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Hermann Müller * 1888

Bürgerweide 54 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN MÜLLER
JG. 1888
EINGEWIESEN
’HEILANSTALT’ HADAMAR
ERMORDET 29.10.1943

Hermann Müller, born on 11 July 1888 in Grambow/Mecklenburg, murdered on 29 Oct. 1943 in the "sanatorium and nursing home” in Hadamar/Hessen ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hadamar/Hessen)

Bürgerweide 56 (Bürgerweidenstieg 2)

Hermann Müller’s father, the peat master [a supervisor in peat-digging operations] Theodor Müller, held a responsible position in the Grambower Moor, a peat bog located a few kilometers west of Schwerin in Mecklenburg. His marriage to Catharina Scheve produced two other sons and two daughters in addition to Hermann. They all attended the local village school, completing it, according to the way of counting in those days, in grade 1. The sons became an independent farmer, a shoemaker, and a glazier. The two daughters married.

Hermann Müller did a three-year glazier’s apprenticeship in Crivitz and then went on his travels as a journeyman. During this period, he spent two years in Bochum and three years in Schwerin. At the start of World War I, aged 26, he was drafted into military service. For the entire duration of the war, he was stationed at the front, without ever being promoted or seriously wounded. Once he sustained a minor injury from a shot passing clean through his left thigh.

After the end of the war, Hermann Müller started a business of his own as a glazier in Hamburg. On 21 Oct. 1920, he married the widow Emma Baasch, née Sass, who brought a daughter into the marriage. The first child they had together was a son. Of their five children overall, two already died in the first year of their lives. At the time, the family lived in what was called Bürgerweidenallee in the vernacular, officially Bürgerweidenstieg, house no. 2.

Hermann Müller managed his business through the period of inflation, though giving it up in 1925 and working as an assistant glazier afterwards. In 1927, he suffered a broken leg and spent half a year in the St. Georg Hospital. After his convalescence, he found a job as a street sweeper with the State of Hamburg, being dismissed, however, due to lack of work after one year. In several instances, he found short-term employment in the trade he was trained for, prior to becoming unemployed and dependent on public welfare. The decline of his business and his gainful employment went hand in hand with the development of an alcohol problem, for which he had already been treated temporarily in 1926 at the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg). Since he used up welfare benefits for himself, the children were accommodated in an orphanage at times. He began speaking incoherently and abusing his wife. On 20 July 1931, she filed for divorce due to "complete matrimonial breakdown.”

Shortly afterward, Hermann Müller was admitted to the "Farmsen care home” ("Versorgungsheim Farmsen”) as a homeless person and beggar, which marked the beginning of an odyssey through homes and institutions lasting for several years. In Farmsen, he belonged to a gang doing work in the fields. He was described as "peaceful” with a tendency toward isolating himself, and as someone speaking in a whisper. However, he soon escaped. Admission and escape recurred until he was committed to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital because of his mental and emotional state on 23 Jan. 1933. He had felt influenced by other people’s ideas, acting and reacting distracted, eccentrically, and occasionally becoming violent as a result of excitement. However, most of the time, he behaved in a friendly manner, was approachable, even if he continued to whisper only. He often became immersed in books, without actually reading. According to the medical description, his conduct changed between inconspicuousness and manic excitement, mistrust, friendliness, and indifference. Apparently, he was fond of wandering through the gardens, singing. After nearly two years, Hermann Müller was transferred to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn), which discharged him to the "Farmsen care home” two months later, where he then showed violent tendencies. In Aug. 1935, Hermann Müller had to subject himself to forced sterilization at the Barmbek General Hospital.

In Feb.1936, he was transferred one last time from "Farmsen” to "Langenhorn,” where he performed light work. His former wife maintained contact to him, requesting leave for him in vain, but she was allowed to visit him.

Hermann Müller’s state, by that time diagnosed as schizophrenia, deteriorated, resulting in his legal incapacitation in Dec. 1938. On 28 Aug. 1939, he was transferred to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten), where he spent the following four years. Upon his admission in "Alsterdorf,” he weighed 65.5 kilograms (approx. 144 lbs) in relation to a height of 1.66 meters (5 ft 5 in), four years later only 43.2 kg (some 95 lbs), even though he was apparently a good eater. In Apr. 1940, a file entry recorded, "Except for a few minor states of excitement that rarely occur in today’s intensity (attack on a caregiver), he makes no trouble whatsoever, working industriously all day long. If he has no tobacco, he refuses to work. From his fellow patients, he collects cigarette butts, throwing them in his mouth while still lit up and commenting that he has a hollow tooth in his mouth just for that purpose.”

Hermann Müller’s siblings and his three children lived in Hamburg but there was hardly any contact. The connection to his divorced wife was also severed temporarily when she fell ill and therefore could not visit her former husband. It is impossible to ascertain whether the news that his two sons were at the front entered Hermann Müller’s consciousness. On 18 Jan. 1942, his need for institutionalization was confirmed by the Hamburg Social Administration (Hamburger Sozialverwaltung), until 31 Dec. 1946 for the time being. However, he did not live to see that day.

On 7 Aug. 1943, Hermann Müller was transferred on a transport with 128 children and men from Alsterdorf to the Eichberg "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Eichberg”) in the Rheingau region. It ranked among the institutions from which patients were taken to the Hadamar euthanasia killing center in connection with the T4 Operation (Aktion T 4) until its termination in Aug. 1941. In both institutions, the murder of disabled persons was continued. On 12 Oct. 1943, Hermann Müller arrived at the Hadamar "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hadamar), dying there after a short stay on 29 Oct. 1943. He was buried in the institutional cemetery.

After being bombed out in July 1943, Emma Müller and her 12-year-old daughter found accommodation in Plön. In Mar. 1944, she learned from the management of what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum about the transfer of her former husband. She turned to the Eichberg institutional administration requesting information as to "what my husband’s state of health is. … My children would also like to know this, how the father is doing and whether one can even think of recovery at all.” She promptly received the news of his death and, upon repeated inquiry about the exact circumstances, the following two-line statement: "Your husband had fallen ill with influenza accompanied by high fever. Cardiac insufficiency resulted in his death. The deceased passed away calmly, without any death throes. Signed by the Chief Physician, Provincial Senior Medical Officer (Provinzialobermedizinalrat).”


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 100; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, 3382+1134/1920; Jenner, Meldebögen, in: Wunder/Genkel/Jenner, Ebene, S. 169–178; Wunder, Abtransporte, in: ebd., S. 181–188; ders., Exodus, ebd. S. 189–236.