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Wilhelm Dettmann * 1856

Hammer Weg 33 ggü. 36 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

HIER WOHNTE
WILHELM DETTMANN
JG. 1856
VERHAFTET
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
TOT AN HAFTFOLGEN
2.1.1934

further stumbling stones in Hammer Weg 33 ggü. 36:
Babette Löw, Georg Traube

Wilhelm Dettmann, born 3 December 1856, date of death 2 January 1934 Hamburg

Hammer Weg, right entrance to the sports field (formerly Hammer Weg 33)

Wilhelm Johann Christian Dettmann came from a Lutheran working class family. He worked as a bricklayer. Born on December 3, 1856, in Hof Brüel in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, he was already a relatively old man at 77 years of age when he was arrested in 1933.

His mother, Dorothea Sophia Catherine Fels, had died when he was eleven years old. His father had then entered into a second marriage with Catharina Elisabeth Dorothea Evert, who also came from Brüel.

Nothing is known about Wilhelm Dettmann's schooling and education, nor about the circumstances of his moving to Hamburg.

In 1883 he was registered at Borgfelder Straße 10 in Hamburg-Borgfelde, the eastern up-and-coming suburb. At that time, this street was still a 6 m wide street with buildings on both sides, which did not get its present form until the beginning of the 20th century.

When Wilhelm Dettmann married Anna Katharina Bracker, born on December 12, 1859 in Brackenbruch/Holstein, on July 4, 1883, his father was no longer alive. His mother Catharina had also moved to Hamburg. Anna Bracker's parents, Hans Bracker and Katharina, née Lübbes, lived in "Hagen" (it was not possible to find out what "Hagen” is meant by this name).

Anna Dettmann moved to her husband at Borgfelder Straße 10 in the house 7. Three years later they were registered in St. Georg at Brunnenstraße 30. In 1888, they returned to Borgfelder Straße and lived in house 1 between numbers 32/34, where their daughter Gretchen Martha Olga was born on August 29, 1892, after nine years of marriage. She remained their only child.

Wilhelm Dettmann became self-employed as a building contractor and moved his apartment and company headquarters to Grevenweg 5.

On December 9, 1902, his mother Catharina died at the age of 87 in the work- and poorhouse on the Uhlenhorst/Finkenau.

On April 28, 1922, Anna Dettmann died at the age of 62 in the St. Georg General Hospital. After her death, Wilhelm Dettmann was now 66 years old, he moved to Hammer Weg 33 in Hamburg Hamm. He had lived among workers in Hamburg throughout his life.

The reason for his arrest in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp is unknown. Whether Wilhelm Dettmann belonged to a political party or was suspected of it, we do not know. Also unknown is the reason why he was transferred from the "KoLa-Fu" to the hospital Marienkrankenhaus, where he died on January 2, 1934 at the age of 78.
He is the oldest known death victim from the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp.

On the basis of which documents Wilhelm Johann Christian Dettmann was included with the first name "Wilhelm" in the memorial book of the concentration camp Fuhlsbüttel and with the first name "Johann" in the death list of Hamburg resistance fighters and persecuted 1933 – 1945, cannot be clarified today (2020).

Wilhelm Dettmann's daughter Gretchen married Otto Adolph Ernst Gerike, 24 years older than her, born January 2, 1868 in Görlitz. The wedding took place on September 26, 1917, during the First World War. On the marriage certificate no profession is noted for her. At the time of the marriage, she no longer lived with her parents, who had moved to Moorfleth, Unterer Landweg 27, while she remained in Borgfelde and lived at Eiffestrasse 47.
Otto Gerike worked for the sugar agency Gerike, Bahr & Co. with its headquarters at Gröningerstaße 14 in Hamburg and with offices in Stettin and Danzig. He represented the company in Danzig. Otto Ernst Gerike died on December 28, 1934 at the age of 66 in Altona-Nienstedten. Gretchen Gericke entered into a second marriage in 1942. She died as widowed Selk on March 18, 1967 at the age of 75 in Hamburg, Barmbek-Uhlenhorst.

Translator: Erwin Fink/Changes: Beate Meyer
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: September 2020
© Hildegard Thevs

Quelle: Hamburger Adressbücher; StaHH 332-5 Personenstandsregister; Totenliste Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer und Verfolgter 1933 – 1945 der VAN von 1968; Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu, 1978.