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Adolf Ludwig Schrage * 1903

Rehmkoppel 19 (Wandsbek, Wellingsbüttel)

KZ Fuhlsbüttel
ermordet 12.10.1944

Adolf Schrage, born 9/9/1903 in Kassel, found hanged at Fuhlsbüttel police prison on 10/12/1944

Rehmkoppel 19

Adolf Schrage was born September 30th, 1893 as the son of the tailor Carl Ludwig Schrage and his wife Emma, née Arend; he was the younger brother of Karl Schrage (born 9/3/1893, cf. there) The family lived in Kassel; the brothers had six sisters: Wilhelmine Erna, born 12/7/1887, Emma Wilhelmine Magdalene, born 1/13/1892, Philippine Wilhelmine Elise, born 5/13/1895, Emilie, born 11/1/1897, Minna Luise, born 7/19/1898, Anna Maria, born 8/23/1900.

In mid-September 1931, Adolf Schrage moved from Kassel to Hamburg, where his brother Karl was living since 1929. Adolph worked as a technical employee for Klöckner Flugmotorenbau GmbH in Rothenburgsort, Andreas-Meyer-Strasse 47, a manufacturer of airplane engines. In nearby Marckmannstrasse 125, his brother Karl ran a gas station.

On September 9th, 1944, both brothers were arrested, charged with "fuel sabotage” and taken to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison. On September 12th, Karl Schrage was found hanged in his cell. Exactly one month later, on October 12th, 1944, his brother Adolf was found in the same situation. In both cases, the prison medical officer established "strangulation, suicide” as cause of death.

In their concluding report, the Gestapo wrote: "The technical employee Adolf Schrage [...] was arrested on 9/9/1944 for fuel sabotage and damaging defense materials. In his interrogation on 9/10/1944, Schrage admitted to having repeatedly misappropriated substantial quantities of gasoline and other items, e.g. engines, drills, etc. at Klöck¬ner Flugmotorenbau G.m.b.H., Hamburg 27, with the intention of trading these for rationed goods (groceries). In addition, he stole a motorcycle from a cellar in Rothenburgsort, Marckmannstrasse 82 shortly after the terror [air] raids [of 1943]. Schrage hanged himself in his cell at the Fuhlsbüttel police prison in the night before 10/12/1944.”
It remains unclear to what extent these accusations hold true. Gasoline and technical equipment, of course, were strictly rationed. Moreover, the proximity of his brother’s gas station to the Klöckner site may have provided logistics favorable for selling goods stolen from Klöckner. Corruption and personal enrichment were widespread among Nazi functionaries, so that "normal people” may have also been tempted to obtain benefits by illegal means – especially in the case of scarce commodities.

After the war, Karl Schrage’s widow filed a claim for compensation, based on her husband’s opposition to the Nazi state. A possible political background of the offenses in question may not be totally ruled out; it might have escaped the Gestapo’s attention. However, the widow avoided mentioning her brother-in-law in her claim, in spite of the fact that the two brothers’ fate. The records of the compensation agency reveal that they had doubts about the reasons given for Karl’s political persecution. The agency paid no compensation.
However, there can be no doubt that Adolf and Karl Schrage did not receive treatment according to the law. What really happened to them cannot be determined with certainty. Emil Schacht, who later married the widow of Karl Schrage, gave an account of an alleged eyewitness who appeared at the door of the couple’s home in 1950: "The man declared he had been a guard at the Fuhlsbüttel police prison and that the cell occupied by Herr Schrage had been in his sector. [… ] And continued that, one day, he had found the prisoner Herr Schrage hanged from the doorpost with a string. He could not have been dead for long. Asked if the prisoners had been abused, the witness declared that abuse occurred, but he himself had not actively taken part. Rather, other guards had […] herded the prisoners down into the cellar and severely beaten them with truncheons. Herr Schrage was among those mistreated. [… ] The eyewitness was unable to answer my question regarding the cause of Schrage’s death. Neither could he tell me where the string used for the hanging had come from. Obviously, a prisoner was not allowed to possess string."
It remains a mystery what this "eye witness report” means and if the "eye witness” actually was in contact with Karl Schrage. Perhaps Adolf and Karl Schrage were driven into suicide by extreme maltreatment and torture. However, it is equally possible that the brothers were beaten to death by the thugs on guard duty at Fuhlsbüttel prison.


Translation by Peter Hubschmid 2018
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


Stand: January 2019
© Ulrike Sparr

Quellen: StaH 331-5 3 1944 1420; StaH 351-11 19217; StaH 741-4 Fotoarchiv, K 4897; Auskunft Stadtarchiv Kassel, Mail 25.08.2010; Herbert Diercks, Gedenkbuch "KOLA-FU", S. 37; Frank Bajohr, Parvenüs und Profiteure, Frankfurt/M. 2001; Klaus Weinhauer, Handelskrise und Rüstungsboom, in: Hamburg im Dritten Reich, hrsg. von der Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, Göttingen 2005; Gestapo-Gefängnis Fuhlsbüttel, Erinnerungen, Dokumente, Totenliste, hrsg. Ursel Hochmuth und Erna Mayer, Hamburg 1997.