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Wilhelm Lührsen * 1904

Krummholzberg 2 (Harburg, Harburg)

HIER WOHNTE
WILHELM LÜHRSEN
JG. 1904
IM WIDERSTAND
VERRHAFTET 1934
FUHLSBÜTTEL
1943 STRAFBATAILLON 999
TOT JAN. 1945 IN
GRIECHENLAND

further stumbling stones in Krummholzberg 2:
Harry Naujoks, Henry Naujoks

Wilhelm Lührsen, born on 6 July 1904 in Harburg, drafted into the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999), missing in Greece since Jan. 1945

District of Harburg-Altstadt, Krummholzberg 2

The father of Wilhelm Lührsen by the same name, the worker Wilhelm Lührsen, was born in Bremen on 10 Aug. 1863. In the 1920s, he lived as a widower in Harburg at Eddelbüttelstrasse 32, together with his sons Wilhelm and Georg, born on 20 Aug. 1907 in Harburg.

Wilhelm Lührsen jr. married the worker Maria Kubes, born on 30 Dec. 1906 in Harburg. They had one son: Gerhard Lührsen, born on 26 May 1932. Wilhelm Lührsen jr. worked as a self-employed shoemaker with a workshop in Altona at Kruppstrasse 24 (today: Ruhrstrasse), where he moved as well in Dec. 1931. He was a Communist and participated in the resistance movement in 1933, probably in Altona, where hardly anyone knew him. On 11 May 1934, he was arrested in his workshop and sentenced by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht) for "preparation to high treason” ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat”) to one year in prison, which he served in the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary.

During his prison term, his workshop was plundered, whether on official orders or by private persons is not known. The entire fixtures and fittings were taken away. After 1945, his wife argued vis-à-vis the authorities that he had been expropriated by the city, but the city representatives denied this. When Wilhelm Lührsen was released, his workshop was closed. He stayed unemployed until 1940. The family moved to Harburg again, into the house at Krummholzberg 2.

Since 1942, many convicted resistance fighters were drafted into penal battalions, e.g., the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999) (see Fritz Dringelburg). Generally, they reported for duty on the military training area on Heuberg in the Swabian Jura. The battalions were then deployed in Southeastern Europe or in North Africa. On 3 Feb. 1943, this fate caught up with Wilhelm Lührsen as well, and he was sent to Southeastern Europe. His last message to his wife, by then living at Anzengruberstrasse 17, was dated 22 Jan. 1945 from Greece. He has been missing since then. On 28 Aug. 1950, he was officially declared dead by the Harburg District Court (Amtsgericht).

Over many years, Maria Lührsen fought for restitution, which she was denied, however. As in numerous other cases, the authorities wrote to her that if he had not been drafted into the probation battalion, he would have become a regular soldier and the same fate could have befallen him. In arguing this way, though, they overlooked that the soldiers of the probation battalions were often deployed in particularly dangerous places and used downright as "cannon fodder.” Greece and Yugoslavia in particular were dangerous theaters of operation due to the presence of strong partisan armies.


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

Stand: March 2017
© Hans-Joachim Meyer

Quellen: VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Die anderen, s. Personenverzeichnis; StaH, 332-8 Meldewesen, A46; StaH, 332-8 Meldewesen, A49, Steuer- und Wahlkartei 1943; StaH, 351-11, AfW, Wilhelm Lührsen; StaH, Adressbücher Harburg-Wilhelmsburg und Hamburg.