You've prompted me to do a bit of rummaging around on the internet for the earliest known use of the phrase, but I've found nothing concrete. The earliest claimed use I've come across was someone on a forum saying that pretty much the same saying was used in German about Alfred Kerr in 1933, in the Nazi paper
Voelkischer Beobachter. I've been unable to verify this.
A very similar expression, but without the 'up against the wall' formulation, can be found in the
Evening Standard of Pennsylvania, from 8th July 1936:
quote:
Almost furled in the flying American flag at his side, he was hot gospeling doom for capitalism and religion from a soap box in Columbus Circle, the haven for discontents. His long hair in volcanic eruption, nostrils gloating, he was in fine furor. "A guy like that," twitched Bob Brinkerhoff, "will probably be the chief shootee, come the revolution."