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Irma Sperling 1934
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Irma Sperling * 1930

Adolph-Schönfelder-Straße 31 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

1943 Heilanstalt Steinhof Wien
ermordet am 8.1.1944

see:

Irma Sperling, born on 20 Jan. 1930, date of death on 8 Jan. 1944 at the "Am Steinhof” "sanatorium” ("Heilanstalt”) in Vienna


Adolf-Schönfelder-Strasse 31 (formerly Rönnhaidstrasse 30, opposite side)

Irma Sperling only reached the age of 13. Since she had a mental disability, she was murdered by physicians at the "Am Steinhof” "sanatorium” in Vienna and thus became a victim of "euthanasia.”

At the time of her birth, everything pointed to a healthy baby, and according to the report of the Finkenau maternity clinic, she measured 50 centimeters (approx. 1 ft 7.7 in), weighed 3,200 grams (7 lbs 1 oz), and showed no other conspicuous features. The seventh of 12 children, she grew up in impoverished circumstances. Her father, Bruno Sperling, worked as a salaried employee at the Hamburg branch of the national health insurance company (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse). Since he was actively involved in the working-class movement, he was arrested by the Gestapo on 5 May 1933 and lost his job during the period of detention. Afterward, the family was caught in increasingly desperate financial circumstances.

By that time, the mother, Anna Katharina Helene Sperling, née Pappermann, had already been ill for an extended period, and she also required in-patient treatment for, among other things, pericarditis and rheumatism.

Despite the difficult circumstances in which the Sperling family found itself, there was some time left for pleasant moments at home. The children and their parents played music together, and Irma also showed musical talent when she was a little girl. Her sister Antje Kosemund, two years her senior, later recalled that Irma would often sit in her little bed, swaying to the music and attempting to clap to the rhythm.

In order to manage treatment of Irma Sperling’s disability, she was admitted to the Rothenburgsort hospital for several months. She developed well there, learned how to sit upright, stand, and walk. Her father sent her to a day nursery afterward. In Aug. 1933, however, a doctor attested "feeblemindedness” ("Schwachsinn”) to her and demanded that her parents transfer Irma Sperling to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten). The admission eventually took place on 21 Dec. 1933. At this place, the young girl received neither the stimulation nor the love and care she urgently required. Consequently, it did not take long before she unlearned her skills and even exhibited aggressive characteristics. To Antje Kosemund, Irma stayed in her memory forever as follows: "Long brown locks of hair and beautiful brown eyes – an expressive face. Today one would send a child like that to a special school, where she could have developed.”

On 16 Aug. 1943, Irma Sperling, together with 227 other girls and women, were taken on busses disguised as "Reichspost” vehicles to the "Am Steinhof” "sanatorium” in Vienna. There, her ordeal began. Barely fed, the girl was instead administered overdosed drugs. After eight weeks had passed, she weighed only 28 kilograms (approx. 61 lbs 12 oz) instead of the original 40 kilograms (88 lbs 3 oz). On 26 Sept. 1943, her patient file also noted her increasing aggressions: "[She] smashes in the large windowpane without injuring herself. Straitjacket.”

Along with 13 other children, Irma Sperling was eventually transferred to the "Am Spiegelgrund” children’s special ward, located in Pavillion 15. None of the children survived the "treatment” there.

Between 1942 and 1945, more than 300 children were killed at the "Am Steinhof” "sanatorium” in Vienna. Their brains were collected and continued to be used after 1945 for anatomic research on the brain by Dr. Heinrich Gross, who practiced nearly unhindered until well into the 1980s.

Irma Sperling died on 8 Jan. 1944. The death certificate indicated the cause of death usually given in those days: influenza and pneumonia as well as congenital poliomyelitis on top of that.

In fact, most of the children died of the effects of a drug called Phenobarbital (Luminal). Irma Sperling’s brain, too, was preserved after her death and placed with other specimens in a "brain chamber” (Gehirnkammer). It was not until 1996 that her sister Antje Kosemund succeeded in having her remains transported to Hamburg.

On 8 May 1996, the mortal remains of Irma, seven other children or adolescents, respectively, as well as two women, were buried in a formal ceremony on the burial and memorial site of the Hans and Sophie Scholl Foundation (Ehrenfeld der Geschwister-Scholl-Stiftung) in the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.

In 2002, Antje Kosemund got news that Irma’s patient file had surfaced. She had repeatedly inquired about this file for years. In Vienna, a locked metal cabinet had been forced open, resulting in the discovery of four files concerning victims from the Alsterdorf period. Moreover, additional preserved sections of Irma’s brain and numerous other persons’ brains were found in an attic of the Vienna institute, all of which were buried at the memorial site of the Vienna Central Cemetery on 28 Apr. 2002.

Today, a street in Alsterdorf, Irma-Sperling-Weg, bears her name.


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Stefanie Rückner/Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: Bake: Wer steckt dahinter?, S. 91f.; Kosemund: Spurensuche Irma.; Persönliche Gespräche mit Frau Antje Kosemund, Hamburg 2009; Wunder: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, S.23ff, S. 222; Spiegelgrund – ein Film von Angelika Schuster und Tristan Sindelgruber, Österreich 2000.

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