Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Fritz Seger * 1898

Schulweg 36 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
FRITZ SEGER
JG. 1898
MEHRMALS VERHAFTET
ZULETZT 1944
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
TOT AN HAFTFOLGEN
11.11.1944

Fritz Julius Christian Seger, born on 29 Dec. 1898 in Hamburg, died on 14 Nov. 1944 in Hamburg

Schulweg 36 (Schulweg 38)

Only few details can be reconstructed concerning Fritz Seger’s life and especially his story of persecution, since his case files and prisoner’s files from the Nazi period were not preserved. He was born in 1898 as the son of the Lutheran worker Carl Andreas Joachim Seger and Louise Auguste Christine Johanna, née Schultz, in Hamburg-Neustadt at Kohlhöfen 41. He had at least one sister, Frieda, subsequent married name Linninger or Lindinger, who lived in a basement apartment at Heimhuderstrasse 70 in 1944. Seger, only 1.56 meters (some 5 ft 1 in) in height, worked as a messenger and in the very end as a grinder and resided as a subtenant at changing addresses in Eimsbüttel. At the end of Jan. 1934, Fritz Seger got married to the divorced Anna Hass, née Franke, a worker in the field of machine building. The marriage remained childless and the union was already divorced again before the Regional Court (Landgericht) in late Oct. 1934 on the grounds of mutual fault.

According to research to date, Fritz Seger was arrested for the first time in 1937. From 1 until 24 Dec. 1937, the Gestapo detained him in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, which by this time already had to be called a "police prison” only by official order. The grounds for imprisonment have not been documented in the files; however, based on subsequent convictions, one may assume a connection with homosexual acts. Apparently, it was impossible to establish proof of any "criminal offense” on his part, for he was released again without a trial. However, in the police files on homosexuals, he remained on record as a person suspected "of having committed such a crime.” Following yet another imprisonment in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 18 to 26 Oct. 1938, this time on the authority of the criminal investigation department, which by this time had re-assumed jurisdiction from the Gestapo for investigations against homosexuals, he was committed to the Hamburg-Stadt pretrial detention facility on Holstenglacis on charges of having committed "unnatural sexual offenses” ("widern[atürliche]. Unzucht"). He was also treated twice in the central prison hospital there. Fritz Seger became, as did many other men from Eimsbüttel, a victim of the male prostitute and blackmailer Theodor Gehring, who was active there around the Christ Church (Christuskirche). On 11 Oct. 1938, Gehring revealed to police two encounters with Fritz Seger dating from 1936 and 1938. On these charges, Fritz Seger was sentenced to two months and two weeks in prison before the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) on 28 Nov. 1938, serving his sentence in the Fuhlsbüttel men’s prison until 31 Dec. 1938. Prior to these criminal proceedings, he had lived at Weidenstieg 5. He was persecuted again on 14 June 1944 for "causing a public nuisance” and taken to the pretrial center once more. At this time, he resided as a subtenant at Schulweg 38 on the fifth floor. Having been sentenced to nine months and 29 days in prison by the District Court on 11 July 1944, he was committed to the Fuhlsbüttel men’s prison on 18 July 1944. Two months into the prison sentence, he was transferred to the central prison hospital on Holstenglacis on 22 Sept. 1944, allegedly because of a stomach disorder. Fritz Seger died there on 14 Nov. 1944, aged 45, officially of pneumonia.

The informer Theodor Gehring was executed on 9 July 1942 (see biography on Henry Heitmann)


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

Stand: January 2019
© Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 c u. Abl. 2, 443 E Band 3, 4b mit Dank an Sybille Baumbach für den Quellenhinweis; 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13, 16 u. 1998/1; 332-5, 13169 (Eintrag Nr. 46), 63198 (Sammel­akte Nr. 46) und 1203 (Eintrag Nr. 738).