Pension Clausewitz

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The Pension Clausewitz was a West Berlin brothel .

background

The brothel with the camouflage name Pension Clausewitz , which has existed since 1947, was located in Berlin-Charlottenburg on the third floor of the house at Clausewitzstrasse 4, a side street off Kurfürstendamm . At the beginning of the 1960s, the founder had to give up the company after a second conviction for commercial pimping ; the Pension Clausewitz , at that time the most expensive brothel of West Berlin, was developed by Hans Helmcke taken. As early as November 1964, he too had to answer to the court after the public prosecutor's office had brought against him the allegation of pimping. The proceedings were discontinued on payment of a fine of 3,000 D-Marks , and the Clausewitz Pension von Helmcke continued to operate unchanged.

Suspicion of espionage

Helmcke and his brothel were kept under surveillance by the public prosecutor and the moral police . Shortly before Christmas 1964, the Clausewitz guesthouse and Helmcke's apartment were checked and the police seized Helmcke's notebook. During the investigation, three of the registered telephone numbers were discovered from East Berlin . It turned out that they were among ports that the GDR - state security service were used.

On January 9, 1965, Helmcke was arrested on suspicion of treasonous relationships and an investigation was initiated against him. Rumors quickly surfaced that the Pension Clausewitz was a Stasi spy facility. The speculations, which were extensively treated in the press, continued to increase; It was soon said that leading politicians not only from West Berlin, but also members of the Bundestag and ministers , high-ranking business representatives and other prominent celebrities were guests in Helmcke's brothel and were specifically questioned by the prostitutes on behalf of the Stasi. It was also alleged that there was a wiretapping system and that incriminating photos had been taken for later extortion by the GDR intelligence service. A number of well-known politicians, among them the Berlin Senator Heinrich Albertz and Federal Minister Erich Mende , were suspected by name of being spied on in the brothel.

The Pension Clausewitz became the focus of extensive reporting in which a large espionage and moral scandal was suspected. However, it soon turned out that such a scandal did not exist. The Pension Clausewitz had not been frequented by important politicians or people who kept secrets, nor had the Stasi carried out espionage activities there. There were no compromising photos of any public figure, and the wiretapping turned out to be an answering machine . In fact, only the three phone numbers in Helmcke's notebook existed.

Because Helmcke was unable to provide exculpatory explanations for the possession of the Stasi telephone numbers, he was convicted of treasonous relationships . Since his sentence was completed with three months of pre - trial detention , he was released. He gave up the Clausewitz pension , but did not withdraw from the brothel industry.

Media reception

Based on the events, the director Ralph Habib shot the film Pension Clausewitz with Wolfgang Kieling and Maria Brockerhoff in the leading roles based on a script by Franz Baake in 1967 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the film portal

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 3.9 ″  N , 13 ° 18 ′ 32.8 ″  E