Memory of the victims of Fritz Honka: It is time for the truth!

Memory of the victims of Fritz Honka: It is time for the truth!

in Hamburg is currently being used to commemorate the victims of the infamous serial killer Fritz Honka. Historician Frauke Steinhäuser and graphic artist Eva Müller are committed to living in public awareness with great dedication, which were brutally aware of the fates of women in the 1970s. Four women stuck in the clutches of a man who couldn't wrest his own fears and dreams.

The victims are the 42-year-old Gertraud Bräuer, 54-year-old Anna Beuschel, 57-year-old Frieda Roblick and 52-year-old Ruth Schult. Her life stories are characterized by poverty, lack of education and tragic experiences. Overall, Honka's criminal career is particularly shattering because he kept the corpses of his victims after the murders in his apartment - until an apartment fire led to their discovery in 1975. According to his own memories, Fritz Honka was not even able to commemorate the names of his victims, which reinforces the tragedy of the situation.

a dark chapter in Hamburg

Fritz Honka, born in Leipzig in 1935 as the third of ten children, lived a childhood full of privation. Because of his father's political commitment in the Communist Party, he ended up in the concentration camp. Menify how his later move to Hamburg and the failed marriage continued to destabilize. After a serious accident, in which Honka found his facial features, he began to lose himself in alcohol and found himself in the red light milieu.

at a time when the Hamburg Reeperbahn was a center for the criminal environment, Honka often looked for contact with prostitutes. His violent behavior and his sexually motivated attacks led to display. However, the system could not prevent it from murdering his four victims between 1970 and 1975. The circumstances for her death are shocking: Bräuer was killed because she refused to have sex while the other women were killed by brutal violence.

The rediscovery of the victims

"Society has not dealt with these women for a long time," says Steinhäuser, who are now researching the CVs of the four. The story of Anna Beuschel, who was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Nazi era during the Nazi era, was particularly moving when she returned to Hamburg in 1947. In 2020, “anti -social” persecuted were recognized, which opened the light of a late commemoration for many. The memorial stone in the Ohlsdorfer cemetery, which was only set up in May 2025, should in future remind you.

Eva Müller plans a graphic novel that will tell the life stories of women in an artistic way. While she is working on Anna's childhood, she hopes that this work not only informs, but also touches and stimulates thought. Furthermore, only limited information about women contains in the Honka process files, which also makes research difficult. However, Steinhäuser has a good hand to find out more about the life realities of women and to preserve their stories.

In the 70s, the police were only able to discover the corpses in a fire in Honka's apartment. His confession about the murders only came much later when he granted his actions under the influence of alcohol. These dark chapters in the history of Hamburg still create a huge media interest today. The cultural -historical examination of Honka's life was triggered not least by the film "The Golden Glove" by Fatih Akin, who confronted a new generation of spectators with these crimes.

With this commemoration, the initiators hope to keep the stories of women and the shadows that Honka has thrown over their lives and to embed them in our memory.