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Wilhelm Oefele * 1910

Bleicherstraße 19 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
WILHELM OEFELE
JG. 1910
MEHRMALS VERHAFTET
1941 KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1943 NEUENGAMME
TOT AN HAFTFOLGEN

Wilhelm Kurt Oefele, née Drommert, born 11 Jan. 1910, detained in 1936, 1937, 1941, died on 22 Mar. 1948 at Langenhorn General Hospital in Hamburg, likely due to the longterm effects of his imprisonment

Bleicherstraße 19 (Bleicherstraße 21)

Wilhelm Oefele was born the illegitimate child of Gertrud Drommert in Hamburg on 11 Jan. 1910. When she married the stoker Gregor Oefele, he took on his stepfather’s last name. When Wilhelm Oefele was 12 years old, his mother died and he went to an orphanage in Oberhausen. After finishing school he completed a four-year baker’s apprenticeship and then worked as a journeyman. In 1929 he moved to Hamburg where he lived off of odd jobs.

In 1936 the marriage of convenience between Irma Fischer (1908–2001) and Adolf Großkopf (1906–1975) was reveal to be phony, most likely when he became under police scrutiny during an investigation of a young male prostitute and his subsequent arrest for offenses under section 175 of the Reich’s penal code. The two had intended for their marriage to conceal their homosexuality from surrounding society. This was not the only instance in which it failed.

"She [Irma Fischer] knew about his homosexual nature, and due to her own abnormal sexual orientation she regarded their marriage merely as a ‘marriage of companionship’. Soon after their wedding, Großkopf received a marriage loan of 700 Reich Marks which was granted to him under a completely false premise due to his marriage of convenience. He used the loan to procure … necessary furnishings", as was the conclusion of the legal aid for adults.

Wilhelm Oefele also became embroiled in the criminal investigation into Fischer/Großkopf. He had met Großkopf at the start of 1930 in the popular bar "Zu den drei Sternen” at Hütten 60 (Neustadt) and maintained a sexual relationship with him until May 1931. Großkopf’s circle of acquaintances also included Fritz Meincke (born on 11 Jan. 1912 in Hamburg, died 27 July 1941 in Sloboda near Smolensk in the Soviet Union; stumbling stone: Schäferkampsallee 56).

All three men and Irma Großkopf (née Fischer) were brought to trial at the Hamburg District Court on 7 Sept. 1936. The proceedings against Wilhelm Oefele were closed at the request of the public prosecutor’s office on the basis of the Immunity Act of 7 Aug. 1934. His sexual contact with Großkopf was barred due to the statute of limitations. For a further homosexual act from recent times, "a punishment longer than 6 months was not to be expected in light of the defendant’s good conduct and the relatively mild degree of his guilt”.

The baker Fritz Meincke, on the other hand, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for repeated offenses after section 175 of the Reich’s penal code. Irma and Adolf Großkopf were found guilty of simple fraud.

District Court Director Gernet stated in his decision: "At the beginning of 1935, Grosskopf decided to marry so that he could counter the rumours of his homosexual disposition in his social circle by citing his marriage and, in spite of the marriage, continue to maintain his relationship with Meincke unrestrained. … Both defendants admitted having agreed prior to their wedding, which the two of them only entered into for financial security and a more comfortable life, that a sexual relationship was out of the question for them as a couple and instead each wanted to pursue their abnormal tendencies separately … The money they received in the form of fulfillment of demand certificates they initially used to purchase furnishings, but later mostly repaid them.”

Adolf Großkopf was sentenced to a total of 30 months in prison for his homosexual acts with Oefele and Meincke. Irma Großkopf received three months in prison.

In 1937 a male prostitute named Wilhelm Oefele as one of his former sexual partners while under interrogation. Oefele was aprehended as a result and held at Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and then at Hamburg City Remand Prison from 21 May until 15 June 1937. On 30 June 1937, he was sentenced by Hamburg Local Court to a year and six months in prison after section 175 of the Reich’s penal code. He served his sentence at Fuhlsbüttel Prison.

After he had returned to freedom, Wilhelm Oefele was hired in Jan. 1939 by the Reinecke Shipping Company and set out to sea as the cook on the steamship Lotte. On board he performed same-sex acts with the mess hall bus boy and the steward. In Sept. 1941 one of his former sexual partners recognized his mugshot in a police file. After his arrest, Oefele was detained at Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 9 to 16 Oct. 1941. He then waited for his trial at Hamburg City Remand Prison. During questioning at his proceedings on 10 Apr. 1942 at Hamburg Local Court under the presiding Local Court Director Erwin Krause, Oefele admitted to "having committed sexual offenses” in five instances in the years 1940 and 1941.

He had met one of his partners in autumn 1940 at the bar "Zum Anker” at Taubenstraße 12 and another in the public bathroom at Millerntor. Oefele was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for offenses after section 175 of the Reich’s penal code in five instances. Krause stated: "The defendant is not a blank slate. … [He] is a character who will hardly change. The defendant’s attention is drawn to the fact that he has no other choice than to decide whether he wants to have himself castrated or he wants to risk the punishment of preventive detention in the event he should re-offend."

District Court Director Krause in his verdict referred to "voluntary castration", a further instrument used to persecute homosexual men in existence since 26 June 1935 based on the "law to amend the Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases". Afterwards castrated men, whose sex drive was now wiped out, had a slim chance of avoiding enforcement of preventive detention after serving their sentence. Defendants were to make their "decision” without any external pressure or the announcement of a possible suspension of sentence. In his judgement, Krause violated this rule. Nor could the decision be described as "voluntary” since those affected usually were already in prison when they decided to undertake the operation. In point of fact, it was the "choice”, recommended during the hearing or in judgements or made in prison, between the complete loss of sex drive and continued criminalization.

Apparently Wilhelm Oelfele decided against the surgical mutilation of his body because after serving his sentence in Wolfenbüttel Prison he was taken to Neuengamme concentration camp. His admission there on 13 Mar. 1943 is noted under the prisoner number 27105 and the addition "Homo”. A police registration exists for Oefele in Hamburg from 1 June 1945 with the remark "from concentration camp”. On 19 Feb. 1946 he was sentenced by the Hamburg Local Court to three weeks in prison for dealing on the black market. Wilhelm Oefele died on 22 Mar. 1948 of "pulmonary tuberculosis" at Langenhorn General Hospital in Hamburg, presumably as a longterm effect of his lengthy concentration camp imprisonment.


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

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

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 9180/36 und 3710/42; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16; 331-1 II Polizeibehörde II, Abl. 15, Band 1; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, B 3 1948 Standesamt Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, Nr. 665; StaH 332-5 Standesämter B 3 1941 Standesamt 2 Nr. 501; Bundesarchiv Berlin, NS 3/1755, Hollerith-Vorkarteikarte des SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungs-Hauptamtes Amtsgruppe D. Konzentrationslager vom Sommer bis Herbst 1944; Grau, Homosexualität, 2004, S. 306f.