Wilhelm "Willy" Schürmann-Horster (21 June 1900 – 9 September 1943) was a German actor, dramaturge, and director, who was a marxist and dedicated communist,[1] and who became a resistance fighter against the Nazis.

Through contacts in the group, connections were made with a resistance organisations that was run by Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack in 1940.

Although Schürmann-Horster wasn't a physical resistance fighter in the cast of Harro Schulze-Boysen, he was an intellectual opponent of the Nazis who displayed his convictions on the stage and as a result never took part in any of the operations that his friends undertook.

In October 1942, he was arrested and sentenced to death for "high treason", "dissemination of illegal writings" and "aiding and abetting the enemy" by the 2nd senate of the Volksgerichtshof.

[6] He was described by his close friend, the communist trade unionist Rudy Goguel [de] in the daily newspaper Südkurier as On 2 November 1928, Schürmann-Horster married the actor Hedda, née Lindner-Leuschner.

[3] From 1920 to 1922, Wilhelm Schürmann-Horster worked as a lecturer at adult education colleges in Remscheid and Essen[9] in an acting troupe known as "Young Activists' League".

Around 1933, he was appointed to the role of director for a short time at the Düsseldorf cabaret "Klimperkasten"[12] until the Nazi seizure of power led to the theatre being closed down by the police.

[7] On 27 September 1934, Schürmann-Horster along with his partner Harald Quedenfeldt and the trade unionist Rudy Goguel were arrested[13] by the Gestapo.

[3] From 1937 onwards, Schürmann-Horster lived in Berlin, at the time mostly unemployed, occasionally working as a freelancer in the German film industry.

Through Cay von Brockdorff, who studied sculpture with Wilhelm Gerstel [de] at the Berlin Arts Academy, Schürmann-Horster met the student sculptor Ruthild Hahne who became part of the group[2] At the same time Hanna Berger became part of the group whose early meetings were held in Hahne's apartment in Nachodstraße in Wilmersdorf, where art, freedom, love, current political events, the development of the Nazi state and what it meant for them and their future were discussed.

[21] Schulze-Boysen had been collaborating with Harnack in what was then a resistance group that would be reformulated into espionage organisation that began in September 1940, that sent German intelligence to the Soviet Union.

[20] Certainly the surviving documentation on the political, and social aspects of the theatre and for example the philosophical implications of artistic representation, created as part of Schürmann-Horster's commitment to his profession, don't show that he was involved in leafletting or in contact with Soviet intelligence or indeed conducting espionage.

Already an active resistor, he had thrown leaflets from a train[24] Hans Coppi knew the electrician Eugen Neutert and he became part of the secret group, in the autumn of 1941.

[26] In November 1941, he gained employment as the director and dramaturge (dramatic adviser, essentially head of propaganda) at the Grenzland Theatre [de][b] in Bodensee, Konstanz on Lake Constance for the 1942-1942 season.

[1] His friend Wolfgang Müller has recommended Schürmann-Horster to the artistic director of the Grenzland Theatre, Fritz Becker.

[1] At the time the theatre was going to be closed as most staff had left due to conscription, including the previous artistic director.

[1] On 29 October 1942, Schürmann-Horster was arrested while the theatre ship was returning from a performance[3] in Überlingen, Konstanz[2] and was transported to Berlin.

[1] The second senate of the People's Court in case number "10 J 13/43g" on 20–21 August 1943[5] sentenced Schürmann-Horster, Neutert and Thiess to death.