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Karl (Carl) Steffen * 1884
Küchgarten 21 (Harburg, Harburg)
HIER WOHNTE
KARL STEFFEN
JG. 1884
ENTRECHTET / GEDEMÜTIGT
VERHAFTET
UNTERSUCHUNGSGEFÄNGNIS
HAMBURG
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
15.10.1942
Carl Oscar Theodor Steffen, born on 28 Jan. 1884 in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad in Russia), detained several times in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, suicide on 15 Oct. 1942 in the Hamburg pretrial detention facility
District of Harburg-Altstadt, Küchgarten 21
We know only few details about the life of Carl Steffen, born in 1884 in the East Prussian Königsberg as the son of the railroad official Eduard Steffen and Wilhelmine, née Tobien. The unmarried ship’s cook resided as a subtenant in the Harburg city center and had clashed with the law twice even before the Nazis assumed power, being released from the latest of his prison terms in 1930.
For "attempted unnatural sexual offense” ("versuchte widernatürliche Unzucht”), Carl Steffen was taken into pretrial detention for the first time from 10 Mar. until 8 Apr. 1936, then released again because apparently, no crime could be pinned on him. The same happened after a term of "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”), ordered by the criminal investigation department, in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 15 May until 24 June 1937 and a subsequent pretrial detention until 27 July 1937, which was not followed by a conviction.
On 10 Oct. 1942, Carl Steffen was put on the record again in accordance with Sec. 175 [of the Reich Criminal Code, relating to homosexual "offenses”] and placed in the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention center. Five days later, on 15 Oct. 1942, he committed, like many other homosexuals, suicide there for fear of torture during interrogations, long prison terms, and agonies in concentration camps. He hanged himself from a window frame.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: January 2019
© Ulf Bollmann/Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)
Quellen: StaH, 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 1627/42; 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b; 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 12, 16, 1998/1; 332-8 Meldewesen, A 34/1; 332-5 Standesämter, 1152 (Eintrag Nr. 539); Rosenkranz u.a., Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 260.
