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Paul Schumacher * 1872

Niendorfer Gehege 1 (Eimsbüttel, Niendorf)

HIER WOHNTE
PAUL SCHUMACHER
JG. 1872
VERHAFTET 1941
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
HAMBURG
23.7.1941

Johann Carl Paul Schumacher, born on 4 Aug. 1872 in Hamburg, detained in 1941, died as a result of a suicide attempt in Hamburg on 23 July 1941

Niendorfer Gehege 1 (Im Gehölz 1)

Paul Schumacher was born in Hamburg-Pöseldorf on Mittelweg in 1872 as the son of the teacher Friedrich Schumacher and Caroline Schumacher, née Evers. Trained as a helmsman, he was married to Auguste Kiel, née Böhmer, a widow from Itzehoe. The marriage produced two daughters. Until the end of the 1920s, the family lived on Paulinenallee in Eimsbüttel, among other places.

Beginning in 1931, Paul Schumacher was suffering from a heart condition and asthma, subsequently being afflicted by an arteriosclerotic ailment as well.

There is no proof as to whether he is identical with the Paul Schuhmacher detained in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 19 until 23 Aug. 1939; however, no other parallel case of a namesake exists that led to imprisonment or conviction before a court.

Documented on record and attributable, however, is an arrest of Paul Schumacher on 13 Feb. 1941, after he had come under suspicion of having infringed Sec. 175 [of the Reich Criminal Code]. At the time, he was already retired. He was accused of having indecently assaulted a 16-year-old boy. Later, his wife stated in evidence that possibly this involved a report to police for reasons of revenge, because her husband had not accepted the boy in question as the niece’s boyfriend.

One day after his arrest, Schumacher was transferred to the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention center.

Since his state of health deteriorated during the prison term, he was transferred to Barmbek General Hospital on 13 May, subsequently being discharged from there to go home on 8 July 1941. Shortly before his death, Paul Schumacher confided in a female physician that he had taken a strong sleep-inducing medication, several tablets of Phenobarbital (Luminal), on 15 July. Whether taking this drug was causally related to his death, which occurred on 23 July 1941, whether he took additional pills, or whether ultimately, his serious underlying conditions resulted in his death was not clarified, nor was the charge for an offense pursuant to Sec. 175. Nevertheless, Paul Schumacher’s death is connected to the Nazis’ persecution of homosexuals and therefore, a Stolperstein is intended to commemorate his personal fate.


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht), A 241 (Eintrag Nr. 1206); StaH 213-8 (Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung), Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; StaH 242-1II (Gefängnisverwaltung II), Ablieferung 16; StaH 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle), 1272/41; Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann/ Gottfried Lorenz: Homosexuellen-Verfolgung in Hamburg 1919–1969, Hamburg 2009, S. 256.