Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Willy Krause
© Privatbesitz

Willy Krause * 1896

Papenstraße Ecke Ruckteschellweg (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
WILLY KRAUSE
JG. 1896
VERHAFTET 1944
"WEHRKRAFTZERSETZUNG"
1944 GEFÄNGNIS TORGAU
"SONDERBATAILLON"
DIRLEWANGER
TOT 26.2.1945
LÜBBEN / SPREEWALD

Willy Ernst Emil Krause, born 1 July 1896 in Hamburg, died 26 Feb. 1945 in Lübben, Spreewald after being wounded in the SS Special Unit Dirlewang

Papenstraße/Ecke Ruckteschellweg (Papenstraße 107)

Willy Krause came from a social-democratic Hamburg family. He had a younger brother Walter Adolf August, born in 1898. His father, Emil Krause, became editor of the "Hamburger Echo" in 1896. From 1907 to 1933 he was a continuous citizen of Hamburg. During the entire era of the Weimar Republic, Emil Krause was Senator for Schools, Education and Youth. The street Krausestraße in the district Dulsberg is named after him. The school at the corner of Krausestraße/Straßburger Straße also bears Emil Krause’s name. Willy Krause’s mother was Dorothea, née Schröder.

At the time of Willy Krause’s birth, his parents lived at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 121, an address no longer in existence today. He attended school from 1902 until 1910. His parents moved several times during these years. They lived at Eichenstraße 87 in Eimsbüttel, on Quickbornstraße, at Hoheluftchaussee 123 and at Breitenfelder Straße 32 in the district Hoheluft. When he finished school, Willy trained to become a librarian and then found a job with the Central Commission for Workers’ Education of the Trade Unions in the Trade Union Center at Besenbinderhof in St. Georg. Willy Krause fought in World War I, but the location and length of his deployment are not known.

In 1920 he married Anna Henriette Lühnen who was his same age, daughter of a barge captain, and also born in Hamburg. The couple Willy and Anna Krause had three children, Ilse (born in 1921), Werner (born in 1922) and Ernst (born in 1931).

In 1933 Willy Krause was still working as a librarian at the Central Commission for Workers’ Education of the Trade Unions. Im May he was dismissed by the National Socialist rulers for being a longterm member of the Social Democratic Party. Willy Krause was unable to find another job in his profession because he allegedly was "not familiar with National-Socialist literature" and was regarded to be "foreign to the profession". The couple therefore first tried to earn a living outside of Hamburg with a retail store in Pinneberg. At the end of Sept. 1933, the family moved to Bahnhofstraße 18 in Pinneberg and opened a colonial goods, fats and oils store there on 2 Oct. 1933. The store closed on 2 May 1936.

On 11 May 1936 the family returned to Hamburg. From then on they lived in Hamburg-Eilbek, first at Papenstraße 111, from 1939/1940 at Papenstraße 107. Willy Krause found work with a fish selling company at the Altona Fish Market. Every day he rode his bicycle come rain or shine about 8 km in each direction from Eilbek to Altona and back again. It is not known whether Willy Krause also had to survive periods of unemployment. It is known, however, that the family was dependent on the financial support of Willy’s father, the former Senator Emil Krause.

Willy Krause was conscripted into the Wehrmacht on 25 Oct. 1939. From that point on, his family received military pay. Willy Krause first served in various regional troop battalions in the Nienburg Region along the River Weser which primarily had to take on transport safety duties. Already on 31 Oct. 1939 he was promoted to sergeant, in 1941 to platoon sergeant. In 1942 he transferred to Regional Troop Battalion 687, whose name was later changed to Transport Security Battalion 687. This military unit was stationed in Brussels. Willy Krause must have performed his duties as a soldier to the full satisfaction of his superiors for he was awarded the War Merit Cross, Second Class with Swords in Nov. 1943.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg ("Operation Gomorrah"), the district Eilbek was nearly completely destroyed in the night of 26 July 1943. The home of the Krause Family at Papenstraße 107 also fell victim to the flames that night. All family documents were destroyed, so no photographs or documents from that period exist.

After they were bombed out, the family initially found accommodation at the father’s vacation home in Weihe, near Schierhorn, north of the Lüneburg Heath. There they cooked and heated on an open hearth which constantly reminded Anna Krause of the wave of fire in Hamburg. Since the open fire grew unbearable for her, a few weeks later the family moved to relatives in Goslar. They stayed there for over three-quarters of a year. Willy Krause was reunited with his family there for a few days. He had taken leave for his parents’ burial. His father died on 17 Oct. 1943, his mother a few days later.

Following their stay in Goslar, Anna Krause found accommodation for herself and her youngest son Ernst in the little house of her husband’s comrade in Lübeck-Schlutup. Her oldest son Werner had been called up for the Wehrmacht for a short-term exercise. Her daughter Ilse had already found housing in Hamburg-Rahlstedt. Their stay in Schlutup ended involuntarily after only five days because a government office requisitioned the house for bombing victims from Lübeck. In the meantime, autumn of 1944 was approaching. Anna Krause and her youngest child moved to Hamburg-Rahlstedt, to Ilse Krause, Anna’s daughter, and a little later to Bergedorf. Werner, her oldest son had found a place to stay at the then Hitlerstraße 32 (today: August-Bebel-Straße) with his landlady. He worked for a company essential to the war effort on Weidenbaumsweg, was therefore deemed "indispensable" and was not conscripted for military service.

On 28 Aug. 1944, Willy Krause was arrested in Antwerp. The reason for his arrest was never clarified. Anna Krause suspected a connection with the assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944 (in the mass arrest operation Aktion Gewitter). Ernst Krause, Willy Krause’s youngest son, believes a different explanation is more likely: He thinks he remembers his father saying in confidence during his last visit in 1943 that he had hoarded fuel in the Netherlands so that he would have enough fuel for himself and his female anti-aircraft gun assistants stationed nearby should they have to retreat. At that time, Ernst was twelve years old. If his memory is correct, this story might explain his father’s later arrest.

Willy Krause was accused of "Wehrkraftzersetzung" or degradation of military strength and sent to the Wehrmacht prison in Torgau-Zinna. He was flown there in a Fieseler Storch small aircraft, as Anna Krause learned in a letter from Willy Krause, a letter passed to her by an informant.

The court proceedings against Willy Krause appear not to have come to a formal conclusion or a sentence. Instead, Willy Krause was transferred to the SS Storm Brigade Dirlewanger, Dept. Ib.

Anna Krause learned this on 19 Oct. 1944 from a letter from her husband. The return address was the field post number 00512 D. This was how she knew of his changed circumstances. No records exist about the details of his "transfer". It might be that Willy Krause was strongly advised to serve in a so-called probation battalion to escape a death sentence or longterm imprisonment, as is known from similar cases.

Anna Krause learned from one of her husband’s later letters that his unit was deployed in Yugoslavia. That letter did not survive. In a copy of a letter that still exists from 1 Dec. 1944 to his daughter Ilse, which ostensibly contains a "message between the lines", Willy Krause wrote:
"[...] After we made it out of the high mountains and are moving ever further westward, the weather conditions have thus grown milder. At the moment we are experiencing quite pleasant weather. After the foot-high snow and the cold, it is sure to be much nicer. Whether the conditions for what is in store for us will be as friendly remains to be seen. Yet one thing is for certain, we are closer than we can imagine to the day of victory. What is now being initiated in Russia will be fruitful. And once we have finished off our opponents, resources will immediately be released for the West. But we won’t achieve much before Christmas, so you will have to celebrate these days without me. [...]"

In Feb. 1945, Willy Krause was struck by shrapnel in his leg, one arm and his head while he was in Guben in Lower Lusatia. He still belonged to the "Dirlewang Unit". It is not known why his unit was transferred to Guben. Severely injured, he was delivered to the military hospital 1/531 in Lübben in Spreewald on 22 Feb. Only four days later, on 26 Feb. 1945, he died from his wounds.

Willy Krause was buried in Lübben at the cemetery there. The field of graves is now a grassy area. A general memorial stone commemorates the fallen.

Willy Krause is memorialized with other social democrats on a memorial stele at the field of graves belonging to the Geschwister Scholl Foundation at the Hamburg-Ohlsdorfer Cemetery.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: AB; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 18066; WASt, Schreiben vom 14.5.2012; VAN-Totenliste, S. 49; Für Freiheit und Demokratie, S. 91f., mündliche Mitteilungen Ernst Krause.