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Otto Stern
© Zeitschrift der Sportvereinigung Polizei „Hamburger Polizeisport"

Otto Stern * 1899

Spengelweg 31 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
OTTO STERN
JG. 1899
DEPORTIERT 1945
THERESIENSTADT
BEFREIT

Otto Stern, born 23.9.1899, dismissed from the police service as a "Geltungsjude”, imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp (calles police prison), deported to Theresienstadt on 14.2.1945, liberated

Spengelweg 31, Eimsbüttel

Otto Stern was born on September 23, 1899 in Rio de Janeiro. His father Eugen Stern was Jewish, his mother Christine was Protestant. In the restitution file of his wife Hertha (née Roock, born November 12, 1898 in Lübeck), there are copies of three index sheets from the Jewish Community in Hamburg. According to these, Otto Stern paid membership fees there from 1929. In this respect, Otto Stern's membership of the Jewish Community made him a "Geltungsjude” according to the National Socialist interpretation, meaning people who were "half-Jews” by descent but were treated as Jewish because of their (temporary) membership of the Jewish Community. "Half-Jews” who had been raised non-Jewish and had no connection to the Jewish community were called ‘Mischlinge of the first degree’; they were subject to a special law, but not to the more serious anti-Jewish legislation. A number of "Geltungsjuden” therefore tried to be recognized as "Mischlinge” by the courts. Otto Stern was one of them - unsuccessfully. A copy of an index card from the Jewish Community contains the handwritten note "Proceedings in progress, whether Jew ...”.

Otto Stern left the Jewish community on May 2, 1938. As a "Geltungsjude”, he was nevertheless later obliged to wear the yellow star.

Otto Stern is listed in the Hamburg address book in 1930 as a police constable and in 1931 as a platoon constable (Zugwachtmeister) at "Hammerstraße” [sic!] 32. In 1932 he is listed as a "Pol.-Btr.” (police officer) for Manstadtsweg 6 in Barmbek. From 1935 there are no entries. (It was not until 1948 and 1950 that he was entered as a "canteen tenant” for Viktoriastraße 41 P in Altona and in 1952 and 1953 for Zeisestraße 171 (now Zeiseweg). This was the leased police canteen in the Viktoria barracks, which was used by the police after the war until 1986).

Otto Stern joined the Hamburg police force on April 6, 1925. As part of his restitution proceedings, he wrote after the war that he had been unable to find a suitable position as a trained commercial clerk and had therefore decided to become a police officer. On December 31, 1934, he was dismissed as a "Geltungsjude” with the rank of "Zugwachtmeister”.

From 1935, Hertha and Otto Stern ran a coal business, which they had bought for RM 5,000, until they were forced to give it up in 1938 for "racial reasons”.

Looking back after the war, he described this time as follows: "Now the well-known persecution began for me as a Jew. I completely lost the basis of the existence I had built up. No company could employ me for light or similar work to what I was used to in my previous job. In order to eke out a bare existence, I signed on as a coal worker with Gäbler & Kleemann [at Ottostraße 21], where I stayed until 1940. Only someone who has ever had to endure such degradation, or who has always been cut out for this kind of work, can appreciate what this contrast means in relation to my earlier work. I had to interrupt this coal work in 1940 because I contracted double-sided pneumonia, from which I was hospitalized for almost 4 months. [...] After I was discharged from hospital, the situation left me with no choice but to resume my coal work, but after a short time I was also dismissed after being reported to the party.”

After his release, he was conscripted into forced labor by the employment office. He carried out earthworks for a company. This was probably the Bibow haulage company on the corner of Schäferstraße and Kleiner Schäferkamp. "As a trained assistant, I was spared nothing; I had to put up with even the dirtiest work with patience,” he said. As a worker at the Roock company, a waste paper business at Gerkenstwiete 9, he had to do "undoubtedly the hardest and dirtiest work”. In 1943, he suffered a hernia, which was operated on in the Jewish Hospital. He complained that, as a Jew, he only received the "smallest amount of ration cards”.

"I was made to feel bitterly that my ability to work was weakened by this diet when I refused to work and was taken to Fuhlsbüttel (concentration camp) for about four weeks at the instigation of the Gestapo. It is clear from this that as Jews we had no rights in any respect. [...]”

In 1940, preliminary proceedings were initiated against Otto Stern: As a "Geltungsjude”, he should have reported "the adoption of the additional Jewish first name ‘Israel’” to the police and applied for an identification card as a Jew - a kind of domestic identity card, marked with a "J” for Jews. He argued that he had not reported the additional first name in January 1939, as he had submitted an application to the Reich Minister of the Interior for clarification of his racial affiliation and recognition as a "first-degree Mischling”. However, a note in the investigation file dated March 12, 1941 stated: "Otto Israel Stern demonstrably paid Jewish municipal taxes from 1929 to 1936, with interruptions. Since he did not declare his resignation from the Jewish community until May 2, 1938, he must have known that he was considered a Jew in accordance with Section 5 (2a) of the First Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law.”

In his interrogation on March 17, 1941, Otto Stern stated: "On May 5, 1940, I submitted a petition to the Reich Minister of the Interior. I was informed of the rejection of this petition on July 8, 1940 by the Pol. President in Hamburg. After receiving this letter, I applied for an identification card on July 15 and filed a police report about the adoption of my first name. [...] I did not apply for a Jewish identification card at an earlier date because, although I belonged to the Jewish Confession, I do not feel Jewish. I have never had any connection to Judaism and was not brought up in the Jewish faith. My father was not married to my mother and I was brought up by my mother as a Lutheran. At school, I took part in the Lutheran religious instruction.”

According to the personal data sheet in the file, his mother, Christine Stern, née Frick, and his father, Eugen Stern, did not live together. It is not clear from the files inspected that they were not married. Otto Stern was sentenced to a fine of RM 50 in the summary penalty order proceedings, which he paid in installments of RM 10.

On January 7, 1953, a restitution decision was issued in which Stern was awarded the pension of a master of the police from April 1, 1950. A period of service of 25 years and 289 days was used to calculate the pension. Otto Stern was not reinstated because, according to a police doctor's report, he was not fit for police duty. On June 25, 1957, a new restitution decision was issued, in which Otto Stern was awarded a pension as a police inspector (station lieutenant, A9). Taking into account the regular career development, it was now assumed that he had already been promoted to police lieutenant in 1943 (police inspector from 1946) and to police inspector A 4 e on December 1, 1949.

Otto Stern had also tried to obtain compensation for damage to his health. He claimed that he had contracted "rheumatism” during forced labor. Medical reports, however, came to the conclusion that degenerative changes in the cervical spine were the cause of his complaints and that these were not due to persecution. In 1954, a decision was issued which stated, among other things: "Although the employment relationship with Roock is an employment relationship that was established under official coercion, it does not differ from other normal employment relationships in terms of working conditions. A National Socialist measure of violence would only exist if it had been arbitrary, in view of the applicant's physical condition, to assign him work that was unbearably hard for him. However, since the applicant remained in this company for more than 4 years, including 3 years after the first complaints he attributed to the heavy work, this cannot be said to be the case.”

Whether Otto Stern actually had the opportunity to change his employment relationship, which had been established under duress, was not discussed by the pension department of the Office for Restitution. It is rather unlikely that this possibility existed. In 1955, Otto Stern described in the legal proceedings before the Compensation Chamber of the Regional Court that he had resumed work at the Roock company after his hernia operation. He had "once refused to do particularly heavy work because I was physically unable to do it. I was then summoned to the Gestapo a few days later and taken to Fuhlsbüttel.”

The regional court rejected the application for an injury pension based on a 30% reduction in earning capacity, as the damage to his health was not caused by persecution. He withdrew his appeal against this decision after another negative expert opinion in September 1956.

Before her marriage, Hertha Stern had been a "buffet assistant and kitchen woman” in the catering trade. In 1932, she took over the canteen business at the police stadium and police training ground in Groß Borstel. The police stadium was inaugurated on July 5, 1925. Among other things, the police sports festivals were held here every year. The sports ground was renamed the "Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn” in 1933. The Hamburg address book contains the entry for Otto Stern in 1934: "Stern, Otto, Pol.-Btr., Borsteler Chauss., Adolf Hitler Kampfb.”. It is rather unlikely that the Stern couple lived here. It is probably the canteen on the shooting range.

The Police Sports Association, founded in 1920, used the Groß Borstel sports ground with its own "clubhouse”. However, the "combat shooting range in Groß-Borstel [sic!]” was also used to train the police for use in the event of civil unrest.

Hertha Stern earned a monthly net income of around RM 300 in her canteen. On March 31, 1934, she had to give up the canteen for "racial reasons” because her husband was about to be dismissed as a Jew. The police authorities described that "the canteen in Groß Borstel consisted of a relatively small guest room with an adjoining kitchen. In the same building, the participants of sports courses were accommodated with full official catering. Canteen operations were therefore limited to serving drinks and small snacks.”

Hertha Stern, however, wrote in a statement about her monthly turnover: "Apart from the soccer league pitch, which held around 10,000 spectators, there were 5 police shooting ranges, 2 tennis courts and 2 soccer pitches for other teams” on the site. And in 1963, police chief inspector Alfred Alwart made a statement to the Office for Restitution: "I know Mrs. Stern not only because she was the canteen tenant, but also because she is the wife of Otto Stern. Otto Stern and I used to play in the first soccer team of the SV Polizei from 1920. Mr. Stern was one of the best center forwards in Hamburg at the time. The canteen in Groß-Borstel was not only for the barracked course participants, but also for the hundreds who had their daily shooting exercises or field service drills there. According to my estimates, 1 - 2 hundred troops were outside in Groß-Borstel every day. In addition - and I would like to emphasize this - the canteen was also responsible for the police sports department. Not only were the teams that trained there during the week, but there was also a match there at least once a fortnight and on these days, in addition to the two teams, a large number of spectators also bought refreshments, smokes etc. from the canteen. According to my estimate, we currently had around 3000 spectators, at top matches and against HSV and especially at major sporting events. According to my estimate, we had about 3000 spectators at the time, with up to 10,000 spectators at top matches and against HSV and especially at larger sporting events. [...] With regard to the turnover of RM 300-- [...] I would like to point out that this is purely an estimate, because in my opinion the canteen business in Groß-Borstel, like the police canteens in general, were gold mines at the time.”

Hertha Stern described how her "working day began at 6 o'clock in the morning and ended with a two-hour break at 12 o'clock at night (my husband relieved me). There was no 40-hour week back then”.

The Groß Borstel police sports facility was taken over by the Wehrmacht in October 1935. According to a list compiled by the tax authorities in 1966, the grounds of the shooting range in Groß Borstel included several older buildings that had since been converted into residential buildings.

Otto Stern was a center forward (Mittelstürmer) in the soccer team of the police sports association. In 1927, he became German police champion in soccer with the SV Polizei team. In 1928, he became league captain of his team. In 1960, he was honored as "one of the greatest footballers to have played in an SV Polizei team.” In 1964 it was said: "Otto Stern can count the 2:0 victory of the Hamburg city team against the Danish national team as one of the greatest successes of his sporting life, in which he had the honor of leading Hamburg's forward line, which included another police footballer, Conrad. Otto even scored a great goal.”

Otto Stern was conscripted into forced labor in 1944, presumably clearing rubble, and deported from Hamburg to Theresienstadt on 14 February 1945 on Transport VI/10. The transport reached Theresienstadt on February 23, 1945, where Stern was liberated by the Allies in May 1945.

Hertha Stern was conscripted by the employment office from February 14 to May 8, 1945 and had to do sewing work at home for the "Hamburger Kinderstube”. Hertha Stern received compensation for damage to her health caused by persecution, a monthly pension and compensation for damage to her professional advancement.

After his return from Theresienstadt, Otto Stern applied for reinstatement in the police force, but was deferred due to his poor state of health. However, in December 1945, the police had given him the police canteen in the Viktoria barracks in Eggerstedtstraße to "look after”. Otto and Hertha Stern ran the canteen together from 1945 to 1953, until they were no longer able to do so for health reasons. The canteen was a "meeting place for police athletes and home to the footballers.”

Otto Stern was involved in rebuilding the soccer section of the police sports association. In 1960, he was a member of the celebratory committee for the 40th anniversary of the sports association. His work for the club was reflected in two tributes in the club magazine "Hamburger Polizeisport” on his 64th and 70th birthday.

Hertha Stern died on February 24, 1988, Otto Stern on September 12, 1989.

The exhibition "We don't need Jews here - Hamburg's Jewish police officers - repressed, persecuted, forgotten (1918-1952)” paid tribute to Otto Stern's fate, among others.

Translation Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Martin Bähr

Quellen: Hamburger Adressbuch, Jg. 1928 – 1953; StaH 213-11 Landgericht – Strafsachen 63015 Otto Stern wegen "Nichtannahme jüdischen Vornamens", 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg – Wiedergutmachung 30873 Hertha Stern, 311-3 I Finanzbehörde I Abl. 1985 410-8/79 Rückübertragung des ehemaligen Schießstandsgeländes in Hamburg-Groß Borstel auf Hamburg, 331-1 I Polizeibehörde I 300 Polizeisportfest in Groß-Borstel; 331-8 Polizeiverwaltung – Personalakten 714 Otto Stern, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 2073 Hertha Stern; Schult, Wolfgang: Geschichte der Hamburger Polizei 1814 – 1964. Hamburg 1964, S. 121; Festschrift aus Anlaß des Internationalen Jubiläumssportfestes der Polizei Hamburg 1964. Hrsg.: Sportvereinigung Polizei Hamburg von 1920 e.V., Hamburg 1964, S. 133 u. S. 202; 40 Jahre Sportvereinigung Polizei Hamburg von 1920 e.V., Hamburg 1960, S. 18; Hamburger Polizeisport 15. Januar 1928 S. 5., September 1963 S. 18, September 1969 S. 14; https://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/prisoner/te-stern-otto-2 (Zugriff 26.02.2020).