He is remembered, in particular, as the organiser of Köpenick's week of bloodshed which took place in June 1933 and subsequently came to be seen as an early harbinger of the Shoah.
He performed various political leadership roles within the party locally, also serving at one stage as treasurer and as deputy section leader for Köpenick.
[3] Early in 1933 Gehrke's group was upgraded again, becoming an autonomous SA unit ("Sturmbann"), finally promoted again on 6 August 1933 to Standarte 15.
[6] It was only much later, after the fall of the Nazi regime, that the events of that week could be presented to a court of law, at which point it was confirmed that the killings had constituted murders.
Victims included the Social Democratic former minister president of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Johannes Stelling and Anton Schmau who died later from gunshot wounds.
Outside the Nazi paramilitary world, in 1933 Gehrke became deputy chairman of the Köpenick office of the local health insurance ("Ortskrankenkasse") provider.
A large part of what remained of Germany, including East Berlin, now fell under Soviet administration: official interest in the "Köpenicker Blutwoche" resurfaced.
Between 19 and 21 June 1947 four SA men found themselves charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the events in Köpenick fourteen years earlier.
Two of these were found guilty and sentenced to terms of respectively eight years and eighteen months: the third was acquitted and the fourth managed to escape before the trial.
[9] It was not until after the Soviet occupation zone had given way to the German Democratic Republic that a larger number of those allegedly complicit in the massacre faced trial.
Between 5 June and 19 July 1950, a trial of 61 formally identified defendants took place in the Fourth Criminal Chamber at the District Court in East Berlin.