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Erich Hippel * 1917

Wolfgangsweg 12 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ERICH HIPPEL
JG. 1917
SEIT DEZ. 1942 MEHRMALS
DESERTIERT / VERHAFTET
WESERMÜNDE-BREMERHAVEN
FELDGERICHT BREMERHAVEN
TODESURTEIL 3.2.1944
HINGERICHTET 2.3.1944
RAHLSTEDT-HÖLTIGBAUM

further stumbling stones in Wolfgangsweg 12:
Franz Gilde, Helmut Nehrig, Otto Schnatbaum, James Seland

Erich Hippel, born on 7 July 1917 in Arnswalde/Neumark, shot on 2 Mar. 1944 at the Hamburg-Höltigbaum shooting range

Wolfgangsweg 12 (Seemannsheim)

Erich Hippel came from Arnswalde in the Neumark (New March). We know nothing about his childhood and adolescence, except that he attracted attention several times for minor offences. With the "seizure of power” of the Nazis, their "racial hygiene” became the yardstick for dealing with the individual citizens, i.e., the "inferior” genetic material of physically, psychologically, sensorially (deafness, blindness), and mentally disabled people, of so-called "asocials” ("Azoziale”) and of "members of a foreign race” ("Fremdrassige”) was to be removed from the German "national body” ("Volkskörper”). According to the authorities, Erich Hippel also belonged to this group. On 26 Oct. 1934, the hereditary health court (Erbgesundheitsgericht) in Göttingen ordered sterilization of the 17-year-old on the grounds of him being "congenitally feebleminded” ("angeboren schwachsinnig”). In the Nazi state, there were 205 hereditary health courts, each consisting of a physician, a psychiatrist, and a lawyer. The judgments were made, after the processing of "intelligence evaluation forms” ("Intelligenzprüfbogen”) along the lines of Nazi ideology and hereditary-biological (genetic) science in non-public sessions. Erich Hippel was sterilized on 17 Jan. 1935 at the University Hospital in Göttingen.

Presumably in order to adapt to his Nazi environment, Erich Hippel "illegitimately” obtained an "official party uniform with badge” and pretended to be a member of the Hitler Youth. For this reason and because of a theft, the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht) sentenced him to seven months in prison as a 20-year-old in Nov. 1937.

When the Second World War began, he went to sea. As a member of the merchant navy, where he worked as a trimmer, cook’s mate and baker, he was employed by the German Navy from Jan. 1942 onward. He was deployed on the tanker of the submarine flotilla in Norway, the "Pelagos,” on the "Oxhöft” and the tug "Nordstern,” and since 9 Nov. 1942, on the war transporter K.T.3 in Norwegian traffic. He had temporary accommodation in the Seemannsheim of the German Seemannsmission, a seamen’s residential home in the seaman’s mission, in Hamburg at Wolfgangsweg 12, opposite Überseebrücke. Although he did not do military service, Erich Hippel was subject to military jurisdiction as a member of the German Navy.

He was arrested for returning late from the Ohrdruf/Thuringia military hospital, and on 7 Dec. 1942, he was committed to the Wehrmacht pretrial detention facility (WUG) in Hamburg-Altona (at Gerichtstrasse 2). During an investigation in Dec. 1942, he managed to escape to Berlin, where he was arrested on 10 June 1943 by a Wehrmacht patrol deploying firearms during the arrest. Due to the war situation, he was transferred to the court of the coastal commander with jurisdiction over the German Bight (Deutsche Bucht) in Wesermünde-Bremerhaven. There, too, he attempted to escape in Sept. 1943, but was caught after brief pursuit. On 11 Nov. 1943, the court sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for two cases of desertion.

However, on 5 Jan. 1944, he fled again and was arrested two weeks later in the Bremen area. On 3 Feb. 1944, the court martial of the coastal commander Deutsche Bucht, Wesermünde-Bremerhaven branch, sentenced Hippel, by then 27 years old, to death for "desertion in the field in three cases and for unauthorized absenting himself.” The court martial consisted of "naval assistant associate court martial judge” (Marinehilfskriegsgerichtsrat) Schlegel presiding, Marinehilfskriegsgerichtsrat Hense as representative of the prosecution, and Corvette Captain Hille and Obermaschinenmaat [a rank equivalent to petty officer second class supervising machinery] Kanne serving as military assessors. Admiral Walter Lohmann (1891–1955) determined on 27 Feb. 1944 who was to carry out the shooting: "The Marinebordflakkompanie Hamburg-Neuhof [a navy ship-based antiaircraft artillery company] is commissioned to provide the execution command (1 officer, 10-men execution command, and 1 section). As senior officer in charge, I appoint Captain Lieutenant Schulz of the Staff Company KMD Hamburg, as participating medical officer: Naval Staff Physician Passmann. The court representative attending is: Marinehilfskriegsgerichtsrat Löning.”

Erich Hippel was tied up on 2 Mar. 1944 at 8 o’clock in the morning at the shooting range Höltigbaum (Hamburg-Rahlstedt) and shot with eyes blindfolded from five steps away. His body was transferred to the reserve military hospital V Hamburg-Wandsbek (at Bramfelder Strasse 219, today Lesserstrasse 180) and remained there until transport to the cemetery. According to the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), he was buried at the Ohlsdorf cemetery (grave position Z 40 -1-33). It was not until 15 Feb. 1945, almost a year later, that his death was entered in the register of deaths at the responsible registry office in Hamburg-Rahlstedt. The cause of death was indicated as "executed according to court martial verdict.”

In May 2002, the deserters of the German Wehrmacht were generally rehabilitated, but the courts martial were not held legally responsible for the death sentences. A street was named after Erich Hippel in the Jenfelder Au development area. An application for a Stolperstein in front of the former seamen’s home, whose address was noted on the death certificate, was submitted in 2017.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: StaH, 332-5 (Standesämter), 4414 u. 43/1945 (Sterbeeintrag); Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), Berlin; Auer: über Erich Hippel in: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (Hrsg.): Gedenken, S. 53-55; Garbe/Koch/Skowronski: Deserteure, S. 24 (Walter Lohmann); Scherer: "Asozial", S. 95, 112; www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/miszellen/kt3.htm (eingesehen 18.8.2015); http://www.hamburger-wochenblatt.de/tonndorf/lokales/jenfeld-setzt-zeichen-gegen-das-vergessen-d38007.html (eingesehen 8.3.2017).