Dr. Carl Lorenzen
* 1889

Dr. med. Eduard Friedrich Carl Lorenzen, born on 27 Oct. 1889 in Schiffbek, died on 6 Feb. 1938 in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp as a result of suicide

Bramfelder Chaussee 269 (Lübecker Strasse 11)

Not much is known about the fate of Dr. med. Carl Lorenzen. The physician was born on 27 Oct. 1889 in Schiffbek, today Hamburg-Billstedt, as the son of the master painter H. Lorenzen and his wife Maria, née Westphalen. He set himself up as a physician in Bramfeld after the First World War. Initially, he had his doctor’s office at Hamburger Strasse 221 and then, after his marriage in Bramfeld to Carola Bertha Siemers (12 Feb. 1899 –28 Mar. 1993) in 1921, relocated to Lübecker Strasse 11. The marriage produced two children.

He married into the old-established Siemers family of Bramfeld, who had their farmstead in the center of the village. In 1966, the farm was torn down to make room for construction of the Karstadt department store. Herthastrasse in the center of Bramfeld was named after Hertha Siemers – Carola’s twin sister.

As a registered doctor in private practice, Carl Lorenzen was also responsible for providing school doctor’s services to the school then located at today’s Bramfeld village square. So far, it has been impossible to clarify how it came about that he was committed as a protective custody prisoner (Schutzhäftling) to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp on charges of “unnatural sex offenses” (“widernatürliche Unzucht”) on 24 Jan. 1938.

After the arrest of Carl Lorenzen, the police officers entered a note in his file, underlined in red, to the effect of “Caution! Suicidal intentions.” On 5 Feb. 1938, he made a suicide attempt in his cell. A prison guard found him with stab wounds to the left of his neck and arranged for his transfer to the camp hospital. On 6 February, Lorenzen died of his injuries. The cause of death officially indicated was “cardiac insufficiency with heavy loss of blood due to stabbing wound to the neck.” Initially, he was buried in Schiffbek. In 1975, at the request of the Siemers family, he was transferred to another grave in the old Bramfeld cemetery.

By committing suicide, Carl Lorenzen eluded the legal proceedings and the imminent revocation of his medical license by the Medical Association. In addition, since July 1934, the procedures for withdrawing a doctoral degree were being simplified. By then, it was sufficient to establish that a graduate was “no longer worthy of holding a doctoral degree awarded by a German university,” with homosexual activities included in the list of grounds for revocation. Thus, he also pre-empted a further degrading measure ruining his livelihood. A Stolperstein in front of his former practice and residential quarters at today’s Bramfelder Chaussee 269 commemorates his fate.

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