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Albert Malachowski * 1909

Schlegelsweg 13 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
ALBERT MALACHOWSKI
JG. 1909
VERHAFTET
‚VORBEREITUNG ZUM HOCHVERRAT’
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
TOT 20.12.1936

Albert Eduard Malachowski, born on 14 Feb. 1909 in Welsleben, died on 20 Dec. 1936 in the Hamburg pretrial detention center

Schlegelsweg 13

In 1931, Albert Malachowski was involved in an attack on a policeman that resulted in the officer’s death. The crime was connected to the political battles between the Nazis on the one hand and the Communists as well as Social Democrats on the other, increasingly carried on in the streets and continuously escalating.

Albert Malachowski, the son of the Royal Prussian grade crossing attendant Eduard Malachowski and his wife Minna Auguste, née Hunold, was born on 14 Feb. 1909 in the small town of Welsleben, only a few miles south of Magdeburg and west of Schönebeck (Elbe).

After his father’s fatal accident at work, the mother moved to Schlegelsweg 13 in Hamburg, probably in 1921. The directory lists Minna Malachowski since 1922. Even before then, someone by the name of C. Malachowski lived there, but it was not possible to establish that person’s relationship to Minna Malachowski.

A carpenter or, respectively, a cabinetmaker by trade, starting in 1927 Albert Malachowski studied architecture with Professor Hermann Maetzig at the Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) on Lerchenfeld. During his studies, he joined the German Communist Party (KPD) and the German Young Communist League (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands – KJVD). In June/July 1931, he became a member of the "youth self-protection” (Jugendselbstschutz – J.S.S.) in the Hamburg Nord-Osten District of the KJVD.

Albert Malachowski had a girlfriend, Hertha Wolf, who lived with her parents at Lübecker Strasse 70.

The few recorded details about his time at the School of Arts and Crafts are contained in the documents concerning disciplinary proceedings against the director of the State Art School (Landeskunstschule), Professor Maetzig, dating from 1934, which were initiated because, among other things, he had, "due to negligence, promoted the employment of the Communist Malachowski at the residential special school in Kollmar.”

Since a decree of the vocational school authority in 1930, students of Hamburg public schools were prohibited from being members of the KPD. Questioned on this score by Prof. Maetzig, Albert Malachowski had given his word that he had left the KPD and maintained no connections whatsoever to the Communist movement.

The destitute Albert Malachowski was one of the most talented and industrious students of the State Art School. He received scholarships on several occasions. After completing his studies, from about 1930 onward, he worked as an architect. In 1931, he planned a chicken farm in Meiendorf for his friend Walter Bunge modeled on a Soviet kolkhoz, designed to keep 150,000 layers.

Walter Bunge, also a KPD member, had become a pacifist in World War I. During a study trip to the Soviet Union, he had developed the idea of the chicken farm project, vigorously pushing ahead with it after his return, though ultimately, he was unable to realize the endeavor. After the transfer of power to the Nazis, Walter Bunge was arrested several times in early 1933 and executed in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary at the end of 1944. For him, a Stolperstein is located at Pusbackstrasse 38 in Hamburg-Rahlstedt (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg, p. 268ff.).

In the fall of 1932, Albert Malachowski successfully strove for readmission to the State Art School. He was unemployed and intended to use the time of unemployment toward further education. Professor Maetzig, the head of the school, described him as industrious and well-liked among his fellow students.

When the student body in Kollmar on the Elbe River leased a farm and intended to have it converted into a school camp (Schullandheim), they wished to get Albert Malachowski as a construction site manager. This task was transferred to him in June 1933 by the chairman and head of the Hitler Youth, Meierforth. In this context, the only aspect important was his craftsmanship. The assignment took five weeks to complete. The students were enthusiastic about Albert Malachowski.

In the summer of 1933, Albert Malachowski once again faced suspicions of having connections to the KPD. The investigation by the State Police (going in Hamburg by the official designation of Secret State Police [Gestapo] since Dec. 1935) came to nothing, however. He was allowed to stay at the State Art School. In his own disciplinary proceedings, Professor Maetzig stated about Albert Malachowski that one had had the impression that he had found his way to National Socialism based on deeply felt convictions.

After finishing his work in Kollmar, Albert Malachowski soon left the State Art School. He got a job as a draftsman in Kirchheim/Teck, but he was dismissed after only a few weeks. Allegedly, the State Police had ordered the company to do so. Having returned to Hamburg, Albert Malachowski was arrested by the State Police. He was never to regain his freedom. His accomplices in the 1931 attack, Rudolf Lindau, Friedrich Winzer, as well as two additional ones by the names of Pflugbeil and Heine were also established only in Nov. 1933.

For lack of other sources, the account of the sequence of events must be based on the grounds for the judgment at the end of 1933.

Allegedly, in the late evening of 27 Aug. 1931, Albert Malachowski and his four co-defendants had taken away the service weapon of police officer Perske, who was on his way to work, at Chateauneufstrasse in Hamburg-Hamm. Rudolf Lindau supposedly called out to the policeman, "Hands up!” When the latter turned around, apparently reaching for his pistol, Rudolf Lindau fired a shot against his own intention according to the testimony. Police officer Perske was seriously injured with a shot to the stomach. He died in hospital on 31 Aug. 1931.

According to the judgment by the Hanseatic special court (Hanseatisches Sondergericht), dated 30 Dec. 1933, the motive for the crime was the intention "to obtain as many weapons as possible toward preparing the assumption of power [by the Communists].” The verdict goes on, "These plans were also discussed in Lindau’s J.S.S. ["youth self-protection”] Group, which was only partially armed and strove for comprehensive arming. Initially, talk was of purchases, then hitting on the idea, however, of disarming police officers as no funds were available.”

The court considered it a proven fact that Rudolf Lindau, Friedrich Winzer, and Albert Malachowski had the intent of applying physical force or even of killing, as they were allegedly armed.

The court then established that it was not possible to prove that the defendants Malachowski and Winzer had participated in carrying out the attack on police officer Perske but definitely that they had participated in preceding discussions about the plans.

On 30 Dec. 1933, Albert Malachowski and Friedrich Winzer were sentenced by the Hanseatic special court for breach of the peace/jointly committed murder to four years in prison and loss of civil rights for five years; Rudolf Lindau was sentenced to death. He was executed on 10 Jan. 1934.

Coverage of the trial by Hamburg newspapers was extensive and one-sided.

Albert Malachowski did not live to see the end of his prison term, pre-noted on his prisoner file card for 30 Dec. 1937. He fell ill with influenza that he had contracted during loading work in the prison yard. This turned into pneumonia. On 14 Dec. 1936, he was transferred from the Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary to the pretrial detention facility at Am Holstenglacis. Albert Malachowski died in the central hospital of the Hamburg pretrial detention center six days later, on 20 Dec. 1936, at the age of only 27.

The memorial plaque in the entrance area of the Kola-Fu (=Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp) memorial site containing the names of prisoners who perished there also lists Albert Malachowski.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: AB; StaH 221-10 Dienststrafkammer, 162 Bd. 4 (Disziplinarverfahren Prof. Maetzig); 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, L0004/38 (Rudolf Lindau und andere); 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13, U-Haft, Abl. 16, U-Haft; 332-5 Standesämter 1052-323/1936, 7232-772/1939; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 36590; Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg, Archiv, 11/306 (Nachlass Walter Bunge); Standesamt der Verbandsgemeinde Egelner Mulde, Egeln; VVN-Hamburg, Archiv; Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu, S. 63, Hamburger Anzeiger 1933.