossische Zeitung, 23 June 1921, ME, and Schwing 2014, pp. 115 and 120). [4] Hugo Hess was the owner of a farm in Roitzschgen in Saxony-Anhalt. Hoelz and his entourage had occupied the farm, and Hess had been shot on 30 March 1921 (see Grunwald 2012, p. 94, and Landsberger Echo 24, 18 [18 September 2013]: 10). [5] A member of Hoelz’s entourage, the miner Erich Friehe, had confessed in the fall of 1926 to fir- ing the shots that killed Hess. Furthermore, key witnesses—the locksmith Walter Uebe and Hess’s widow, Alice—had both changed their original testimonies. Hoelz’s defense team led by attorney Alfred Apfel also presented new evidence regarding the convictions of attempted manslaughter and the setting off of explosives (see Vossische Zeitung, 21 November 1926 and 9 January 1927, and Schwing 2014, pp. 115 and 121). [6] The address of the committee was that of the law offices of Alfred Apfel. Kurt Beck (1890– 1943) was an associate at Apfel’s law office. [7] Apfel (1882–1941) was a prominent legal defender of left-wing political activists. Other notable co-signatories of the appeal were Lion Feuchtwanger, Samuel Fischer, Heinrich George, Hellmuth von Gerlach, George Groß, Emil J. Gumbel, Kurt Hiller, Arthur Holitscher, Alfred Kerr, Egon Erwin Kisch, Käthe Kollwitz, Emanuel Lasker, Otto Lehmann-Russbüldt, Emil Ludwig, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Erwin Piscator, Ernst Rowohlt, Helene Stöcker, Ernst Toller, Kurt Tucholsky, and Arnold Zweig (see Kisch 1927, pp. 120–127).