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Hermann Martinius * 1888

Möllner Landstraße 107 (Hamburg-Mitte, Billstedt)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN MARTINIUS
JG. 1888
VERHAFTET
’ILLEGALES RADIOHÖREN’
ZUCHTHAUS HAMELN
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
26.1.1945

Hermann Martinius, born on 20 July 1888 in Horneburg, death on 26 Jan. 1945 in the Hameln penitentiary

Möllner Landstrasse 107

"On 22 Jan. 1945, the prisoner 302/44 Herm[ann] Martinius fell ill with bouts of diarrhea, immediately getting bed rest, convalescent diet, opium, and activated charcoal. After having collapsing on 26 January, he was admitted to the prison hospital. With the manifestation of acute cardiac insufficiency, death already occurred at 5 p.m. As was determined and as M[artinius] himself admitted to me on 26 January in the morning, M. had ingested used machine oil before 22 Jan. 1945. The consumption of this used machine oil can obviously be regarded as the cause of the severe diarrhea.”

With this letter dated 1 Feb. 1945, the resident physician of the penitentiary in Hameln/Weser answered Amalie Martinius’ inquiry about the causes of the sudden death of her husband, who shortly before had told her that he was healthy and well. Amalie Martinius doubted the account of the causes of her husband’s death. Her doubts were not dispelled either when she wished to pick up her husband’s belongings at the Hameln penitentiary. The items were "withheld as compensation for 1.29 RM (one reichsmark and 29 pfennigs) (!) in funeral expenses;” the error was later corrected to 129 RM.

Amalie Martinius was born as Amalie Wunderlich in Hamburg on 5 June 1893. She was Hermann Martinius’ second wife. He was born on 20 July 1888, the son of the grocer Friedrich Martinius in Horneburg, District of Stade. He attended the local eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) and afterward high school (Gymnasium) in Stade, with the intention of embarking on a career as a writer. Forced to do so by the early death of his father, he left high school in grade 9, preparing himself for taking over the parents’ business. He completed an apprenticeship as a sales assistant in the yard goods field in Osnabrück.

Hermann Martinius entered into his first marriage that produced son Heinz-Joachim, born on 10 July 1912 in Bremen. Until being called up during World War I to serve in the 8th Fighter Battalion in July 1915, Hermann Martinius worked as a commercial clerk. His deployment on the front in France ended with a tendon operation, which rendered him unfit for frontline duty. He was stationed with the artillery flying school near Mitau (today Jelgava) in Latvia, and discharged as an airman first class in 1918. He decided to forgo being decorated with the Honor Cross for Front-Line Veterans.

In 1919, Hermann Martinius found a job as a storekeeper with the Unterweser Consumer and Savings Cooperative (Konsum- und Sparverein) in Wesermünde, where he worked until 1923. His son Heinz-Joachim was enrolled at school there as well in 1919. He subsequently attended the Realschule [a practice-oriented secondary school up to grade 10] and chose a career as an export merchant.

After his relocation to Hamburg, Hermann Martinius started his own business as an agent for linen, hats, and caps, which developed into work as business activity as a wholesaler. His major source of income was the representation of the "Hamburger Wäschefabrik,” a linen manufacturer on Spaldingstrasse. In Jan. 1931, he suffered from severe influenza encephalitis ("Kopfgrippe”), as a result of which he was no longer able to practice his occupation as a commercial agent.

On 19 Oct. 1933, Amalie Martinius gave birth to daughter Helga. Not before July 1936 did Hermann Martinius find a new job, initially as a laborer, later as a messenger with the army ordnance depot in Glinde. His son Heinz-Joachim joined the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – NSDAP) and the SS in 1937 and the Waffen SS in 1939. He fought in Greece, was wounded, fell ill with malaria, and in 1944, when the train carrying him to the military hospital in Belgrade was bombed, he was buried alive. With serious brain injuries, he was in the military hospital in Belgrade at the time his father was on trial before the Hamburg special court (Hamburger Sondergericht).

On 20 June 1944, the Hamburg special court sentenced Hermann Martinius for offenses against Sec. § 1 of the Radio Ordinance (Rundfunkverordnung) dated 1 Sept. 1935 to three years in prison and loss of civil rights for three years, with the three months in police and pretrial detention calculated against his sentence. He owned an "Emerson-Luxor” radio set featuring five tubes, without setting scale, which he used to listen to BBC broadcasts on a regular basis. The charge was that initially, the accused had found the frequency by chance but that afterward, he specifically searched for it. In addition, he had allegedly spoken about what he had heard with colleagues at the army ordnance depot in Glinde, something that was impossible to prove, however. One can assume that on 21 Mar. 1944, Hermann Martinius was arrested because of a denunciation and transported to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison by the Gestapo. During the subsequent house search, the radio set was seized. The Gestapo officers also confiscated a collection of newspaper clips dating from 1940 to 1943 that revealed, through the underlined passages and commentaries, Martinius’ negative attitude toward the Nazi regime.

In May, Hermann Martinius was transferred to the Holstenglacis pretrial detention facility, where he remained until the trial. The court confirmed him, a "muddlehead” and "loner,” to be harmless, which did not save him, however, from serving a prison sentence in the Hameln penitentiary. His wife and daughter received no financial assistance whatsoever during his prison term. Amalie Martinius tried to make ends meet by working as a launderer.

It was impossible to clarify the actual cause of her husband’s death.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Initiative Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Billstedt

Quelle: VAN-Totenliste 1968; Für Freiheit und Demokratie; StaH, 351-11 AfW, 100712.