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Rudolf Lindau
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Rudolf Lindau * 1912

Wichernsweg 28 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

HIER WOHNTE
RUDOLF LINDAU
JG. 1912
VERHAFTET 20.10.1933
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
HINGERICHTET 10.1.1934

further stumbling stones in Wichernsweg 28:
Max Blaeser

Rudolf, "Rudi", Lindau, born 18.5.1912 in Hamburg, executed 10.1.1934 in Hamburg remand prison

Wichernsweg 28

Rudolf Ernst Lindau's life path was apparently preordained by that of his socialist parents, Rudolf and Auguste Lindau.

Rudolf Lindau's father had been born nine years after his sister Emma Friederike Sidonie, born Dec. 27, 1879, as Paul Rudolf Lindau on March 28, 1888 in Riddagshausen near Braunschweig. His parents were the journeyman saddler Hermann Wilhelm Otto Lindau and his wife Henriette Dorothee Sidonie, née Rindermann. During his wanderings as a journeyman saddler, Friedrich Ebert, later chairman of the SPD and first president of the German Reich, is said to have stayed with them around 1890, when he was on the run from the police as a politically persecuted person and had to change his residence frequently.

The Otto Lindau family did not stay in one place either. Son Rudolf started school in Braunschweig and then attended an elementary school in Hildesheim. The parents separated.

After school, Rudolf Lindau worked his way up from a simple laborer to a journalist and publicist. He began his political career at the age of sixteen by joining the trade union. When he moved to Hamburg in 1907, he also became a member of the SPD, and in 1911 he became an editor at its daily newspaper, the "Hamburger Echo." In the same year, the Hamburg address book lists him for the first time as a "secretary" with the address Laufgraben 29, as does his mother Sidonie. This remained their only entry in the Hamburg address book. Rudolf Lindau then moved to Kämmererufer 4 in Winterhude.

On February 28, 1912, Rudolf Lindau married Auguste Frieda Wilhelmine Helms, born November 15, 1883 in Schwerin, of Weidestraße 67 in Barmbek-Süd. His occupation was entered as "reporter" on the certificate, while Auguste's occupation - basket maker - is missing. His father was living in Braunschweig at the time. No one from the families appeared as a witness at the marriage ceremony.

On Nay 18, 1912 the only son, Rudolf Ernst called Rudi, was born. He spent his childhood on Kämmererufer.

Rudolf Lindau turned to the Spartacus League in 1916. He participated in World War I only in the last two years of the war. As an "armor soldier," i.e., a soldier assigned to fortification or construction work in the rear, he was not at the front. During his absence, his wife Auguste maintained contact with the Spartacus League headquarters in Berlin.

Rudolf Lindau, who led the Spartacus' illegal youth work, joined the newly founded KPD in 1919. In the course of his journalistic work, he inevitably became involved in the left's disputes over direction.

Soon after his father's return from the war, son Rudi was enrolled in the eighth grade of the elementary school on Schleidenstraße in Barmbek-Süd and joined the Social Democratic children's organization. (The grade count at that time started at eight and went to one, which became prima in the Gymnasium.)

Rudolf Lindau was elected to the Hamburg parliament in 1921 as a member of the KPD. The family moved to "red" Barmbek-South at Friedrichsbergerstraße 43 around the same time. As a successor, Rudolf Lindau was later to enter the Reichstag (German Parlament), but instead was remanded in custody in May 1924 as a member of the Central Council of the KPD, which was banned after the October 1923 uprisings.

Without being charged, he was released after one and a half years at the end of 1925 and stood there as a divorced man: on October 30, 1925, the marriage had been legally divorced.

Rudolf Lindau returned to his journalistic activities and in 1926/27 once again as a member of parliament.

At the age of twelve, son Rudi began to become active in Social Democratic youth groups and subsequently joined the Young Spartacus League. He completed his elementary school education with the first grade at Easter 1927 and began an apprenticeship as a skilled cement worker at the Dyckerhoff & Widmann company. At the same time, he joined the "Communist Youth League of Germany" (KJVD) and soon became active there as a functionary. After completing his training, he worked for his apprentice company until mid-1932.

The Hamburg address book of 1929 lists Auguste Lindau with the occupation "basket weaver," at Wichernsweg 28 Hs 2 No. 4, in the immediate neighborhood of Max Blaeser and his family. (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de)

At the KJV in Eilbek, Rudi Lindau and Liselotte Schlachcis (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), who was of Jewish origin, had met and become engaged. Both worked as youth functionaries and joined the KPD in 1932, he at barely 20, she at 22. They moved to Barmbek together. Later, for conspiratorial reasons, Rudi Lindau took a room not far from Max Blaeser at Kentzlersweg 17, while Liselotte also temporarily lived in the Wichernsweg 28.

As armed clashes between the SA and the Communists increased, youth functionaries formed youth self-protection groups in various parts of the city. Rudi Lindau became active in the KPD Wasserkante protection organization, which was responsible for protecting the KPD party house on Valentinskamp during demonstrations and rallies. He took part in military training and became an instructor himself.

For violent confrontations with the SA, the self-defense groups lacked weapons. If there was no money to buy them, they had to be stolen from someone. Rudi Lindau also participated in this. Apparently, later in the evening of August 27, 1931, he tried to disarm a policeman in Chateauneufstraße in Hamburg-Hamm -together with Albert Malachowski (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) and Friedrich Winzer. When they failed, they fled.

Fourteen days later, on September 10-11, 1931, Rudi Lindau pasted KPD election posters on the corner of Kantstraße and Schellingstraße in Eilbek. In the process, he was arrested. Since he was carrying a dagger knife, he was charged not only with illegal poster pasting (a fine of 20 RM, or five days in prison), but also with misuse of weapons (three months in prison). In addition, he had to pay the costs of the proceedings.

On January 27, 1932, he was released from prison and lost his job. He found a new job as an ironworker with the Holzmann company, but soon lost it again.

After the National Socialists came to power, they took up the prosecution of alleged or actual crimes from the period of the Weimar Republic that were directed against them or that they considered to be so. The most famous of these cases concerned the "Altona Bloody Sunday" (see as an example Karl Wolff www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

On October 26, 1933, Rudi Lindau was arrested in the apartment of his partner Liselotte Schlachcis. After interrogation by the state police, he was transferred to the Kola-Fu. The prosecution charged him with the "joint murder" of policeman Perske at the end of August 1931.

According to the later court proceedings, the facts of the case were as follows: on August 27, 1931, he and two others had taken the service weapon from police officer Perske, who was on his way to work. He is said to have called out to the policeman: "Hands up". When the policeman turned around and apparently wanted to reach for his pistol, Rudolf Lindau shot against his intention, according to the statement. Police Sergeant Perske was seriously wounded by a bullet in the stomach. He died in hospital on August 31, 1931.

In its verdict of December 30, 1933, the Hanseatic Special Court described as the motive for the deed the intention "to procure as many weapons as possible in preparation for the seizure of power [by the Communists]." It goes on to say, "These plans were also discussed in the Lindau J.S.S. group, which was only partially armed and was striving for complete armament. At first there was talk of purchases, but then, because there was no money, came up with the idea of disarming police officers."

The court considered it proven that Rudolf Ernst Lindau, Friedrich Winzer and Albert Malachowski had wanted to use physical force or even kill, because they had been armed. The defendants Malachowski and Winzer could not be proven to have participated in the execution of the robbery, but they could be proven to have taken part in previous discussions about the plans. On December 30, 1933, they were sentenced by the Hanseatic Special Court to four years' imprisonment and five years' loss of honor for breach of the peace and murder committed jointly.

The Hanseatic Special Court sentenced Rudi Lindau to death on December 30, 1933.
Nothing is known about letters of farewell. An application for clemency was rejected "because of the public dangerousness of his deed".
Rudolf Ernst Lindau, not yet 22 years old, was beheaded with a guillotine on January 10, 1934, at 7 a.m. in the courtyard of the Hamburg remand prison at Holstenwall in the presence of 16 witnesses.

The usual public announcement appeared in the Amtlicher Anzeiger of January 12, 1934, No. 10 p. 41, and 30 large-format red posters were also displayed.
Rudolf Ernst Lindau's body was cremated in Ohlsdorf, the urn given to his mother and buried on February 19, 1934 at Chapel 13. (The grave was abandoned in the late 1940s).

On May 10, 1964, a memorial stone in memory of Rudolf Ernst Lindau was unveiled in the Resistance Fighters' Grove of Honor at Ohlsdorf Cemetery

Father Paul Rudolf Lindau emigrated to the USSR at the end of February 1934. Whether there was only a temporal or also a causal connection could not be clarified. He survived the Stalinist purges, returned to Germany in the Soviet occupation zone, and died on October 18, 1977.

We do not know the date and place of death of his mother Auguste Lindau.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: AB; StaHH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, AO1950/32, L0004/38 (Rudolf Lindau und andere), 50874, 76292; 241-1 I, 2542; 241-1, Justizverwaltung, 2542; 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13, U-Haft, Abl. 16; 332-5 Standesämter 1023-10/1934; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 36590; Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg, Archiv, 11/306 (Nachlass Walter Bunge); VVN-Hamburg, Archiv; Hochmuth, Ursel: Ehrenhaingedenkbuch; https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/rudolf-lindau; https://www.dhm.de/lemo/biografie/friedrich-ebert; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Lindau_(Politiker), Aufrufe 22.7.2021; persönliche Mitteilungen von Angehörigen (Birte Green).