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Eduard Falkenau * 1910

Heinrich-Grone-Stieg Ecke Sachsenfeld (Hamburg-Mitte, Hammerbrook)

Verhaftet 1936 und 1942
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Emslandlager
KZ Neuengamme
ermordet 03.07.1943

further stumbling stones in Heinrich-Grone-Stieg Ecke Sachsenfeld:
Max Kresse

Eduard Karl Falkenau, born 8 Jan. 1910, imprisoned 1936, died 3 July 1943 in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp

Heinrich-Grone-Stieg, corner of Sachsenfeld (formerly Gustavstraße 12, Salvation Army Men’s Shelter

Eduard Falkenau attended the primary school in his hometown of Königsberg in East Prussia until he was 14, when he quit school. From 15 to 18 he was a resident pupil at the Ohlsdorf Reform School. He then earned a living as a factory worker and itinerant laborer until 1930, when he could no longer find a job.

He was arrested five times between 1930 and 1932, on charges of vagrancy, carrying a thrusting weapon, assault, and trespassing. From 1935 onwards he often slept at the Pik As homeless shelter, and earned money as a rent-boy.

In 1936, Falkenau became the victim of a denunciation. Someone sent an anonymous postcard to the Gestapo. During an interrogation, another rent-boy identified him in a catalogue of police photos. Falkenau was arrested and put into "protective custody” at the Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp from 23 October to 29 December 1936.
On 29 January 1937, the 2nd Chamber of the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him to two years in prison for "commercial fornication” according to section 175 of the German Penal Code (homosexuality laws). Before his sentencing he had been threatened in Gestapo interrogations with being sent to a concentration camp.

Eduard Falkenau began serving his sentence on 16 February 1937 in Hamburg. One month later he was sent to the Emsland camps as forced labor – first to the Aschendorfermoor camp, then to the Börgermoor camp, and finally to the Brual-Rhede camp. After he had served his prison term, he was released in Hamburg on 30 October 1938. He had no home to go to, and slept at the Salvation Army Men’s Shelter at Gustavstraße 12.

In 1941 the Hamburg District Court sentenced him to five months in prison for a violation of labor service duty, and in 1942 to nine months in prison for a violation of the Rationing Edict of 6 April 1940. After he had served his prison sentence at the Glasmoor Prison, he was transferred into custody of the Hamburg police. He was sent to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp in January 1943 (prisoner number 13356), probably from the Hütten prison. Eduard Falkenau was murdered at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp on 3 July 1943.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaHH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 2745/35 und 1012/37; StaHH, 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; StaHH, 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 a.