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Wilhelm Kölpien * 1907

Ferdinand-Beit-Straße 12 (Kolbergstraße 22) (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)

Haft 1934 - 1935
verstorben an Haftfolgen
17.10.1935

Wilhelm Friedrich Kölpien, born 30 Oct. 1907 in Hamburg, died 17 Oct. 1935 at St. Georg’s General Hospital as a result of imprisonment at Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp

Last residential address: Kolbergstraße 22

Wilhelm Kölpien was employed as a worker in Hamburg and married Hildegard Wilhelmine, née Scholz. He had a son with her in 1933 named Uwe; the couple lived on Kolbergstraße in St. Georg. Since the age of 16, Wilhelm was a member of the communist youth organization in St. Georg and from 1930 belonged to the militant league against fascism.

In Jan. 1934 he took over political control of the cell "Post" and supplied the party members with literature. In Feb. 1934 he was arrested for collecting membership dues for the banned communist party KPD and sentenced by the criminal division of Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court for "preparing high treason". In July 1934 he was sent to Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp (KoLaFu) where he was imprisoned until Apr. 1935. After his release, he reported in his circle of family and friends that he had been subjected to severe maltreatment at KoLaFu.

Kölpien’s brother-in-law and fellow former inmate, Carl Stammerjohann, testified in an affidavit in 1946 that Wilhelm Kölpien described to him on the day of his release from Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp how he had been severely abused throughout his imprisonment by the Gestapo and later in the concentration camp, which left him with a chest injury. Wilhelm Kölpien’s state of health deteriorated steadily following his imprisonment. After a few days at work, he collapsed and eventually had to be admitted to St. Georg’s General Hospital in autumn 1935, where he perished on 17 Oct. 1935.

During the medical examination, he kept the true reasons for his symptoms secret and reported a sporting accident because he was afraid of being returned to the concentration camp. At the time, the hospital determined "endocarditis with deterioration of the heart valves" as the official cause of death; medical expert opinions which were prepared after the war within the framework of compensation procedures regarded it as very likely, however, that the young man’s fatal illness was attributable to the maltreatment and lack of medical care at Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. Wilhelm Kölpien’s surviving relatives consequently were awarded compensation.

A Stolperstein is located at the corner of Stiftstraße/Kolbergstraße (today a foot path) for Wilhelm Kölpien.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Benedikt Behrens

Quellen: AfW, Entschädigungsakte; AB 1936; VAN (Hg.), Totenliste Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer und Verfolgter, Hamburg 1968.