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Carl Bruns
Carl Bruns
1885 - 1945
1885 - 1945
My great uncle Carl Bruns was born on February 10, 1885, the son of the farmer Johann Heinrich Bruns (1851-1920) and Katharina Bruns, née Willers (1858-1955) in Hollerdeich in the former district of Kehdingen, (today the community of Oederquart, district of Stade). Five of the twelve children in the family died at an early age from childhood diseases.
Photo: The parents and Carl's younger brother Ernst
Carl attended the village school in Oederquart for eight years, until 1899. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, he worked ever since in the textile industry as a merchant and moved to Hamburg (about 90 kilometers from Kehdingen) later. (>Kaiserreich)
"My homosexual predisposition only really developed during the World War. (...) After my military service I never approached women again.” (from Carl Bruns' statements at his arrest in April 1942)
Carl took part in the First World War from 1915 till 1918, finally as a gunner in foot. Regiment 45 Hamburg-Altona, and received the EK II, Verwundetenabzeichen (Wound Badge) and Frontkämpferehrenzeichen.
The shop "Tuchlager Welzien & Co." was located first at Graskeller 3, then at Neuer Wall 103, both buildings having been destroyed by bombs during the Second World War. Otto Schildt became sole owner of the company in December 1942, after Carl had been arrested.
Perhaps Carl got to know his later business and life partner Otto Schildt (1882-1943) during the First World War, because as early as September 1919, shortly after the founding of the Weimar Republic, they became managing directors, and from 1927, owners of the "Tuchlager Welzien & Co” in Hamburg. The owner of the cloth shop until December 1927 was Emma Margaretha Welzien.
From 1921 to 1924 Carl and Otto lived in Barcastraße in Hamburg-Hohenfelde, and in 1925 they moved to Papenhuder Straße 33 in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst, near the Alster Lake.
On April 1, 1933, shortly after the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship, Carl and Otto, together with Carl's mother (my great-grandmother), moved into an upper middle-class 8-room apartment in Papenhuder Strasse 32, 2nd floor, opposite the previous apartment.
In 1929 Carl had met the photographer Heinrich (Heinz) Roth (1907-1945) in a gay bar (Die Goldene 13 in St. Pauli) and had had a relationship with him until 1936 when the persecution began. Heinz had a photo studio and apartment at Steindamm 91 in Hamburg - St. Georg, but stayed most of the time with Carl.
My mother, Hannelore Schreiber, née Busse, (1922-1966) and my aunt Ursula Becker, née Busse (1924-2019) often visited "Onkel Carl, Onkel Otto and Onkel Heinz" as children.
Carl Bruns was not politically active and not a member of the NSDAP, which was recorded in the Gestapo files.
Kaffee und Kuchen, early 1930s,
From left to right: Käthe, Otto, unknown, my great grandmother, unknown, Heinrich (Heinz), Carl.
Photographer: Maybe Julius, Käthe's husband.
As the pictures testify, Heinz Roth visited Carl's family members together with Otto and Carl (here with his sister Käthe and her husband Julius Strauch).
As a child in the 1960s I still met my great aunt Käthe!
Imagine ... if the Nazis had not gained power in 1933 and killed millions during their 12 years of ruling Germany ... I would have grown up with gay great uncles in the family!
Cuxhaven
North Sea island Sylt
Tip: „Schwule Lieder“ (Gay Songs) Historical recordings from the years 1908 till 1933 - Perlen der Kleinkunst - with artists Otto Reutter, Gustaf Gründgens, Claire Waldoff and Marlene Dietrich.
Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
2023 | 1h 32m | Documentary on Netflix
A glittery nightclub in 1920s Berlin becomes a haven for the queer community in this documentary exploring the freedoms lost amid Hitler’s rise to power.
Filmmaker Benjamin Cantu weaves together interviews, reenactments and historical footage to tell this illuminating story.
On Monday, January 30, 1933 Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler, leader or Führer of the NSDAP, National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. The day after Adolf Hitler and his coalition partners formed the new administration, the Reichstag (parliament) was dissolved and new elections were called for March 5. Within a few weeks the National Socialists destroyed the democratic Weimar Republic using terror and arrests. By the end of April 1933 about 25.000 opponents of the regime had already been taken into "Schutzhaft", in March 1933 SA and SS had set up the first concentration camps Konzentrationslager (KZ) at Dachau (close to Munich) and Oranienburg (outskirts of Berlin).
Saturday, May 6, 1933 Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Sexology) in Berlin was looted and closed by the National Socialists. A large part of the library was burned on May 10th along with many other valuable books by German writers on Opernplatz.
Paragraph 175, which has existed since 1872, made sexual acts between men a criminal offense and was tightened by the National Socialists on September 1, 1935 and the persecution of homosexual men began:
In April 1936 Heinrich was sentenced to 8 months in prison for his relationship with Carl.
Carl was first sentenced in June 1936 and spent 4 months and 2 weeks in prison.
>> Persecution
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