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Gustav Lampe * 1893

Billhorner Röhrendamm Ecke Lindleystraße (Hamburg-Mitte, Rothenburgsort)

HIER WOHNTE
GUSTAV LAMPE
JG. 1893
VERHAFTET 1934
’BEIHILFE ZUM MORD’
AN SA-MANN
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1936 SACHSENHAUSEN
ERMORDET 10.11.1936

Gustav Lampe, born 26 Mar. 1893 in Hamburg, died 10 Nov. 1936 in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Corner of Billhorner Röhrendamm and Lindleystraße (Billwerder Neuer Deich 13)

Gustav Lampe was a member of the KPD (German Communist Party) and the Red Front-Fighters (Roter Frontkämpferverbund, RFB), but did not hold an office in either. He was from a working class family and grew up in the Gängeviertel in Hamburg. When he was born, his parents Conrad Heinrich (originally from Lübeck) and Caroline Maria Henriette (originally from Rendsburg) lived at Zweite Vorsetzen 24 in a Sahl – the one-room upper story of a building. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Langergang 6. In May 1894, when Gustav was only six years old, his father was killed in an accident while working as a stevedore on board the steamer Ariadne. His mother worked as a manual laborer, and three years later married the wood turner Hugo Heinrich Alfred Lablack. The couple divorced in 1900.

Nothing is known about Gustav’s schooling and professional training. When he married Margarethe Ruppert in 1920, he was working as a stevedore. Gustav and Margarethe Lampe were the same age. They belonged to the Lutheran church and lived at Süderstraße 47. They apparently had no children.

Before the Reichstag elections on 14 September 1930, both the Communists and the Nazis organized propaganda rallies. On 7 September 1930, Gustav Lampe participated in the parade of trucks organized by the KPD and the RFB, which had been banned the year before. In the area around the Sternschanze, the Communists and the Nazis clashed and a street fight ensued, during which the SA troop leader Heinrich Dreckmann was stabbed. He died on the way to the hospital. Gustav Lampe received a head wound.

Gustav Lampe often drove the RFB regional organization leader Erich Krollmann to rallies on his motorcycle. Several of these rallies ended in clashes with Nazis, including the one in Altona on 9 August 1931, when a vote was held on the proposed dissolution of the Prussian State Parliament (Altona was Prussian at the time). One year later, on 10 April 1932, elections were held for the office of the Reichspresident. That afternoon there was again a clash between Communists and Nazis, and there was a shooting on Ausschlägerweg in Hammerbrook, in which two SA men died. Erich Krollmann was accused of having ordered the confrontation, and Gustav Lampe, as his driver, was charged as an accessory to murder.

Gustav Lampe was arrested on 16 May 1933. His divorce was finalized on 28 June. He remained in pre-trial detention until 8 March 1934, and was then released into "protective custody.” On 30 May 1934 he was once again put into pre-trial detention, and was handed over to the State Police on 15 October 1936.

The court declared the confrontation on Ausschlägerweg a "brawl” and a disturbance of the peace. After the Nazis came to power, however, the case against the RFB was re-opened with the conclusion "that all deaths which can be accounted to the RFB were deliberate and pre-meditated,” for which reason the crime of 19 April 1932 "must be considered common and malicious murder,” as declared by the Chief State’s Attorney in the Special Court. Gustav Lampe was re-tried, this time as an accomplice to murder, and was re-sentenced.

No documents regarding the trial and its outcome have survived. Had Gustav Lampe been found guilty of murder, he would have been sentenced to prison. Since he was released from pre-trial detention on 15 October 1936, the sentence must have been so mild that it was considered served with his three years of pre-trial detention and "protective custody.” Whereas others who were persecuted for political reasons were released into freedom after their sentences, Gustav Lampe was turned over to the State Police and transferred to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where he died on 19 November 1936.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: VAN-Totenliste 1968; StaH 242-1 II, Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferung 16, U-Haft Männer; 332-5 Standesämter, 2312+1230/1893, 2811+52/1893; 3384+23/1920; 621-1/90, Firmen, Fa. Dres. Kehlenbeck & Grisemann, Bde 1 u. 10.