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Wilhelm Stein
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Wilhelm Stein * 1895

Eißendorfer Pferdeweg 65 (Harburg, Heimfeld)

HIER WOHNTE
WILHELM STEIN
JG. 1895
IM WIDERSTAND
HINGERICHTET 26.6.1944
IN HAMBURG

Wilhelm Stein, born 15.5.1895 in Biebernheim/Rhineland, executed on 26.6.1944

Heimfeld district, Eißendorfer Pferdeweg 65

The engineer Wilhelm Stein was the son of the farmer Friedrich Stein and his wife Katharina-Elisabeth Stein, née Maus. Since the early death of his parents, he lived from 1904 with an uncle. He finished elementary school and learned the locksmith trade.

He then worked as a locksmith in Mannheim, and from 1913 in Hamburg. He volunteered for the army in World War I, fought on the Eastern Front, and was discharged in 1916 for loss of his right eye.

He returned to Hamburg and worked at the Conz-Werke in Altona until he studied at the Technische Lehranstalten in Hamburg and passed the examination as an electrical engineer in 1922. In the same year he married Erna Schmidt, and in 1928 their son Helmut was born. Wilhelm Stein then found work in various cities, most recently in the Rhineland again in 1927, in Horrem near Cologne. In 1931 he was laid off, then gave private lessons in mathematics and electrical engineering.

In 1932 he joined the KPD. There he met Bernhard Bästlein, then KPD secretary in the Central Rhine district. He remained friends with him until the end of his life. In 1933 Wilhelm Stein was taken into "protective custody" and sent to the Brauweiler concentration camp near Cologne. A newspaper called him the "spiritual leader of the communists in the Bergheim district". He was sentenced to one year in prison by a special court in Cologne for allegedly insulting Göring. He served the sentence in the Siegburg prison.

After his release, the family moved back to Hamburg. Wilhelm Stein was unemployed for a while, then got a job at Ottensener Eisenwerke and in 1937 at Harburger Eisen- und Bronzewerke (today: Harburg-Freudenberger on Seevestraße) as a plant engineer. The family now lived at Eißendorfer Strasse 193 in Harburg, later at Eißendorfer Pferdeweg 65.

Under Felix Plewa, the political leader of the illegal KPD subdistrict of Harburg-Wilhelmsburg, a communist factory cell was formed at the plant, which included Wilhelm Stein, Richard Gohert and Hermann Thomaschewski. During the war, Bernhard Bästlein, who lived in Hamburg after his imprisonment in Sachsenhausen, won him over to the resistance. Together with Richard Gohert, Wilhelm Stein set up a company cell of the Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen organization at the plant, supported by the Social Democrat Karl Polkehn (who became works council chairman for many years after 1945).

Wilhelm Stein had himself appointed air-raid warden and was given a lockable room in the factory. Here they listened to foreign radio stations and produced leaflets.

In the former restaurant "Dörfels Eck" (Bremer Straße 241, corner of Am großen Dahlen), he met repeatedly to exchange information with comrades-in-arms. Chess was played as camouflage. On October 15, 1942, the great wave of arrests against members of the Bästlein organization began. On October 22, Wilhelm Stein was arrested and sent to Gestapo custody in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel (from October 23, 1942 to March 25, 1943), then to the remand prison at Holstenglacis. After the heavy air raids on Hamburg in July 1943, he was given "parole" with the threat that his relatives would have to pay if he went into hiding. He continued to work in the iron and bronze works. Although he had to fear his death sentence, he helped fellow workers with his knowledge and taught them, among other things, trigonometric formulas. On September 9, he had to return to the remand prison.

At the beginning of May 1944, the "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof) held six trials in Hamburg against members of the Bästlein organization. The main trial (presided over by Löhmann) against Heinrich Wadle (Kiel), Wilhelm Stein, Richard Gohert and Heinrich Hartig took place on May 6. Wilhelm Stein was sentenced to death for "preparation for high treason" and "favoring the enemy" and executed on June 26, 1944, together with Karl Kock and eight other resistance fighters in the remand prison. As was customary at the time, nothing was reported in the media about the trials or the executions. Wilhelm Stein's death certificate stated that he had died in the air raids on July 28, 1943.

The bodies of those beheaded were sent to the anatomy department of Kiel University. They were later found by children in a morgue, including those of Wilhelm Stein and Karl Kock.

British soldiers and the police buried them in a mass grave near Kiel, which provoked the protest of their relatives. In August 1947, Wilhelm Stein's body was exhumed from this grave and identified by Erna Stein, Helmut Stein and Karl Polkehn.

Karl Kock's father Jakob identified the body of his son. The urns (Wilhelm Stein's was carried by his son Helmut) were interred at a ceremony on September 14, 1947, in the grove of honor at Ohlsdorf Cemetery. A special streetcar to Ohlsdorf was available for the staff of the iron and bronze works on that day.

Letter from Wilhelm Stein, sentenced to death (The letter was written one day before the execution).
"My dear, good Erna, good Helmut! Hamburg, June 25, 1944
I received your card, dear Erna; those were hard days again. It has now been another eight days since you were with me. Even though it is always only a few minutes, it is still a joy for both of us. Yes, you must not think, because then it will only be harder. Today is once again a beautiful sunny day. Now it is probably also beautiful in our small garden. At our boy's it will be summer now, too; I suppose it's even warmer there than here. If there is an alarm, go to the shelter by the railroad. Tomorrow in eight days we will see each other again, I am looking forward to it. Keep well, my dear wife.

And now a few words for Helmut. My dear Helmut! How do you still like it in your new home? Hopefully you also have reasonably regular school lessons. I would be happy if your grades would improve, but that will be alright. You are on historically interesting ground. In general, one can understand the present only from the past, just as one can plan and think in the future only from the past and the present, but you will understand that only much later. How are you still, my boy? You just have to write a little more to your mother. Stay healthy and please your teachers. And now warm greetings and kisses for both of you from your dad."

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: January 2022
© Hans-Joachim Meyer

Quellen: VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Die anderen, S. 291ff.; VVN-BdA Hamburg (Hrsg.), Niemand, S. 123ff.; VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Stumme Zeugen, s. Personenverzeichnis; Hochmuth/Meyer, Streiflichter, S. 341ff.; StaH, 331.1.II Polizeibehörde II; StaH, Adressbücher Harburg-Wilhelmsburg; Sterbeurkunde, Kopie bei der VVN-BdA Harburg; Heyl/Maronde-Heyl, Abschlussbericht; Totenliste VAN.