Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Emil Josef Thiel * 1909

Metzer Straße 4 (Hamburg-Nord, Dulsberg)

Verhaftet 1935, 1938 und 1939
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Flucht in den Tod
01.06.1941

Emil Joseph Thiel, born 5 Dec. 1912 in Wandsbek, imprisoned 1938, 1939–1940, suicide 1 June 1941 in Hamburg

Metzer Straße 4

Emil Thiel was born the son of the worker Joseph Thiel and his wife Berta, née Stoltenberg. After finishing elementary school, he worked as a messenger and later as a commercial clerk. He was caught four times by the National-Socialist regime for same-sex activity – the first time at the end of Oct. 1935. Only the criminal justice records from 1938 have survived, hence we can only present an incomplete picture of Thiel’s ordeal.

On 8 Mar. 1938 Emil Thiel, who worked at the trade health insurance company for business assistants, was reported to the criminal investigations department by his colleague Karl Manrodt at the behest of their employer. The reason he gave was that a third party had let him know that Emil Thiel "had been to bed” with a man. After his report, Emil Thiel was dismissed without notice.

Three days later, Emil Thiel appeared on a summons at city hall for questioning by the criminal investigation department. He stated that he himself had given notice on 31 Mar. 1938 because his long-term relationship with another man had come to the notice of his employer. He had first met his partner at Café Indra on the Großen Freiheit. He admitted having had same-sex intercourse over the past few years. He had approached other men in public restrooms and on the street. He had only ever had sexual activity outside and never taken anyone home to his apartment. On 15 Mar. he was taken into police "protective custody” and on 19 Mar. 1938 moved to Holstenglacis remand prison.

The public prosecutor’s office charged Emil Thiel with offenses under sections 175, 175 a, paragraph 3. The Superior Chamber VIII of the Hamburg Regional Court, presided over by Regional Court Director Schmarje, acquitted him on 28 June 1938 of offenses under section 175a and sentenced him for offenses under section 175 to nine months in prison. His conviction stated: "… He fought with himself repeatedly and exercised a great deal to distract himself and went to the theater to take his mind off of those thoughts. In spite of it all, he occasionally met up with other men until Feb. 1938 and, as he had to admit, fornicated with them. … During sentencing, the accused was helped by his assertions that he continually fought against his abnormal tendencies, a very plausible claim that the court believed. … he was not a male prostitute, and he had never attempted to earn money with sexual acts. On the other hand, his sentence must take into account that his offenses under section 175 of the criminal code must be combated by all available means."

His plea for clemency was rejected, so he had to serve his full sentence at Glasmoor Men’s Prison near Glashütte.

In Mar. 1939 he was again arrested for "sexual perversion" and taken into "protective custody" on 10 Mar. On 4 July 1939 he was sentenced to time in prison for offenses under section 175 which he had to serve until 9 Sept. 1940 in Fuhlsbüttel Penitentiary.

Emil Thiel found work in Wilhelmshaven as a commercial clerk for a shipping company. When a police summons reached him at his place of work calling him in for questioning in late May 1941, he fled to his parents’ home in Hamburg. He committed suicide in their apartment at Metzer Straße 4 on the 2nd floor in Hamburg-Dulsberg on 1 June 1941 by opening a gas valve.

Since Emil Thiel primarily lived in Hamburg and not in Wilhelmshaven, a Stumbling Stone has been laid for him outside his parents’ house at Metzer Straße 4 in Dulsberg.


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH, 213-8 (Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung), Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b und Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; StaH 242-1II (Gefängnisverwaltung II), Ablieferungen 13 und 16; StaH 213-11 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen), 7560/38; StaH 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle), 970/41; Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann/Gottlieb Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung in Hamburg 1919–1969, Verlag Lambda Edition, Hamburg 2009, S. 263.