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Hermann August Fabeck * 1905

Grillparzerstraße 36 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN AUGUST
FABECK
JG. 1905
VERHAFTET 14.5.1939
"UNANGEPASSTES VERHALTEN"
GEFÄNGNIS ALTONA
ZUCHTHAUS BREMEN 1940-1942
POLIZEIGEFÄNGNIS HÜTTEN
1942 NEUENGAMME
ERMORDET 25.10.1942

Hermann August Fabeck, born on 6.3.1905, imprisoned multiple times, transferred to Emsland camp VI Oberlangen, sent to Neuengamme concentration camp, died during forced labour on 25.10.1942

Grillparzerstraße 36 (previously Goethestraße 36), Barmbek-Uhlenhorst

Hermann August Fabeck was born on 6 March 1905 in Gaarden by Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein. He was the first child of Victor Fabeck, born on 27 February 1884 in Rothfliess/East Prussia, and Wilhelmine Marie Fabeck, nee Buch, born on 21 October 1885 in Gaarden by Kiel.

Victor Fabeck worked at the Kaierliche Werft in Kiel. Victor's wife Wilhelmine and her brother Wilhelm Heinrich Friedrich Buch (who died in Neuengamme on 24 March 1943) were also employed there (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Victor Fabeck and Wilhelmine Buch moved into a flat at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 69 in Eimsbüttel with their son Hermann on 1 April 1905. They lived there as sub-tenants. They were married in Hamburg on 9 February 1907, and Victor Fabeck subsequently recognised Hermann as his son. The Fabeck couple went on to have two other children: Ernst Georg Victor, born on 25 April 1907, and Heinrich Bruno, born on 24 July 1908 (died on 8 May 1910).

The family left for England on 30 May 1911, but returned to Hamburg at the beginning of the First World War. Victor Fabeck was drafted into the army.

All we know of Hermann Fabeck’s childhood is that he attended a primary school in Hamburg and was considered a mediocre pupil. After leaving school, he actually wanted to become a chef or confectioner, but for some unknown reason he began training as a lathe operator. Hermann Fabeck's sister Erna was born on 11 April 1921. Just a few months later, on 6 October 1921, his father died as a result of influenza.

After his father’s death when Hermann Fabeck was 16 years old, his mother tried to keep the family "above water” with odd jobs, including as a cleaner and laundress. It must have been a very difficult life. She is said to have attempted suicide and with her 8-year-old daughter in 1928, but was unsuccessful.

Hermann Fabeck had to end his training as a lathe operator prematurely due to his own negligence. He then found employment for a short time with a farmer in Bartelsdorf, which he left to work as a messenger for the ironmonger Moeller. He was often to be found in the "Concordia” lodging house at Reeperbahn 152/154 in St. Pauli. This cheap accommodation, actually intended for less well-off travellers passing through, was also used by prostitutes as a flophouse. (In 1936, the lodging house was renamed "Fremdenheim St. Pauli”. The operator of the building, which was completed in 1891, was the "Verein für Volkskaffeehallen” and also ran numerous coffee houses in Hamburg.)

Hermann Fabeck joined the "Falkenberger" hiking club, named after the Falkenberg excursion pub in the Neugrabener Heide. (The "Wandervögel”, who were part of the youth movement, were opposed to the "discipline and order” mentality that was enforced in Germany. Their excursions took them out of the city and into nature, carrying guitars and rucksacks.)

In 1922 Hermann Fabeck spent time (according to his criminal record) in a youth facility, the whereabouts of which is unknown; nor do we know the reason for this. He committed his first offence in Hamburg on 21 December 1922. The Hamburg District Court found him guilty on two counts of joint and aggravated fraud. He served his sentence in Hamburg from December 1922 until 25 June 1923.

He subsequently returned to the youth facility. Hermann Fabeck and his mother stayed in touch with each other throughout. Between 1923 and 1925 Hermann Fabeck earned his living with odd jobs. Among other things, he performed briefly at the Luna Park amusement park. We do not know what he performed as.

From July 1926 onwards, he came into conflict with the law several times and was sentenced to a total of five months in prison in Hamburg for theft, fraud and embezzlement. He was released on 21 January 1927.

In the years 1927 to 1933 the Hamburg District Court sentenced him four times to a total of 28 months in prison for begging and theft. He was listed in the offenders' register in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel from 1927.

On 6 March 1933, Hermann Fabeck was married to Elise Minna Sophie Brand, born in Hansfelde/Kreis Stormarn on 30 July 1909. They lived at Hohlerweg 2 (now Hohler Weg) in the new town.

On 8 May 1933 Hermann Fabeck was handed down a prison sentence for begging, but on 10 April 1934 he was sentenced to six months in prison by the Hamburg District Court for joint fraud in conjunction with serious forgery of documents (he had forged rent receipts in order to obtain a flat). He was probably imprisoned in Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel, and was released on 24 August 1935.

From 1935 the Fabeck couple lived at Grützmachergang 38 in St. Georg (this street no longer exists). Hermann Fabeck was listed in the Hamburg address book of 1935 as a fitter. The marriage did not last, however. Herman and Elise Fabeck separated in August 1936.

Hermann Fabeck was arrested again in October 1936. On this occasion Elise Fabeck accused her husband of having an extramarital affair with another woman and forging documents. Hermann Fabeck denied these accusations. However, the Hamburg Regional Court considered them to be proven and ruled that the plaintiff could not be expected to continue the marriage. The marriage was annulled on 23 December 1937. Hermann Fabeck was remanded in custody, and in January 1937 was sentenced to one year and three months in prison by the Hamburg Court of Aldermen for embezzlement of 82 Reichsmark (RM) and for recidivist fraud in conjunction with aggravated forgery of documents. He was transferred to Emsland camp VI in Oberlangen.

The Oberlangen camp was one of 15 camps in Emsland. Camp VI, originally planned as a concentration camp, was run as a prison camp. Political opponents of the Nazi regime as well as criminals were imprisoned there. Depending on the time of year, the roughly 1,000 prisoners were subjected to eight to 12 hours of forced labour in the moor every day. (From 1939 the Oberlangen camp served as a prisoner of war camp.)

Hermann Fabeck was released from the Oberlangen camp on 25 February 1938. On his return to Hamburg, he lived as a sub-tenant with Otto Szafranski at Am Brunnenhof 8 in St. Pauli.

Up to the end of 1938 he worked as a lathe operator at Nordische Hoch- und Tiefbaugesellschaft (later Th. Bergmann & Co.) in Altona. His employer described him as a pleasant and hard-working employee who, as a semi-skilled lathe operator, also had other skills. He got on very well with his workmates.

The tenant of the flat, Otto Szafranski, worked as a pimp and made the rooms in his flat available to prostitutes – including Hermann Fabeck's room. He also took Hermann Fabeck to the Blockhütte pub, Kleine Freiheit 29 in St. Pauli, and secured him a job there as toilet attendant. Over the next few months, Hermann Fabeck was often absent from his regular job. His frequent absences were probably due to the extra income from his second job, where he worked several nights a week from July to November 1938, earning 30 RM a week.

It is there that he met the unmarried Maria Magdalena Fritz, born in Strasbourg on 17 August 1904, with whom he became romantically involved. She worked as a prostitute and lived in Lohe Strasse (Lohe Strasse no longer exists). She came to his flat in the morning and left again when she went out on the streets in the evening. She did his cooking and housework.

Hermann Fabeck decided to change his life, and quit his job with Th. Bergmann and signed on as a coal trimmer on the steamer "Ingo" of the Woermann Line on 4 January 1939. However, when the steamer returned to Hamburg from West Africa on 2 March 1939, he signed off at Magdalena Fritz's request and returned to his former employer. He performed the work assigned to him to his employer’s satisfaction.

He gave up his room in the flat at Am Brunnenhof 8 on 10 March 1939 and moved into a room in Jägerstraße, having stored the furniture. On 1 April 1939 Herman Fabeck fell ill with malaria, which he had probably contracted in West Africa, and was treated at the tropical hospital until 8 April 1939.

Magdalena Fritz took over the Blockhütte pub at Kleine Freiheit 29 in St Pauli that month, and Hermann Fabeck worked there as a waiter for six weeks after his recovery. However, when the Hamburg gasworks employee emptied the gas meter there, he found that the padlock on the meter had been broken and there was only 1 RM left. On 13 May 1939 Magdalena Fritz reported to the police that Hermann Fabeck had broken into the gas meter and stolen the money from it. He admitted to the theft of 28 RM and was remanded in custody.

In the proceedings that followed, the court examined the different testimonies of Hermann Fabeck and Magdalena Fritz. Had Hermann Fabeck profited from the money Magdalena Fritz earned through prostitution, and had he forced Magdalena Fritz into pimping? That would have been a serious criminal offence. According to section 181 of the German Criminal Code, anyone "who publicly incites or offers to incite fornication in a conspicuous manner or in a manner likely to annoy individuals or the general public is liable to prosecution”.

After the German Criminal Code was tightened, including section 362 (6), and the Violent Crime Ordinance against persons exercising a destructive influence on the community (so-called "Volksschädlinge”), which had already been discussed during the Weimar Republic and then implemented by the National Socialists, pimps faced up to five years’ imprisonment.

Hermann Fabeck confessed and decided to confess to another offence that had not yet been reported, as he hoped for mitigating circumstances. He therefore admitted to another case of embezzlement, saying he had sold the furniture he and Magdalena Fritz had bought together and had not paid her share of the proceeds to her. He also stated, "I was not guilty of pimping during the time I lived with Frau Fritz.”

Also in court, he emphatically denied the accusation of pimping and emphasised that, on the contrary, he had tried to dissuade Magdalena Fritz from this way of life out of love for her. He promised, ″After I have served my sentence, if no preventive detention follows my current sentence, to become a respectable member of the community.”

Hermann Fabeck now obviously realised that he was one of the people the National Socialists meant when they introduced the "Law against dangerous habitual criminals and on measures of security and correction” (Sicherungsverwahrung für Gewohnheitsverbrecher) in 1933. Under this law, individuals with a long criminal record could be taken into preventive detention as "habitual or professional criminals”.

On 28 June 1939 Magdalena Fritz stated for the record that Hermann Fabeck had lived "at her expense”.

In the indictment of 7 September 1939, the chief public prosecutor emphasised three charges: that Hermann Fabeck had broken open the gas meter, stolen a buffet clock, and used the money Magdalena Fritz had earned through prostitution to finance his living. His confession, Magdalena Fritz's testimony and the accompanying files relating to the earlier offences served as evidence. The public trial took place on 18 January 1940. Wilhelmine Fabeck, Hermann Fabeck’s mother, testified on behalf of her son. Magdalena Fritz was also called as a witness.

The court considered it proven that Hermann Fabeck had received part or all of Magdalena Fritz’s income from October to December 1938 by exploiting her immoral trade. In the verdict, the sale of second-hand furniture, the breaking open of the gas meter and the unauthorised resale of the stolen buffet clock were deemed to be further offences and aggravated theft. The Criminal Court judged Hermann Fabeck to be an "energetic and unstable person” who was not a dangerous habitual criminal, however, but was tempted by favourable opportunities to commit property offences. On 31 January 1940 Hermann Fabeck was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for embezzlement, aggravated theft in recidivism and pimping, offences and crimes under sections 246, 242, 243, 244 and 181a of the Criminal Code.

In view of Hermann Fabeck’s confession, his pre-trial detention was taken into account in full. He was stripped of his full rights as a citizen for three years. However, he was placed under police supervision by the court.

The police authorities allowed the police to transfer of Hermann Fabeck from remand prison directly to a police prison or concentration camp, and he was moved to Bremen-Oslebshausen prison on 16 February 1940. From there he was taken to Hütten prison in Hamburg on 15 August 1942, and on 18 September 1942 was registered as a "professional criminal” in the Neuengamme concentration camp and given the number 10149. He had to wear the striped uniform of the concentration camp inmates, which bore his number and the green triangle. The reason for his being committed to a concentration camp was that the new Reich Minister of Justice, Otto Thierack, who was appointed in August 1942, had agreed with the head of the German police, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, that all those in custody, "anti-social elements” and other groups of prisoners were to be handed over by the prisons to Himmler for "extermination through labour”. For individuals like Hermann Fabeck, this meant incarceration in a concentration camp.

After the Allied bombing raids on west and north-west German cities, the local authorities and the ministries in Berlin decided that concentration camp inmates should be used for clearing work, recovering dead bodies and removing bomb damage. SS construction brigades were set up specifically for this purpose. In October 1942, the administration of the Neuengamme concentration camp, which also coordinated the work sites, organised a 1,000-man strong 2nd SS construction brigade, which was requested by the Bremen building office.

The administration of the Neuengamme concentration camp arranged for the transport of the forced labourers to Bremen. Hermann Fabeck and 750 other prisoners were taken there on 12 October 1942. They were ordered by the city to clear rubble. Some were also deployed to build air raid shelters. The concentration camp prisoners were housed in a barracks camp in Wartumer Heerstrasse, which belonged to the Francke-Werke (a company engaged in machine and plant construction) in Bremen.

Hermann Fabeck presumably died during this clearing work at 11.40 on 25 October 1942. "Warturmer Heerstrasse” was stated as the place of death in the death entry. The cause of death recorded in the Neuengamme concentration camp hospital register was "fractured skull”. Hermann's mother suspected that he had been killed by a blow to the head, and this version was passed on within the family as the actual cause of death.

Hermann Fabeck was buried in the graveyard in Osterholz in Bremen, plot CIX 263, on 29 October 1942. The former cemetery C IX is now a grassy area.

In 1952 Hermann Fabeck’s mother applied for compensation for her son’s imprisonment for the time from 1938 to 1942. The application was rejected on the grounds that she was unable to provide any evidence of political imprisonment, and the reasons for Herbert Fabeck’s imprisonment were not considered eligible for restitution.

On 20 February 2020 the German Bundestag approved a motion that included the recognition of concentration camp prisoners persecuted by the National Socialists as "asocials” or "professional criminals”. People who were persecuted under National Socialism as "asocials” and "professional criminals” and deported to concentration camps are to be recognised as "victims of the National Socialist system of injustice” and increasingly included in remembrance and public commemoration. Hermann Fabeck’s biography is to become part of this remembrance.

The entry "deviant behaviour” on the memorial stone ("Stolperstein”) that has already been laid for Fabeck avoids the derogatory terms "asocial” or "professional criminal” used by the National Socialists for people who, having committed crimes, were sent to prison or concentration camps.

Translation: Tommy McClymont
Stand: July 2024
© Marc Petzoldt (Urgroßneffe)/Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht Hamburg 65672 (Hermann August Fabeck), 65240 (Otto Szafranski); 351-11 Amt f. Wiedergutmachung 8254 (Wilhelmine Fabeck), 332-5 Heiratsregister 8652 Nr.51/1907 Fabeck/Buch, 114019 Heiratsregister Nr. 271/1940 Petzoldt/Fabeck; 741-4 Fotoarchiv K4422 (Fabeck), 6054 (Fabeck), A469 (Fabeck), A253 (Fabeck), K2400 (Grillparzerstraße; ITS Archives Bad Arolsen Digital Archive 1.2.2.1 [11341381], [3425208], [3425209], 1.1.30.2 [3432412], 1.1.30.1 [3417832], [3417427]; E-Mail vom 23.11.2022, Unterlagen KZ Neuengamme, von Franciska Henning; Bundesarchiv Berlin R 3001/181083 und R 3018/9967 Verurteilung; Unterlagen der VVN, E-Mail vom 14.10.2021, Nachweis zur Grabstätte Friedhof Ohlsdorf; 1935 SUB Adressbuch Hamburg; www.wikipedea.de (Einsicht am 6.10.2021); https://www.die-verleugneten.de/chronologie/1933-1945-verfolgung/ (Einsicht 22.01.2024); https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/geschichte/kz-aussenlager/aussenlagerliste/bremen-ii-ss-baubrigade/ (Einsicht 22.01.2024); Hamburger Arroganz: Suchergebnisse für Reeperbahn (Einsicht am 06.03.2024).