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Jacob Rhein * 1883
Reeperbahn 141 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)
HIER WOHNTE
JACOB RHEIN
JG. 1883
INHAFTIERT
KZ NEUENGAMME
ERMORDET 2.1.1943
Jacob Rhein, born on 21 Jan. 1883, detained in 1927, 1928, 1936, and 1939, died on 2 Jan. 1943 in the Neuengamme concentration camp
Reeperbahn 141
Jacob Rhein was born in 1883 in Viernheim (Hessen); he was the third oldest of four children. Until reaching the age of 14, he attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule). Subsequently, he worked in an industrial plant for two years. From 1903 until 1905, he served in an infantry unit. He was discharged early for health reasons.
Jacob Rhein took training as a balance artist in a circus. Between 1915 and 1918, he fought as a soldier in World War I. After the war, he earned a living by performing as a self-employed balance artist. He was married in 1922; the marriage was divorced in 1926. In 1927, Jacob Rhein, previously convicted for a number of property offenses and for begging, was tried for the first time on charges of homosexual acts. The Lübeck District Court (Amtsgericht) sentenced him to two months in prison for "unnatural sexual offenses” ("widernatürliche Unzucht”). That same year, the industrial inspection authority imposed an occupational ban on Rhein as a previously convicted "175er” [Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code dealt with homosexual "offenses”), i.e., he no longer received a trade license.
In May 1928, another conviction followed before the Hamburg District Court – this time to five months in prison. Upon being released and until his next trial in 1936, Rhein eked out an existence with a vendor’s tray for toys and earned an income by performing artist’s tricks at taverns.
On 15 Oct. 1936, the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) sentenced Jacob Rhein to three years in prison for crimes in accordance with Sec. 175 a Item 3 and offenses in accordance with Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch – RStGB) in three instances.
Rhein had met three adolescents in the St. Pauli quarter, including at a bar called Monte Carlo. In the case of the 15-year-old Werner D., who had already been frequenting the Monte Carlo for two years, the judges refrained from an indictment pursuant to Sec. 175 a RStGB. A passage from the verdict reads as follows, "After all, part of the term seduction entails that the person of age somehow influences the will of the underage person in order to make the latter inclined to commit the sexual offenses he or she does not want per se, thereby taking advantage of the sexual inexperience or lower resistance of the minor. Thus, seduction is not the issue if the minor had been willing to engage in sexual offenses without influence and declared willingness to do so.”
On the other hand, Rhein’s previous record had a negative impact on the determination of the sentence: "Since in all three cases, boys aged 15 to 17 were involved, it appears that an exemplary penalty is required and this holds true even more so as the defendant is to have one last chance to realize the reprehensive nature of his deeds and to come off this track. Otherwise, in future he will have to reckon with hard prison sentences or even preventive detention.”
Jacob Rhein served his sentence in the Wolfenbüttel penitentiary. Following his release on 20 June 1939, he returned to Hamburg. Having allowed three adolescent male prostitutes to stay overnight at his apartment and having had sexual intercourse with one of them, he was probably blackmailed and denounced to police by one Rudi W. Upon his arrest, he was detained in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp as a police "protective custody prisoner” ("Schutzhäftling”) from 22 until 28 July 1939, and subsequently, he was transferred to the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention center. In Nov. 1939, Dr. Gerhard Quast prepared a medical officer’s report about him, a passage of which read, "Sentencing does not suffice to protect the environment from such a human being. In this case, preventive detention is required. One can urge Rh. to undergo voluntary castration. A final assessment concerning the success of such a procedure must emerge from an expert’s report based on extended observation of Rh.”
In Mar 1940, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him as a "dangerous habitual offender” ("gefährlicher Gewohnheitsverbrecher”) to 18 months in a penitentiary and subsequent preventive detention in accordance with Secs. 175, 20 a, and 42 e of the Reich Criminal Code. Starting in Apr. 1940, Jacob Rhein served his sentence in the Bremen-Oslebshausen penitentiary and from 28 Mar. until 25 Apr. 1941 at the Rendsburg security detention facility. In 1941, Rhein filed an application for "voluntary castration,” hoping that he might thereby regain his freedom. In May 1941, he withdrew the application for castration, which had been approved by the Hamburg senator of health, Dr. Friedrich Ofterdinger.
On 17 Dec. 1942, Jacob Rhein was registered under prisoner number 13,008 as an incoming prisoner from Rendsburg in the Neuengamme concentration camp ("Neuengamme re-education camp”), where he was murdered on 2 Jan. 1943.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2018
© Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann
Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1 d; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 9189/36 und 1517/40; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 16.
