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Heinrich Suhren * 1913
Erichstraße 41 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)
Verhaftet 1937 und 1938
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Flucht in den Tod
19.09.1939
Heinrich Richard Theodor Suhren, b. 8.12.1913 in Altona, imprisoned in 1937, committed suicide 9.19.1939
Erichstraße 41 (Erichstraße 43)
Heinrich Suhren was born in 1913 in Altona, the son of Captain Richard Suhren and his wife Luise, née Woker. His mother died of poisoning in 1923, and his father committed suicide by hanging in 1933.
After finishing elementary school, Heinrich Suhren went to sea for four years, first as a cabin boy, then as an ordinary seaman, and finally as a mess steward. In 1932, he traveled to relatives in South Africa for half a year. After his return to Germany, he took a job as a coach cleaner with the National Railroad.
On 29 March he attempted suicide in his lodging at Eimsbütteler Strasse 38, 4th floor. Two weeks later he attempted it with an overdose of the sleeping pill Veronal. Afterwards, he was in the Langenhorn Psychiatric Hospital for seven months, where he was sterilized. Heinrich Suhren attributed his suicide attempts to psychological problems stemming from his homosexual orientation. The physicians at Langenhorn diagnosed debility of a moderate degree and spoke of schizophrenic psychosis. Three years later a court medical report stated that Heinrich Suhren presented no symptoms of abnormal thought processes or hallucinations; rather in "S’s case he is generally prone to giving way and weak-willed, inclined to depression.” After his release from Langenhorn, he again went to sea.
At the beginning of December 1937, his name was mentioned in the cross-examination of a former sexual partner. Thereupon, Heinrich Suhren, who was working as a mess steward on the steamer Iberia, was arrested aboard the ship three days before Christmas Eve and taken to city hall. On 22 December, he was placed in police "protective custody” in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, where he remained until 10 February 1938.
In his cross-examination he admitted to further male acquaintances, among them the English author Beverly Nichols, whom he had spoken to in front of the Lessing Theater at the Gänsemarkt. For the next day, Nichols had invited Suhren to his room in the Hotel Atlantik.
The trial took place on 25 March 1938 before the Hamburg District Court. The judge penalized Suhren with seven months in jail on grounds of continued violation of §175 of the Reich Penal Code in seven instances with reductions for investigative detention and time already served. A plea for clemency was unsuccessful. Freed, Heinrich Suhren hanged himself on 19 September 1939 while aboard the steamer Leuna.
Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: January 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann
Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 3485/38; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16; StaH 352-5 Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen, C II 1939 Standesamt 3 Nr. 643; StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 1995/2 Nr. 21438.
