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Alfred Böddicker * 1886

Simon-von-Utrecht-Straße 66 Altbau links neben Nr. 66 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

KZ Sachsenhausen
ermordet 13.08.1942

Alfred "Fred” Paul Böddicker, born on 18 Jan. 1886, detained in 1936 and 1939, died on 13 Aug. 1942 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Simon-von-Utrecht-Straße 65 (Eckernförderstraße 59)

The steward and waiter Alfred Böddicker was born in Elberfeld in 1886, the son of the married couple Gertrud (née Rieger) and Ferdinand Böddicker. In Hamburg, he was a member of the NSDAP’s "maritime section” (Abteilung Seefahrt) and a member of the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront – DAF). He was sentenced five times for signing off ships without authorization and for property offenses.

After his acquaintance Alfred Flanse (died on 14 Feb. 1944 in the Majdanek concentration camp) had been denounced by neighbor Karl Saatze in Apr. 1936, the criminal investigation department launched investigations against Alfred Böddicker as well. Saatze: "Now what Flanse had in mind with the young people I cannot say. Whenever I wanted to go and see for myself, the door was always locked and the keyhole plugged. … I would guess, however, that most of them are young male prostitutes hanging about in St. Pauli. It may be the case that Flanse made these boys walk the streets.”

When searching Böddicker’s room, police detectives came across the 19-year-old mess boy Werner W. As emerged during the interrogation, the two had met at the Millerntor in 1933. The lose acquaintance developed into a partnership and they had been living together since 1935.

On 30 July 1936, the "Grand Criminal Chamber I” (Grosse Strafkammer I) of the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) sentenced Alfred Böddicker to 18 months in prison for this relationship because of an offense pursuant to Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch – RStGB) (old and new version). His petition for clemency on 13 June 1937 was unsuccessful. His release from the Lübeck-Lauerhof penitentiary took place on 30 Oct. 1937.

In 1939, Alfred Böddicker was again the victim of a denunciation – this time by the former co-worker Robert B. Böddicker was held in police "protective custody” in the Fuhlsbüttel police concentration camp. That same year, the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) sentenced him to three years in prison pursuant to Sec. 175 RStGB. After spending a year in the Emsland camps, Böddicker was handed over to the Hamburg criminal investigation department in June 1940. There is evidence for mid-1942 that he was transported as a "limited-term prisoner in preventive custody” to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was murdered on 13 Aug. 1942.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Bernhard Rosenkranz (†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 10152/36; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16; Müller/Sternweiler, Homosexuelle Männer, 2000, S. 23.