Paul Lübke 1889 - 1942

Born 10.1.1889 in Groß Stepenitz / Stepnica
Died 18.12.1942 in Mauthausen

Biography

Paul Lübke was born on 10 January 1889 in Stepnica (which at the time was called Groß Stepenitz). Born out of wedlock, he was raised by foster parents. After leaving school in 1903, he worked as a cabin boy, stoker and coal trimmer, among other occupations. After serving in the First World War, he remained unable to find a permanent job. This was probably due in part to the various illnesses he suffered from during the course of the 1920s. His life remained poverty-stricken.

Lübke married in 1914; his wife gave birth to a child shortly thereafter. They divorced in 1927. During this time, he accumulated various convictions, particularly for theft. In an attempt to escape this precarity, he participated in a training course to become a naturopath in 1931. A year later, he opened his practice in Hamburg. This practice, while remaining relatively unsuccessful, seems to have led him to start performing abortions. In particular, he helped Hamburg workers with unwanted pregnancies. These workers included both the girlfriend of a member of the Nazi Party as well as the partner of a radio technician labelled as “half-Jewish”. News of his abortion services soon spread: the word got out in workplaces, families, the cafés in Hamburg’s red-light district along the Reeperbahn or an Italian ice cream parlour. In most cases, Lübke was remunerated for his services. Although some of the women whose pregnancies he terminated described the relationship as exploitative, others built friendships with Lübke through the abortion. “I can only say that Lübke was also very nice to me,” an unemployed office clerk from Hamburg-Harburg commented.

In 1934, Lübke stood trial for providing illegal abortions for the first time: he was sentenced to one and a half years in gaol. On 14 April 1938, the police paid a visit to his flat. On being told that he needed to accompany the police to be interrogated, he responded that he would never be set free again. He was to remain right. While initially admitting to having performed abortions, he refused to name the women and men he had helped as to avoid them being caught up in the proceedings. Under police pressure he eventually ceded, however, triggering extensive investigations. He claimed to have thrown the instruments he used to perform abortions into the river Elbe. After over a year in pretrial detention, he was sentenced on 28 June 1939 to eight years in gaol (to be followed by “protective custody”) for 16 cases of (attempted) “commercial” abortions and one “non-commercial” abortion. He was labelled a “dangerous habitual criminal” and his appeal was rejected.

Lübke already suffered considerably during pretrial detention. He was allowed no visitors and dental issues made eating painful. After being sentenced, he was incarcerated in Bremen-Oslebshausen and Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel. On 5 December 1942 he was transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he arrived on 8 December. He died a mere ten days later, on 18 December, aged 53.

The files of the Hamburg public prosecution give little insight into Lübke’s personality or how he viewed the reproductive work he carried out in the form of abortions. It is merely noted that the man with curly hear and horn-rimmed glasses had been a “passionate dancer”.

 

Emma Teworte, researcher

 

Archival sources

Hamburg State Archive, 213-11 Nr. 59016 und Nr. 59017; 242-1 II Nr. 2430

Location In room