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Alfred Kästel * 1879
Herrenweide 13 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)
HIER WOHNTE
ALFRED KÄSTEL
JG. 1879
MEHRMALS VERHAFTET
KZ NEUENGAMME
ERMORDET 5.11.1944
Alfred Emil Kästel, born 18 May 1879, imprisoned 1925, 1939 and 1942, died 5 Nov. 1944 at Neuengamme concentration camp
Stolpersteine: Herrenweide 13 and at Richthofenstraße 9 in Waren (Müritz)
A short time after Alfred Kästel had served a prison sentence for "continued fornication with men" after § 175 of the Reich’s criminal code (RStGB), he was sent in Nov. 1939 by the Hamburg Labor Office as a "duty worker" to the Mecklenburg Metal Wares Factory (Metallwarenfabrik m.b.H., Memefa). There he worked as an assistant roller until he was again arrested on 16 Apr. 1942.
Alfred Kästel, born in 1879, grew up in Flensburg with 12 siblings. After elementary school, he chose the occupation of gardener. From 1908 until its bankruptcy in 1925, he was the owner of a stationery store in Flensburg. Later he moved to Altona where he ran a flower shop until 1932. Prior to his trial in Nov. 1939, he had had to stand trial twice for homosexual acts: in 1925 and 1938.
In 1942 he was accused of sexual contact with his friend Robert Müller from four years earlier which had remained unaddressed during his trial in 1939. Moreover, a new offence could be proven after § 175 of the Reich’s criminal code.
The senior prosecution’s indictment from 31 July 1942:
"… due to the record of previous convictions and the accused’s own statements, we have determined that he is an incorrigible homosexual who will never be able to control his urges by himself. The correct thing to do would be for him to have himself voluntarily emasculated. However, until such a measure has been carried out, it appears appropriate first of all to take him into preventive detention, in order to protect the public from him."
"Dear Robert, Franz and I are busy writing each other, I have already received five letters, believe we love each other in writing and maybe later in reality, he wrote me among other things that he had visited you and that you expressed to him my deepest desire, he hasn’t written me this and postpones until we meet in person, can you let me know?" (from Alfred Kästel’s letter to Robert Müller from 22 Feb. 1942. The emphasis was made by the criminal investigation department or the public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg).
On 2 Oct. 1942 the Hamburg District Court sentenced Alfred Kästel for "perverse fornication in two instances" to two years of prison, taking into account pretrial detention. He was "found guilty pursuant to § 175 of the criminal code ..., namely as a dangerous habitual offender whose preventive detention appears necessary."
He served his sentence at the Fuhlsbüttel Men’s Prison. His brother Oskar Kästel’s plea for clemency from 16 Sept. 1943 remained unsuccessful. After his release on 16 May 1944, Alfred Kästel was "placed at the disposal" of Hamburg’s criminal investigation department. He was probably transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp in July 1944 where he was held under the prisoner number 35993. On 5 Nov. 1944 he was entered in the death register under the classification "Homo". His friend Robert Müller survived the NS regime.
Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2016
© Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann
Quellen: StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 4457/42 und 6410/42; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, 2009, S. 86f., 223.
