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Carl Puls
© Privatbesitz

Carl Puls * 1902

Harnacksweg 63 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

HIER WOHNTE
CARL PULS
JG. 1902
IM WIDERSTAND / SPD
VERHAFTET 19.2.1935
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
ENTLASSEN 19.7.1939

Carl Puls, born on 16.11.1902 in Hamburg, 20.2.1935 "protective custody” in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, subsequently in remand prison until 19.7.1935, drafted into the Wehrmacht on 30.11.1944, perished on 23.4.1945 in Pevesdorf/ Lüchow-Dannenberg district

Harnacksweg 63

Carl Wilhelm Heinrich Puls was born in Hamburg on November 16, 1902, the son of the haulage contractor Wilhelm Puls and his wife Emma. He attended elementary school from 1909 to 1917, after which he trained as a locksmith and lathe operator until 1921. Until June 1924, he worked in his learned trade in various companies in Hamburg and Saxony. He then took up employment as a nurse at the Friedrichsberg State Hospital.

He had previously married Helene Sievers, three years his senior, on April 17, 1924. Their son Wilhelm was born in October 1924, followed by daughter Helga in February 1929. The family lived in Barmbek-Nord at Steilshooper Straße 217.
Carl Puls joined the SPD in 1925 and also became a member of the Reichsbanner. From 1930, he held the position of district leader in district 14 of the Barmbek-Nord SPD district. Around 1935, the family moved into a house in the Herzmoor housing estate at Harnacksweg 63 in Langenhorn-Nord.

Immediately after the National Socialists banned the SPD, Carl Puls was dismissed on June 22, 1933 on the basis of the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums). He remained unemployed until the end of May 1934. He was then employed as a press worker at the Rhenania-Osseg company.

After the arrest of the illegal SPD leadership around Walter Schmedemann in October/November 1934, Carl Puls also became the focus of the Gestapo's attention. Puls was taken into "protective custody” on February 20, 1935 "because he is strongly suspected of having maintained the organizational cohesion of the illegal SPD and of having distributed highly treasonous leaflets”. He was held in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp until March 20, 1935. He was then transferred to the remand prison. In the indictment, he was accused of trying to reactivate former members of the SPD in Langenhorn until the summer of 1934. Highly treasonous activities were named: Distribution of illegal leaflets, distribution of handbills against the referendum held in August 1934, participation in a secret May Day celebration in Wittmoor in 1934 and collection of small amounts of money for the production and distribution of illegal propaganda material. Puls' involvement could not be proven, so he was released from custody on July 19, 1935.

After his release, Carl Puls was initially unemployed again until he was able to take up a job as a lathe operator at Blohm & Voss on September 21, 1935. In January 1936, he moved to another company for a short time, before working as a lathe operator for VDM Luftfahrtwerke AG in Groß Flottbek from March 16, 1936.
When Reichsbanner members of the former Schufo 23 in Barmbek-Nord were arrested in 1936, Carl Puls was again investigated. A useless pistol 08 was confiscated from him. However, he was not arrested again.

By order of the Gestapo, the armaments company VDM had to dismiss Puls on January 27, 1937. A few days later, he found employment at the C.H.F. Müller Röntgenwerk in Fuhlsbüttel. Carl Puls worked here until July 23, 1944. He was then conscripted and had to work at the Hanseatisches Kettenwerk (HAK) in Langenhorn.

On November 30, 1944, Carl Puls was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a railroad pioneer. In the last days of the war, he was killed in action in Pevestorf in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district river Elbe at around 9 a.m. on April 23, 1945.

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Holger Martens

Quellen: StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 22369; BArch, R 3018/5442, Strafsache Wagener und And.; Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte, Anklageschrift, Bestand 833-8_SPD Prozesse.