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Willi Winkelmann * 1901

Klinkstraße 14 (Hamburg-Mitte, Billstedt)

HIER WOHNTE
WILLI WINKELMANN
JG. 1901
VERHAFTET
STRAFBATAILLON 999
TOT 24.12.1944
JARKEN / OSTPREUSSEN

Willi Winkelmann, born on 13 June 1901 in Winsen/Luhe, died on 24 Dec. 1944 in the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999) in Jarken/East Prussia (today Borkowiny in Poland)

Klinkstrasse 14 (Bachstrasse 14)

"I accuse the persons mentioned, having acted continuously and in part jointly in Hamburg and the surrounding area in the years 1933 to 1935, of preparing the high treasonous undertaking of changing the constitution of the German Reich by force, whereby the offense
1) was aimed at establishing or maintaining organizational cohesion toward preparation of high treason,
2) was aimed at influencing the masses through the production or distribution of writings.
Crimes punishable pursuant to Secs. 80 Par. 2, ...
The Chief Public Prosecutor at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court [Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht], Nov. 26, 1935.”

These criminal proceedings designated as "Blume and associates” ("Blume und Genossen”) constituted probably the last of the "Mehnke and associates” ("Mehnke und Genossen”) trial against the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1935 and were directed against 12 Social Democrats from Billstedt and Wandsbek who tried to gather in "Hamburg and the surrounding area” under the leadership of Hermann Blume. Willi Winkelmann belonged to the inner circle around Hermann Blume, who was the only one to become active.

Willi Heinrich Winkelmann came from Winsen/Luhe, where he was born on 13 June 1901. He attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) from the age of seven to fourteen and subsequently did a four-year apprenticeship as a mechanic, which he completed with the journeyman’s examination. In 1919, he joined the Metalworkers’ Union (Metallarbeiter-Verband). Periods of unemployment alternated with occupational activity, first at the Vulkanwerft, then at Blohm & Voß, and finally at other shipyard companies, until he found a job at "der Jute,” the North German jute spinning and weaving mill in Billstedt, in 1934.

On 22 Sept. 1926, Willi Winkelmann and Marie Faltejsek, born on 10 Apr. 1908 in Harburg as the daughter of a Sudeten German family, married in Landskron, probably the Landskron (today Lanskroun in the Czech Republic) in the Sudetenland. In the following year, her son Edmund was born. In 1928, Willi Winkelmann joined the SPD and the "Banner of the Reich” ("Reichsbanner”) without serving in any function, belonging to them until the ban in 1933. In the fall of 1933, the first meeting of comrades took place in his apartment under the direction of Hermann Blume, which tried to explore the possibilities of building new structures. Only one group was formed. It received writings from the illegal district leadership in Wandsbek, later directly from Walter Schmedemann in Hamburg.

The newspapers entitled "Sozialistische Aktion” and "Rote Blätter” and a publication with the camouflage title of "Die Kunst des Selbstrasierens” (literally, "The art of self-shaving”) served on the one hand to inform and encourage the comrades and on the other hand to promote resistance. If they were sold, the proceeds went to the support fund for relatives of "protective custody prisoners” ("Schutzhäftlinge”), who included a sister of Willi Winkelmann.

On 18 June 1935, he was arrested, then living in the allotment garden at Goldkoppel, lot 65, in Schiffbek, and transferred to "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, from where he was committed to pretrial detention on 20 Aug. 1935. The main trial of the criminal proceedings against "Blume und Genossen” ended on 12 Dec. 1935 with the conviction of all defendants for "preparation to high treason” ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat”) to serve prison terms between three and 36 months. Willi Winkelmann was sentenced to 15 months in prison, which ended on 28 Sept. 1936, with the "protective” and pre-trial detention calculated against his overall sentence. He served it in the prison at Sievekingplatz, interrupted by a three-day prison leave in May 1936, and after his release returned to his family, who by then lived at Bachstrasse 14. His mother also resided in Hamburg, in Hamm, while his father had died. Willi Winkelmann immediately found a new job at the Deutsche Werft shipyard.

For the period after Winkelmann’s release, there is no evidence of renewed resistance activity. His son Edmund attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule), joined the Deutsches Jungvolk [literally, "German Young People,” i.e., the section of the Hitler Youth for adolescents aged 10 to 14] in 1937, and began an apprenticeship as a machine fitter after finishing school. A second son was born in 1940, Herbert, and daughter Helga was born in 1942. Due to his previous conviction on political grounds, Willi Winkelmann was considered "unworthy of military service.” Nevertheless, although he did important work at the German shipyard as a locksmith, mechanical engineer, fitter, burner, welder, and toolmaker, he was drafted into the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999) on 3 Feb. 1943 and trained at the Heuberg military training area on the Swabian Alb. Nearly 42 years old and not quite healthy, he was not sent to serve at the front, but was deployed to a building battalion in the east. No details of his assignments are known. As a member of the probation battalion, he did not receive any home leave, but a transit leave of one and a half days. That was probably the last time he saw his wife and children. After "Operation Gomorrah” at the end of July/beginning of Aug. 1943, Marie Winkelmann travelled with the children to the Sudetenland, where she had inherited a small house from a relative.

Edmund Winkelmann stayed in Hamburg to finish his apprenticeship. On 1 Dec. 1944, he joined the Navy Infantry as a seaman. On 24 Dec. 1944, according to the death certificate, "the soldier, journeyman mechanic, 6th Company, Construction Pioneer Battalion II/999, ev.,” Willi Winkelmann fell in Jarken/East Prussia (today Borkowiny in Poland) while retreating before the Red Army.


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

Stand: May 2019
© Initiative Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Billstedt

Quellen: VAN-Totenliste 1968; StaH, 242-2, 1 II, Abl. 13, Gefangenenkartei Männer; 351-11 AfW, 24727; 332-5 Standesämter, 1254+67/1947; FZH Archiv, 8338, SPD 1933–1945, Prozesse, 288/35; Für Freiheit und Demokratie; Hochmuth/Meyer, Streiflichter; Ditt, Sozialdemokraten.