Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Rudolf Müller * 1910

Diesterwegstraße 4 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

Verhaftet 1936 und 1939
Flucht in den Tod
KZ Fuhlsbüttel 03.02.1939

Rudolf Albert Müller, born on 9 Mar. 1910, detained from 1936 until 1937, and in 1939, suicide on 3 Feb. 1939 in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp

Diesterwegstrasse 4

Rudolf Müller, born on 9 Mar. 1910 in Hamburg, was one of at least four children of Wilhelm Müller and Luise, née Wichmann. Rudolf Müller learned the tailor’s trade and worked in this occupation as a journeyman.

Together with his brother Herbert, also a homosexual, he frequented the gay bars "Colibri” (on Raboisen), "Stadtcasino” (on Graskeller), and the Alsterpavillon on a regular basis in the mid-1930s. In this period time, he lived with his parents at Ölmühle 27 in St. Pauli.

In the summer of 1936, the international guests attending the Olympiad in Berlin were supposed to experience the city undisturbed by the Gestapo’s persecution of homosexuals. During this time, the Special Unit Nord (Sonderkommando Nord) of the Gestapo based in Altona was used specifically for the persecution of homosexuals in Hamburg. In the course of the investigations of this tracing and search group, Herbert Müller too was arrested on 25 July 1936 and detained in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp until 24 August. During the search of the home of the arrested man’s parents on 28 July, the officers also encountered Rudolf Müller. His "outward appearance … and his demeanor as manifested in the process” prompted the police "to express strong suspicions of homosexual tendencies” vis-à-vis Rudolf Müller. He too was arrested one day later and remained in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp until 24 Aug. 1936. After initial denial, he conceded in subsequent interrogations a bisexual disposition and confessed to homosexual acts, though not naming any of his partners’ names. On 4 Sept. 1936, the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) sentenced him to one year in prison in accordance with Sec. 175 [of the Reich Criminal Code], old and new edition; in 1937, his father filed a plea for clemency, achieving a partial reduction of the sentence by 61 days.

On 24 Jan. 1939, he was arrested once more for an offense in accordance with Sec. 175 and, after interrogations, made to confess to two sexual acts with a soldier and with the 20-year-old traveling salesman Egon Hartmann, his steady boyfriend at the time. From 25 Jan. until 3 Feb. 1939, he was detained in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, where he hanged himself with a scarf on 3 Feb. 1939.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaHH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 8168/36; StaHH, 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 369/39; StaHH, 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 a; StaHH, 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; B. Rosenkranz/U. Bollmann/G. Lorenz: Homosexuellen-Verfolgung in Hamburg 1919–1969, S. 239.