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Ludwig Petersen
© Staatsarchiv Hamburg

Ludwig Petersen * 1895

St. Pauli Hafenstraße zwischen 116 - 120 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
LUDWIG PETERSEN
JG. 1895
VERHAFTET 1939
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
KASTRIERT
ERMORDET 9.4.1945
ZUCHTHAUS CELLE

Ludwig Hansen Petersen, born 5/12/1895, imprisoned 1923, 1926, 1931, 1939 and 1943, died 4/9/1945 at Celle Prison

St. Pauli Hafenstrasse, between numbers 116 and 120 (Hafenstrasse 118)

Ludwig Petersen, born in Tondern in South Schleswig (now Denmark), worked as shoemaker, messenger and unskilled concrete and construction site helper. He had a criminal record for property offenses. In 1923, 1926 and 1931 he stood trial because of his homosexuality and was sentenced to terms between one week and five months in jail for indecent behavior and assault.

Under Nazi rule, he came into conflict with the tightened art. 175 of the Penal Code because of his sexuality. From March 8th to 14th, 1939, he was in "protective police custody” at the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. The Hamburg District Court sentenced him to one year in jail.

A further trial followed in 1943 – this time in the Hamburg Court of Appeals that sentenced him to two years and six months at hard labor and subsequent preventive custody. From the verdict: "The authorized expert Medizinalrat Dr. Wildhagen calls him a libidinal, slightly imbecile psychopath who is equally active as a homosexual and an exhibitionist.”

Ludwig Petersen served his sentence at the Fuhlsbüttel and Celle prisons. In the hope of regaining freedom, he agreed to his "voluntary” castration. The operation was performed at the hospital of the remand jail in Berlin-Alt-Moabit on March 9th, 1944. From there, however, he was transported back to Celle prison, where he perished on April 9th, 1945.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Bernhard Rosenkranz (†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, A07737/32 und 2878/45; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16; StaH 352-12 Gesundheitsbehörde – Sonderakten, Abl. 1999/1 Petersen, Ludwig Hansen.