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Karl Johann August Hacker * 1906

Weidestraße 125 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

KZ Fuhlsbüttel
ermordet 23.11.1933 KZ Fuhlsbüttel / KPD

Karl Johann August Hacker, born 11 Apr. 1906, murdered 23 Nov. 1933 in the Fuhlbüttel prison

Weidestraße 125

Karl Hacker, a mechanical engineer, was born in Hamburg. He and his wife Irmgard Enke had one son, Peter, who was born on 10 July 1931 in Hamburg. The family lived in a small apartment at Weidestraße 125 in Barmbek.

Karl Hacker became politically active in his youth and joined the Young Communist League of Germany (Kommunistische Jugendverband Deutschland – KJVD). As an adult he was a member of the Communist Party. He was also an active member of the workers sports association "Rotsport,” which was affiliated with the Communist Party. Shortly before he was arrested, Karl Hacker was elected chairman of the Barmbek chapter of the sports association.

On 23 October 1933, during the investigation for the trial of Walter Bohne and associates, known as the Rotsport Trial, Karl Hacker was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Fuhlsbüttel prison. The charge was "intent to commit to high treason.”

On 23 November 1933, his wife, Irmgard Hacker, was notified of her husband’s alleged suicide. A family member was permitted to view the body at the morgue, where he discovered strangulation marks and filed a charge of murder. The trial was later discontinued with no verdict. Willi Gerlach, a friend of Karl Hacker’s, made the following statement about Hacker’s death at Fuhlsbüttel:

"After the interrogation I was sent to the Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp until 31 December 1933. It was there that I witnessed the death of our friend Karl Hacker, who was arrested as a functionary of the Hamburg Sports Association. In November 1933 he was beaten to death by the SA and then hanged. I saw him hanging in his cell myself.”

Karl Hacker died at the age of 27. After his death, his family continued to suffer under the Gestapo’s persecution and threats.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: StaHH 213-9, Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht, OIV 354/33; StaHH 332-5, Personenstandsunterlagen, 9867 und 191/1933; Diercks: Gedenkbuch "KOLA-FU", S. 21; Hochmuth/Meyer: Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand, S. 317, S. 322; VVN, Hinterbliebenenkartei; VVN, H9 Hacker, Peter; Totenliste Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer und Verfolgter 1933–1945.