As one of the first and most highly publicised government opponents to be executed after the rapid switch to dictatorship in 1933, August Lütgens was soon being celebrated by government opponents as "one of the first victims of fascist justice to be killed". His fame was further enhanced after 1945. Particularly in the Soviet occupation zone (relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored &lt;a href="German%20Democratic%20Republic"&gt;German Democratic Republic / East Germany&lt;/a&gt;), he was celebrated as an antifascist hero. A was even named in his honour. Lütgens had been convicted in 1933 by a "special court", and in 1945 a campaign was launched in Hamburg to expose unsatisfactory aspects of his trial and secure rehabilitation for Lütgens and the three men executed with him. In 1992 the reversed all four of the earlier judgements, citing "manipulations of justice" ("Justizmanipulationen").