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Bruno Müller * 1898

Seilerstraße 17 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
BRUNO MÜLLER
JG. 1898
VERHAFTET 1936
KZ NATZWEILER
ERMORDET 30.7.1941

further stumbling stones in Seilerstraße 17:
Werner Schmidt

Bruno Ferdinand Philipp Müller, born on 7 Mar. 1898, imprisoned in 1924, 1936, and 1939, died on 30 July 1941 in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp

Seilerstrasse, between house nos. 17 and 19 (Seilerstrasse 23)

Bruno Müller, a native of Magdeburg who had grown up in Gotha, did a commercial apprenticeship and worked at the Gothaer Lebensversicherungsbank, a life insurance company, before choosing a career as a musician and conductor starting in 1923. He was a member of the Reich Music Chamber (Reichsmusikkammer). In 1924, he stood trial for the first time on charges of a homosexual offense. He was sentenced to ten days in prison for assault and battery, i.e., because of homosexual advances, in accordance with Sec. 185 of the Reich Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch – RStGB). On 16 July 1936, he was committed to the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention facility on suspicion of having violated Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code. The trial took place before the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) in Dec. 1936. The judge punished him with a prison term of one year for continued offenses in accordance with Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code. Starting on 28 July 1937, Bruno Müller served the sentence, performing forced labor in the Emsland camp V Neusustrum.

In Apr. 1939, the criminal investigation department once more launched investigations against him. Bruno Müller had been incriminated through testimony by a male prostitute. By that time, Müller had given notification to the authorities that he was moving via Dresden to Berlin. At the end of May 1939, the Berlin police arrested him in order to transfer him to the Hanseatic city. On 2 June 1939, he was detained in the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention center. In Sept. 1939, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him to 18 months in prison for an offense in accordance with Sec. 175 of the Reich Criminal Code.

After having served his sentence in the Glasmoor penitentiary, Bruno Müller was transferred to the Hamburg Criminal Investigation Department on 26 Mar. 1941. Initially taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he was registered as a new admission in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on 26 or 29 June 1941 with the remark "BV/175 No. 364” [BV for "Berufsverbrecher,” i.e., "professional criminal,” and "175” for homosexual "offender”]. Bruno Müller perished there on 30 July 1941.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

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

Quellen: StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 9582/39; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16.