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Hans Prawitt 1936 in der Haftanstalt
© StaH

Hans Prawitt * 1913

Mühlendamm 47 (Hamburg-Nord, Hohenfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
HANS PRAWITT
JG. 1913
ERMORDET 1944
KZ BUCHENWALD

further stumbling stones in Mühlendamm 47:
Erwin Weissfeiler, Helene Weissfeiler

Hans Adolf Prawitt, born 3 Oct. 1913 in Hamburg, died in spring 1945 at Sangerhausen concentration camp

Mühlendamm 47

"With gratitude I received your kind letter. Thank you very much. I just read The Neighbor (Der Nachbar), a Christian Sunday newspaper, and found many words of comfort in it. After some of you have re-married, I believe your lives too will become more peaceful to some extent. Recent times have been extremely nerve-wracking. My mind can only process fragments of what’s going on today since so little information reaches us through the prison newspaper. You can, of course, imagine the confusion in which we live here, between the remnants of world affairs.”

This is how a two-page letter begins from the prisoner Hans Prawitt to his father and siblings in Hamburg-Barmbek. He is serving time in the Bremen-Oslebshausen Penitentiary. He wrote the letter on 6 Aug. 1939 after spending over a total of three years in prison under the influence of the political schooling there, and in it he takes stock of his broken life. In terms of his thoughts and writing style, he was still in possession of his former capacities, but his identity was destroyed. He described himself as one who had been seduced, who had "lost sight of the big picture and [had] antagonized his comrades with his crippling character and turned them into his enemies.”

Hans Prawitt had grown up in the Hamburg neighborhood Winterhude. His father Fritz, born in Pojerstieten (today Kumatschowo), East Prussia on 22 Dec. 1873, had lived at Barmbeker Straße 191 since 1899 where he had built up an upholstery and decorating business. His business grossed an annual income of 1,500 Marks, providing a sound basis for starting a family. On 21 Jan. 1902 he married Martha Witte, born on 26 Feb. 1881 in Bützow in Mecklenburg. When the couple was naturalized on 26 Jan. 1905, they already had three of what would become their 12 children: Fritz, Lotte and Karl. Over the subsequent years, they would have Erna, Irene, Ernst, Gertrud, Olga, Hans, Herta, Otto and the youngest, Anneliese, in 1919. The following year, Hans Prawitt began his education at the elementary school at Alsterdorfer Straße 39. In 1923 the family experienced a terrible blow: Martha Prawitt died at the age of only 41. Since their four oldest children were already grown and out of the house, Irene, born on 24 Nov. 1906, took over the role of mother at the age of 17 for the remaining seven children.

After four years of elementary school, Hans Prawitt transferred to Lichtwarkschule in Winterhude at Vossberg 21 in 1924, a school which taught according to a reformed pedagogy. He completed that school with a high school diploma.

Afterwards he trained for a career in youth care. To that end he first undertook an internship in 1932 at the workers welfare office starting in April, then from Oct. to the end of the year he worked as an assistant at Hamburg’s youth welfare office. He gave up that career path, however, because it paid so little and began a typesetting apprenticeship in 1933 at the firm Bartels & Hoofe in Neustadt. It gave him access to the youth group of a labor union in Bergedorf. During that time he sublet a room from his co-worker Franz Schirmer at Mühlendamm 47 in Hamburg-Hohenfelde.

From 1930 to 1931 Hans Prawitt belonged to the Young Socialist Workers (Sozialistischen Arbeiterjugend – SAJ), and late in 1932 his former classmate Hellmut Kalbitzer persuaded him to join the Militant Socialist International (MSI). Contrary to its name, the group was founded on the legal, philosophical and ethical principles of the Göttingen philosopher Leonard Nelson and strove to achieve a form of liberal socialism. Before Hans Prawitt was able to assume a role in the MSI, the group was banned following the Reichstag fire early in 1933. Reports on the fire in the Manchester Guardian reached the hands of his comrade Walter Brandt, a staunch opponent of the National Socialist regime. He asked Hans Prawitt to translate the article into English, which is how his illegal activity began.

In late 1933, Walter Brandt and Erna Mros restarted the MSI with the aim of gathering together everyone who opposed National Socialism. Many had already been arrested, a considerable number were no longer alive. Among those in prison was his MSI comrade Curt Bär, born on 1 Feb. 1901 in Hamburg. He was a teacher who had been dismissed from teaching in the Hamburg school system as a result of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Contact between the two essentially consisted of Hans Prawitt supplying him as courier with material. They spread their ideas through the so-called Reinhart letters and the newsletter Sozialistische Warte, printed abroad, and through materials they created themselves. As the MSI re-established itself in Hamburg, Hans Prawitt helped produce and distribute the material, in close collaboration with Walter Brandt, and took part in clandestine meetings and discussions. He also maintained contact with a communist resistance group and with Trotskyites.

At the end of Aug. 1935, Hans Prawitt wanted to deliver a package of material to Walter Brandt on his bicycle, a package addressed to his sister, but he lost it. For his safety and that of his comrades, he left for Copenhagen. Since the Gestapo did not appear to be investigating the matter, he returned to Hamburg in November. For safety reasons, Erna Mros found a place for him to spend the winter in Hanover. Living illegally in hiding was very stressful for Hans Prawitt, so he decided to head to France. His passport had expired, hence his only option was to cross the border illegally. His MSI comrade Ludwig Gehm accompanied him from Frankfurt on the Main because he had experience crossing the green border. Their plan, however, went awry. On 7 Mar. 1936, Hans Prawitt was apprehended by French police at the border between the Palatinate region and France and five days later he was deported to Germany where he was arrested. On 21 Apr. 1936 Pirmasens Local Court sentenced him to five weeks in prison for a passport offense. Inquiries at the Hamburg Gestapo as to whether he had any crimes on his record led to his renewed arrest on 7 May and he being transferred to the Gestapo in Hamburg. A co-worker at the printing plant probably notified the Gestapo that Hans Prawitt had suddenly disappeared, mentioning suspicion that he could be undertaking illegal activity.

While in remand prison in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, he unexpectedly ran into his former comrade-in-arms Curt Bär. In 1949 Curt Bär wrote to Hans Prawitt’s father looking back, "Just when people like me had recognized Hans as courageous, intelligent and strong for his underground work to fight Nazism, it still fills me with pain and anger when I think about what mental devastation the Nazis inflicted on Hans.” Curt Bär is likely referring to Hans Prawitt’s treatment in remand prison. As a result he suffered a prison psychosis which led to a ten-month stay at Hamburg-Langenhorn Mental and Nursing Home from 6 Oct. 1936 to 27 July 1937. Suffering from a nervous breakdown, Hans Prawitt named over 40 opponents of the regime in a written confession which contained some confused statements. The district attorney opened an investigation at the Hanseatic District Court into the criminal case "Prawitt and others”. Hans Prawitt’s landlord Franz Schirmer was among those under investigation. He had not engaged in any illegal political activity, but he was charged with having failed to deregister his tenant Hans Prawitt in order to give him a head start on fleeing. Several people were able to flee abroad. On 29 July 1937, the district attorney submitted the results of his investigation to the Reich Attorney General at the People’s Court in Berlin.

At the end of Nov. 1937, he had Hans Prawitt, Curt Bär and Willi Schreiber transferred from Hamburg to the Berlin-Moabit remand prison. On 7 Dec. 1937, the 2nd Senate of the People’s Court in Berlin convicted Hans Prawitt and Curt Bär "in the name of the German People for preparing treasonous activities under aggravated circumstances” (7.XII.37 – 15 J 513/37 = 2 H 55/37). Hans Prawitt was found guilty of leading the group and sentenced to six years in prison, Curt Bär to four years, and both were disenfranchised. After taking into account the year and seven months already spent in remand prison, Hans Prawitt was left with a prison term lasting until 7 May 1942.

The trials for the individuals with lesser charges took place at a later date, including Franz Schirmer’s trial on 26 Mar. 1938, and most were acquitted. His family was suffering extreme poverty. Since he did not belong to any political party, he did not receive any of the usual welfare support common for party members.

The Reich Attorney General at the People’s Court requested on 10 Dec. 1937 that Hans Prawitt be transferred to the Bremische Penitentiary in Oslebshausen. He was detained in a cell there, as was common practice for political prisoners at that prison. On 3 Jan. 1938 his father submitted his first plea for clemency, which was rejected.

Hans Prawitt and Curt Bär were temporarily transferred back to Hamburg so that they would be available as witnesses at the Kalbitzer trial on 22 Mar. 1938 at the Hanseatic District Court. Following their return to Bremen-Oslebshausen, Hans Prawitt was given work sorting pipes. The prison director assessed his work to be unsatisfactory and could not decide whether the reason for his poor performance was due to his refusal to work or to a mental disorder. In May, June and Dec. 1938, Hans Prawitt received visits from his father and his brothers Karl and Otto.

Fritz Prawitt noticed changes taking place in his son from spring to summer of 1939 that alarmed him, so he wrote to the state attorney at the People’s Court, requesting that his son’s imprisonment be eased. In his letter he added that Hans had now been more than thoroughly punished for his original foolishness in school and during his apprenticeship and now was just a victim of his unfortunate education and bad influences. That ran along the same lines of Hans Prawitt’s own arguments contained in the letter mentioned above.

Hans Prawitt had to attend classes on political education in prison. When he refused to take part in the class on 9 Aug. 1938, the teacher tried in vain to persuade him with kindness to join in "as it was for his own benefit”. After consulting with Hans Prawitt’s cell mates, the teacher decided not to punish him. The teacher assumed his behavior was a reaction to imprisonment or a temporary narrow-minded attitude. Hans Prawitt appeared to be afraid on the one hand of saying something wrong during the political education class and on the other that his communist comrades would find out he had attended the class and hold him to account for it.

In Nov. 1938, Hans Prawitt vehemently resisted being hauled into an isolation cell, and his resistance was broken "through the use of a baton”. He was to spend fourteen days in the cell for refusing to work and challenging authority. The prison physician doubted whether the punishment was warranted because he thought Hans Prawitt might be mentally ill. He recommended work appropriate to Hans Prawitt’s training and that he be moved to a communal cell, but his recommendation was not granted as Hans Prawitt was allegedly faking his illness. After the next incident in Apr. 1939 – refusing to exercise "because he heard women’s voices through the radio and did not want to attract attention” – the physician recommended Prawitt be transferred to Hamburg’s main military hospital for observation of his mental state. In late Dec. 1939 suspicions of him having a mental disorder were confirmed. Hans Prawitt returned to Bremen-Oslebshausen where he now worked in outside squads, among other duties, but alway kept separate from Curt Bär. Curt Bär was released from prison in June 1940. He wrote to Hans’ father on 26 June 1949, "I witnessed firsthand how Hans’ mental illness, brought on by his treatment in prison, was only minimally attended to before the main trial. Back in prison he lapsed back into a severe mental disorder and as a result was terribly bullied, for instance he was tossed from one stint in confinement to another in Oslebshausen, until his life became more bearable working outside the prison – compared to the usual prison conditions. His mental state still never returned to normal as long as I was able to observe him.”

As of Dec. 1939, Hans Prawitt, to all appearances, fell in line with prison life. Whether his political views had changed could not be judged due to his mental condition. Camp internment was later ruled out for him. Hans Prawitt applied for and was granted that his pension plan continue to be maintained through his own financial means and with help from his relatives. A new plea for clemency submitted by his brother Karl on 1 May 1940 was rejected due to "the severity of the crime”. His alternative request that Hans Prawitt be moved to Fuhlsbüttel Prison was, however, granted at the end of Aug. 1940. It was thought his mental state would improve by being closer to his family members and to Hamburg in general, where he felt he belonged. And indeed he did behave more normally, was aware of time and place and himself, with no signs of a mental disorder, although still depressed and subdued. He continued to be judged fit for prison, even though the question of his accountability was never resolved. Being assigned to work at the bookbindery gratified him as well as the administrative inspector.

In the assessment for his worthiness of clemency in Apr. 1941, Hans Prawitt was declared to have given up his communist ideas, with no danger of relapse. At his core he was depressed, subdued, drooping and worried about his future. He carried out his work to the fullest satisfaction of his supervisor. The head teacher concluded that Hans Prawitt "would never joyfully embrace [the course content]”. His political understanding still needed some work. On 17 Apr. 1941, that plea for clemency was also rejected.

On 4 Feb. 1942, Hans Prawitt applied to join the German Labor Front. His reasons for doing so are not evident. The last plea that Hans Prawitt’s father Fritz addressed to the board of the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Penitentiary was dated 21 Apr. 1942. He requested that he be able to spend several days with his sons Hans and Otto since Otto was on a visit to his homeland from Greece. An early release, he had been informed, required clemency permission from the regional state prosecutor at the People’s Court in Berlin, but was hopeless under the circumstances.

On 7 May 1942 by order of the Gestapo, the prisoner Hans Prawitt was moved to the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Police Prison, meaning to the concentration camp, and from there he was taken to Neuengamme concentration camp where he was assigned prisoner number 17061. A fellow prisoner reported in 1949 having seen him at Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the end of 1943 before he was moved to Buchenwald concentration camp and worked on the production of the VS large rocket (V for Vergeltungswaffe or retribution gun, in the parlance of National Socialist propaganda). On 5 Aug. 1944, Hans Prawitt was registered at Buchenwald concentration camp and assigned to the command of the SS Building Brigade V. That building brigade was primarily deployed for cleanup work in occupied western Europe. Back in Germany, Hans Prawitt worked at Sangerhausen concentration camp, a satellite camp of Mittelbau concentration camp, in Dora Squad; he wore the prisoner number 102 140. The last sign of life from him was a postcard from Sangerhausen concentration camp to his father, dated 27 Mar. 1945.


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: December 2019
© Hildgard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 351-11 AfW 2262, Fritz Prawitt; StaH 213-9 Staatsanwaltschaft OLG Strafsachen, OJS 148/37 Prawitt; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, 3995 (HPA), Abl. 10, St 281; StaH 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht B III, 79059; BA NJ 15098, Bd. 1 (Urteil des VGH vom 7.12.1937); Curt Bär, Von Göttingen über Osleb nach Godesberg, 2. Aufl., Hamburg, 1981; Hellmut Kalbitzer, Widerstehen oder Mitmachen, Hamburg, 1987; Meik Woyke in: Für Freiheit und Demokratie. Hamburger Sozialdemokratinnen und -demokraten in Verfolgung und Widerstand 1933–1945, Hamburg, 2003, S. 116–118; Ursel Hochmuth, Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933–1945, Frankfurt/Main, 1980.