Feature Exhibit
Heinrich Steinmeyer
1924 – 2014
A prisoner of war who never forgot what it meant to be treated as a human being.
Timeline
A life in dates
- 1924
Born in Silesia, Germany (now Poland)
- 1941
Conscripted into the Waffen-SS at the age of 17
- Aug 1944
Captured by British forces in Normandy
- Late 1944
Arrived at Cultybraggan Camp (Camp 21), Comrie
- 1946
Camp decommissioned; moved before repatriation
- 1948
Repatriated to Germany
- 1970
Settled in Delmenhorst, near Bremen
- 1948–2013
Regular return visits to Comrie; supported local families across the decades
- Feb 2014
Died in Delmenhorst, aged 90
- Dec 2016
Estate settled — £384,000 legacy received by Comrie Development Trust
- 2017
Community consultation on how to use the legacy
- 2019
Steinmeyer Legacy charity established; first grants awarded
The Prisoner — Cultybraggan Camp, 1944
He raised his hands in a Normandy field.
“All that he experienced there was profoundly human.”
On 28 August 1944, a nineteen-year-old German soldier named Heinrich Steinmeyer — born in Silesia, conscripted into the Waffen-SS at seventeen — surrendered to British forces in Normandy. He was sent first to England, then north to Scotland, to a camp on the edge of the Highlands near the village of Comrie.
Cultybraggan Camp was not what he expected. The prisoners were not brutalised. The locals treated them, in Steinmeyer's own words, as human beings. When he learned that a villager's mother had fallen ill, neighbours sent her family packages. Small gestures. They stayed with him for the rest of his life.
A Scotsman at Heart — 1948–2013
He was released in 1948. He chose to stay.
When the camp closed, Steinmeyer did not rush back to Germany. Silesia, his birthplace, had been absorbed into Poland after the war — there was nothing to return to. He remained in Scotland for a time, working, maintaining the friendships he had formed.
He eventually settled in Delmenhorst, near Bremen, in 1970 — building a modest house, caring for his mother until her death. He worked as a dock labourer. He never owned a car. He took no holidays. His neighbours thought him frugal, almost miserly. They called him, not unkindly, 'The Scotsman'.
What they did not know was that Steinmeyer was quietly supporting up to five families in Comrie — sending gifts and packages across the North Sea for decades. When he visited, which he did often, people greeted him warmly. They called him Uncle Heinz. His house in Germany was filled with mementos of Scotland.
The Gift — February 2014
He left everything.
“Everything I owned will be sold and given to the people of Comrie, because the Scots treated me as a human being.”
Heinrich Steinmeyer died in February 2014, aged 90. His will was unambiguous. Everything he owned — his house, his savings, every possession — was to be sold, and the proceeds given to Comrie Development Trust, to be used for the elderly of the village.
It took two years to settle the estate in Germany. The house was sold. The accounts were transferred. In December 2016, £384,000 arrived in a dedicated account held by Comrie Development Trust — ring-fenced, as he had wished, for older people in Comrie.
£384,000
Left to Comrie
90
Years old at death
70
Years after his capture
The World Takes Notice — 2016
The story travelled.
When the transfer was announced, the press came quickly. Der Spiegel ran the headline: 'SS man inherited wealth to Scottish village.' The BBC interviewed him — an archive recording in German, with an English translation. The Sun found a way to call it 'Nazi Gold.' The Daily Mail and the Mirror found the same story the tabloids always find: something that defies the narrative they usually tell.
The more considered accounts got closer to it. A former prisoner of war. A dock worker who never spent money on himself. A man who spent sixty years sending packages to a village in Perthshire because someone had once sent packages to his mother.
A place to remember him
Steinmeyer had asked that his ashes be scattered in the hills around Comrie. The Strathearn Ramblers carried them to the summit of Ben Halton. He had left £350 to the club to hold a wake at Cultybraggan Camp. A tree was planted at the camp entrance. A plaque was set beside it.
The Steinmeyer exhibit is part of the Comrie Museum at Cultybraggan Camp.