born 19 March 1879 in Berlin
died 12 December 1938 in Sachsenhausen
historical former address
Stumbling stone Dr.-Wilhelm-Külz-Straße 45
Date of stone-laying 29 September 2006
Hans Klopstock was born into a Jewish family in Berlin on 19 March 1879. His parents Siegfried and Hedwig (née Marcuse) owned an agency for textiles and clothing at Breite Straße 5 in Berlin. Hans had two younger brothers – Felix, born in 1881, and Walter, born in 1888.
Hans studied chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg before going on to enrol at the University of Rostock’s Faculty of Philosophy in 1904. On 17 May 1906, he graduated as a doctor of philosophy. Immediately after graduation, he started working for the cable company “Deutsche Kabelwerke AG” in Berlin. As an inventor, he filed several patents, including one on the vulcanisation of rubber hoses. On 27 September 1921, he married Frieda Bütow in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
In 1931, the part of the company’s chemical branch that included Hans Klopstock’s workplace was relocated to Ketschendorf. The family initially lived near the plant, but after two years moved into a flat with a garden in Promenadenstraße, which is nowadays Dr.-Wilhelm-Külz-Straße 45. The couple had two children. Their son Werner was born on 24 July 1922 and their daughter Hannah Ruth on 7 November 1924.
On 9 November 1938, the night of the November pogroms, Hans Klopstock was arrested and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was mistreated. He died there in the infirmary on 12 December 1938. His medical records give angina pectoris as the official cause of death. On 3 February 1943, his wife Frieda Klopstock was deported on “East Transport” No. 28 from Berlin to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was murdered.
Family members:
Frieda Martha Klopstock née Bütow
Hanna Ruth Klopstock
Werner Klopstock