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Hermann Hatt * 1885

Hamburger Berg 14 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

verhaftet 1937
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
ermordet 30.11.1938

further stumbling stones in Hamburger Berg 14:
Tin Lam Chong

Robert Hermann Hatt, born on 17 Oct. 1885, detained in 1937, died on 30 Nov. 1938 in the care home (Versorgungsheim) at Oberaltenallee 60

Hamburger Berg 14

The waiter and barkeeper Hermann Hatt, a native of Königsberg (East Prussia; today Kaliningrad in Russia), operated several bars for gays and lesbians in Hamburg during the Weimar Republic. They included the Café Rheingold (Lilienstrasse/Hamburg-Altstadt), where he also sold Die Freundschaft ("Friendship”) magazine and other "homoerotic writings,” such as Die Liebe Platons ("The love of Plato”), Im Lichte der modernen Biologie ("In the light of modern biology”) by Benedict Friedländer, Aus dem Tagebuch eines Homosexuellen ("From the diaries of a homosexual”), Die männliche Braut ("The male bride”) by Otto Hermann, or Die Homosexualität ("Homosexuality”) by Erich Mühsam.

In 1920, his name is mentioned in Die Freundschaft as a reference address in the cigar store of Heinrich Graf at Pastorenstrasse 14 (Hamburg-Neustadt). The store also served as the office of the Hamburg Society for Sexual Research (Hamburger Gesellschaft für Sexualforschung).
In 1920, he took over management of the "Treffpunkt” ("meeting place”) bar at Kastanienallee 31 in St. Pauli – according to the entry on the file card of the trade register, he was not the proprietor. At this place, he opened an advertising office for Die Freundschaft. In this way, residents of Hamburg were able to establish contact via mail with kindred spirits in the entire German Reich. Hermann Hatt’s bar served at the same time as a mailing address for customers who wished to remain anonymous.

Due to this important function, "Der Treffpunkt” was also the club bar of the Hamburg Society for Sexual Research, a friendship association for homosexual women and men in the Hanseatic city. Once a week "ladies’ nights” took place there, i.e., the bar was open exclusively for lesbians. Starting on 1 Jan. 1922, artists provided for a varied entertainment program. On 10 Feb. 1921, Hermann Hatt joined Willi Burgemeister in opening a new bar called "Treffpunkt” at Herrengraben 2 in the southern part of Hamburg-Neustadt. For this bar, Friedrich Wilhelm (called Willi) Burgemeister, born on 19 June 1896 in Hannover, received a liquor license on 18 Apr. 1921. On 10 Feb. 1922, the barkeepers celebrated their one-year anniversary of the bar with a "great humoristic bock beer festival.”

On 15 Feb. 1923, Hermann Hatt and his mother Karoline Friederike Hatt, née Nickel, born in 1859, received a business license as barkeepers for premises at Heine Strasse 14 ground floor to the left (today Hamburger Berg 14), where they opened the bar "Alter Treffpunkt.” In 1925, the two gave up this "refined meeting place for members of the league” into the hands of new barkeepers.

Because of his involvement on behalf of the homosexual scene, Hermann Hatt was well known. Even after he quit management of the "Alte Treffpunkt,” the new proprietors used his name for advertising purposes.

Hermann Hatt was persecuted by the Nazis because of his homosexuality. From 1 Sept. until 9 Oct. 1937, he was detained as a police "protective custody prisoner” ("Schutzhäftling”) in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. On 9 Oct. 1937, he was committed to the Holstenglacis pretrial detention facility on charges of "unnatural sexual offenses” ("widernatürliche Unzucht”). On 27 Dec. 1937, upon being convicted, he was sentenced to prison (it is unclear which prison, since no prisoner file has been preserved). He was once again committed to the Holstenglacis pretrial detention center on 4 Feb. 1938 and released on 9 Sept. 1938 to stay at the apartment of his mother at Hammer Landstrasse 236 on the second floor. On 30 Nov. 1938, Hermann Hatt died in the care home (Versorgungsheim) at Oberaltenallee 60 of pulmonary tuberculosis caused by the effects of imprisonment.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, 2009, S. 156, 216; Rosenkranz/Lorenz, Geschichte, 2006, S. 22f.