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Walter Steinbeck * 1908

Hammerbrookstraße ggü. Nr. 52 (S-Bahneingang) (Hamburg-Mitte, Hammerbrook)

Verhaftet 1935 und 1938
1942 kastriert
Emslandlager
KZ Neuengamme
ermordet 22.08.1942

Walter Emil Hans Franz Steinbeck, born on 23 Apr. 1908, detained in 1927, 1935, and 1939, died on 22 Aug. 1942 in the Neuengamme concentration camp

Hammerbrookstrasse 60, northern entrance to the suburban train station (formerly Hammerbrookstrasse 52)

After attending the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule), Walter Steinbeck, a native of Lübtheen/Mecklenburg did a three-year apprenticeship to become a grocer. After that, he lived in various towns, including Pommoissel near Lüneburg, Wittstock/Dosse, Neustrelitz and Lübtheen, where he was employed as a sales assistant in each case.

In 1927, the young man, still underage, clashed with the law for the first time because of homosexual acts. The Lüneburg District Court (Amtsgericht) sentenced him to eight months in prison in accordance with Secs. 175 and 176 Item 3 of the Reich Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch – RStGB), serving his penalty in Lüneburg.

From 1931 until 1933, he was unemployed and lived in his hometown on unemployment benefits. After completing his work for the Labor Service, he moved to Hamburg on 1 May 1933, where he resided with his brother-in-law at Hammerbrookstrasse 52, working at the latter’s oils and fats company in Hammerbrook.

Walter Steinbeck got to know like-minded men at the central train station, on Steindamm, and at Hansaplatz in the St. Georg quarter. Since he was unable to take his partners to his brother-in-law and his family, sexual acts took place in the nearby parks, mostly between Grosse Allee (today Adenauerallee) and Besenbinderhof, and under the railway overpass on Nagelsweg, as well as occasionally in entrances to houses. On 5 Sept. 1935, he was reported to police by a neighbor who felt bothered by Steinbeck.

On 5 Nov. 1935, the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) sentenced Walter Steinbeck to three months in prison for battery and assault in accordance with Sec. 185 RStGB.

In 1939, Walter Steinbeck was once again caught in the clutches of the criminal investigation department: The male prostitute Hans H. named him in a police interrogation as one of his former partners. The two had met on Hammerbrookstrasse in Mar. 1938. Steinbeck was blackmailed by Hans H. and two of his friends. On 24 Nov. 1939, the Hamburg District Court sentenced him to two years in prison for offenses in accordance with Sec. 175 RStGB. In his verdict, the judge called Steinbeck an "incorrigible homosexual.”

He served his sentence in the Wolfenbüttel penitentiary starting on 8 Mar. 1940. From 13 Apr. 1940 onward, he had to perform forced labor in one of the Emsland camps, the V Neusustrum prison camp. On 26 July 1940, he was transferred to the Rodgau-Diburg prison camp in Upper Hessen. After his release, Walter Steinbeck was transported to the Hütten police prison on 23 Sept. 1941. In Oct. 1941, he was registered as an "admission” to the Neuengamme concentration camp with prisoner number 6,480. In 1942, Walter Steinbeck agreed to have himself "voluntarily castrated” at the prison hospital of the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention facility in order to achieve a release from concentration camp detention. Despite the castration being carried out in May 1942, he was murdered on 22 Aug. 1942 in the Neuengamme concentration camp.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaHH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 2750/36; StaHH, 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; StaHH, 242-4 Kriminalbiologische Sammelstelle, 996.