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Already layed Stumbling Stones


Lucie und Cuddl Suhling am Gartentor Wattkorn 7
Lucie und Cuddl Suhling am Gartentor Wattkorn 7
© Privatbesitz

Carl Suhling * 1904

Wattkorn 7 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)


HIER WOHNTE
CARL SUHLING
JG. 1904
VERHAFTET 1933
’VORBEREITUNG ZUM HOCHVERRAT’
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1943 STRAFBATAILLON 999
HINGERICHTET MÄRZ 1945
BEI SARAJEVO

see:

Carl Suhling, born on 26.9.1905 in Hamburg, imprisoned several times in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 1933 to 1939, in the "999 punishment battalion” from 1943 to 1945, died in Yugoslavia in March 1945

Wattkorn 7

On March 23, 2011, at the suggestion of the "Willi Bredel Society. Geschichtswerkstatt e. V." in Hamburg-Nord, a stumbling stone in memory of Carl Suhling was laid in front of the house Wattkorn 7.

HERE LIVED 1928 - 1945
CARL SUHLING
JG. 1904
1933 - 1939 THREE TIMES KOLA FU
FOR "PREVIOUSLY. TO HIGH TREASON"
1943 - 1945 PUNISHMENT BATTALION 999
EXECUTED MARCH 1945
AT SARAJEVO

The parents of Carl Suhling, the "type founder Carl Friedrich Peter Suhling, resident in Hamburg, Fuhlsbütteler Straße 280 and his wife Wilhelmine Friederike Sophie Suhling, née Kümmerle, both of Protestant religion," stated "that on the twenty-sixth of September in the year one thousand nine hundred and four in the afternoon at twelve and a half o'clock a boy was born and that the child was given the first name Carl." So says the birth certificate. Carl was the youngest child of the Suhling couple and the long-awaited "progenitor". His four older sisters Anna, Emmi Marie, Olly (Olga) and Dora (Dorothea) were still born in the 19th century. Little Carl - called "Kalli" by his family - spent his childhood and youth in Hamburg-Barmbek. The family lived in one half of a semi-detached house. (The building was demolished in the early 1930s).

When "Kalli" was nine years old, his father was ordered to the front as a medic, survived the First World War severely wounded: He was almost blind. In early 1918, Kalli's mother died. These two momentous events shook the family. They hit Kalli, who was only 13 years old when his mother died, particularly hard.

Kalli was a very good student, receiving several city awards for his achievements in mathematics and other science subjects. He finished school in the spring of 1919. Kalli would have liked to continue his education at a secondary institution, but his father was unable to work due to his severe wounding. Kalli began an apprenticeship as a locksmith, which he completed in 1922.

After the death of Kalli's mother, unpleasant conditions prevailed in the Suhling home. Kalli had once - to satisfy his hunger - taken some of the little food the family had after the war. The supplies were locked away from the boy. At the end of 1922 - at the age of 18 - he was physically and mentally in a hopeless condition. But then he was lucky: the neighbor, Captain Tode, was ashore for some time. He saw the needy boy and took care of him: "De Jung verhungert mijo to Hus, ick nehmem mit op See!" (The boy is starving at home, I take him with me to sea) And so began Kalli's seafaring days: he started as a mess-room boy without wages, then became a boy, a bachelor, a light seaman and a sailor. The Kalli of childhood became the sailor "Cuddl". From 1923 to 1928, he signed on with various steamships, getting to know not only German ports, but a large part of the world: the Mediterranean and the Levant. Several voyages also took him to South America and Asia.

In 1919, the Hamburg city council decided to build a small housing estate in the north of Hamburg for war veterans and families with many children according to the plans of Fritz Schumacher. As a war invalid, Cuddl's father was able to purchase a plot of land in Langenhorn in 1924 and build it with an interest-free loan. The new address, Wattkorn 7, was now also Cuddl's home and later that of Cuddl's family.

In 1928, Cuddl had to leave because he had contracted malaria. He suffered from this disease all his life. In 1928 he became a member of the Communist Party, the KPD. After the years at sea, he found no work in Hamburg. He moved in with his sister Olly in Liebenwalde, north of Berlin. Olly and Robert Neddermeyer built a chicken farm there with Cuddl's help, where Cuddl worked until 1932. In 1931 he met his wife Lucie there, and they married in Liebenwalde in 1932.

In her memoirs, Lucie describes her husband:
"Cuddl's whole being, his generous way of thinking and living, dressing casually, attracted me. He struck me as a guy out of Jack London's books, a globe-trotter. His usually somewhat narrowed eyes, which perceived everything but somehow always seemed to look into the distance, his black, full hair with the gray temples, the whole well-grown guy [...] I had fallen in love with him with all my heart and knew: this one for life. When Cuddl picked me up from the train station during my visits to Liebenwalde, he stood there in his troyer, Manchester pants, the blue peaked cap on his head, the inevitable pipe in his mouth. I got flowers too, but he didn't wear them openly, they were in his briefcase. Cuddl didn't say much, was a great silent in general, which didn't bother me, I liked to talk and laugh."

Cuddl and Lucie were members of the local group of the KPD in Liebenwalde. But Cuddl was drawn back to Hamburg. In mid-1932, they moved into the attic at Wattkorn 7. They became members in the Langenhorn KPD party group, which consisted of about 70 men and women. They saw their main task as warning the citizens: if Hitler came to power in Germany, there would be war.

With the growing influence of the National Socialists, a split also began within the Suhling family: some declared their support for the Nazi regime and others prepared for illegality as anti-fascists. Cuddl's sisters Anna and Dora and their husbands followed the new regime.

Cuddl, Lucie and Robert Neddermeyer actively resisted and were sentenced to many years in prison for "preparation for high treason". Cuddl, as a former technical leader of the Red Front Fighters' League (RFB) in Langenhorn, had been imprisoned for the first time in June 1933. He was severely maltreated in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. Since it was evident that no statements could be extorted from him, he was released in August, and in September 1933 he was able to witness the birth of his daughter Ursula (the author).

On October 1, 1934, Cuddl was arrested for the second time - as was his wife Lucie. Trials took place in which they were sentenced for alleged preparation for high treason: Cuddl to three and a half years in prison, which he had to spend in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, Lucie to two years in prison. The one-year-old daughter was taken in by relatives.

After his release, Cuddl found work as a truck driver - until Cuddl and Lucie were arrested again on December 30, 1938. On that day, about 30 people from their circle of friends were arrested. The Gestapo took their daughter, now five years old, to the Elise-Averdieck orphanage.

When Cuddl's sister Emmi learned that Ursula was in the orphanage, she contacted the Gestapo at Stadthausbrücke. Emmi met Cuddl while he was tied up, and he wept as he gave his consent to entrust the child to his sister. The child's mother was not involved in this decision.

The Gestapo interrogations of the prisoners lasted for months, but did not bring the hoped-for results, so in March 1939 they were all released. Cuddl went back to work for his old company after his release. He was unfit for military service due to his criminal record, and there was no fear of him being drafted into the Wehrmacht. In 1940 and 1942 the sons Peter and Günter were born.

On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of Poland began. Cuddl was "conscripted" to provide transport for the Wehrmacht with his truck. For the time being he was out of the Gestapo's sight, but for years he was separated from his family again. At the end of June 1943, he had to return to Hamburg, was forced into the Wehrmacht's Strafbataillon 999 (Probation Battalion), and on July 25, 1943, was deported from the Hanover train station in Hamburg to the Heuberg training camp - a former concentration camp - in Stetten am kalten Markt.

After the great defeat of the German armies in the battle before Moscow, the "Bewährungsdivision 999" had been set up in October 1942 to mobilize all forces for the "final victory". 28,000 political opponents of the Nazi regime and criminals were declared "conditionally worthy of military service" for the duration of the war. Training for the 999ers lasted about three months, after which they were deployed to the front. Cuddl's unit arrived in the Soviet Union at Kherson at the mouth of the Dnieper River. There, the number of defectors to the Red Army steadily increased. As a result, all Political 999s were disarmed in early 1944 - including Cuddl - and taken in cattle cars as military prisoners in an 18-day journey to Germany to the Baumholder military training area. There they were to be court-martialed. The proceedings did not take place. The front needed "human material" more urgently. The 999s came from Baumholder to Volos at the Aegean Sea in Greece.

From there they were to secure the retreat of the regular Wehrmacht units. Their route took them through the Balkans via Albania to Yugoslavia. The 999ers continued their resistance on the retreat: as many soldiers as possible were to save themselves into captivity - for most of them the only chance to stay alive.

Cuddl did not succeed in this step. He did not return from the war. He wrote his last letter on February 22, 1945 from Vlasenica near Sarajevo.

His further fate could never be finally clarified.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: March 2023
© Ursula Suhling (24.9.1933 – 26.2.2022)

Quellen: StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 30262 Carl und Lucie Suhling; Oberlandesgericht Hamburg, Urteil gegen Carl Suhling (Knust u. Gen.) vom 25.7.1935; Karin Pochert, persönliche handschriftliche Erinnerungen an Carl Suhling, Hamburg 2011; Hans Burckhardt/Günter Erxleben/Kurt Nettball: Die mit dem blauen Schein. Über den antifaschistischen Widerstand in den 999er Formationen der faschistischen deutschen Wehrmacht (1942 bis 1945), Berlin 1982; Hans-Peter Klausch: Die 999er. Von der Brigade "Z" zur Afrika-Division 999: Die Bewährungsbataillone und ihr Anteil am antifaschistischen Widerstand, Frankfurt am Main 1986; Hans-Peter Klausch: Die Geschichte der Bewährungsbataillone 999 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des antifaschistischen Widerstands, Köln 1987; Lucie Suhling: Der unbekannte Widerstand, Kiel 1998; Ursula Suhling: 999er Strafsoldaten – deportiert vom Hannoverschen Bahnhof, Hamburg 2014; Ursula Suhling: Wer waren die 999er? Strafsoldaten in Wehrmachtsuniform – deportiert vom Hannoverschen Bahnhof Hamburg, Hamburg 2017.

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