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Gustav Wagener, 1939
© Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Gustav Wagener * 1924

Eißendorfer Straße 55a (Harburg, Eißendorf)

HIER WOHNTE
GUSTAV WAGENER
JG. 1924
EINGEWIESEN 1927
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
1943 "VERLEGT"
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
ERMORDET 31.8.1944
HEILANSTALT WEILMÜNSTER

Gustav Wagener, b. 10.1.1924 in Celle, admitted to the Alsterdorf Institute, transferred to the "Eichberg State Mental Hospital and Clinic," murdered there on 8.31.1944

City District Harburg-Altstadt, Eißendorfer Straße 55a

Gustav Wagener was the illegitimate child of the servant girl Emilie Maria Wagener. His father Rudolf Sitz came from Moorburg. One day after his birth, Gustav was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran church of the county seat, Celle. He spent his first years of life with his mother in Harburg. But his development proceeded differently than expected.

After a thorough examination, the Harburg public health officer recommended in November 1927 that the child be admitted to the then Alsterdorf Institute, which for its part described the three-year old boy as anxious and whiny, but also affirmed that he was attentive and observed a great deal. He could not run as well as other children his age and he could not express himself verbally very well. He was classified as a "feeding child.” The diagnosis read: "imbecility” (mental retardation of middling degree).

In the following years, Gustav Wagener was described as an unruly and education-resistant child. In 1930, a nursing sister noted in his medical records: "Once again tortured the other children all day long, taking away their toys." A little later another entry indicated that he had to wear a protective jacket because he masturbated so copiously.

In 1931, Gerhard Kreyenberg, the senior physician of the Alsterdorf Institute, experimented on his little patients with the application of his deep x-ray therapy. He had introduced this therapeutic practice in 1930 in the hope of being able to "cure weak-mindedness.” With the agreement of his mother, Gustav Wagener’s skull was exposed to ever larger doses of x-rays from 24 April 1931 to 26 April 1933. Simultaneously, the behavior of the boy during this time was meticulously observed and entered into his medical records. However, an "improvement” did not ensue. The physical effects of high radiation exposure were not investigated. At least, there is no record of this, so we do not know what burdens the little patient had to bear. According to his records, he remained subject to "sudden anger” and destroyed "whatever fell into his hands.

In 1940, the sixteen-year old boy was trained as a "helper,” tasked with hard physical labor with a crew of wagon haulers. Supposedly, according to his patient records, he mostly stood around with his mouth hanging open, pretending not to understand. He was said to have frequently, unnoticed, "absented” himself in order to "duck out” of pending work.

In August 1943, Gustav Wagener was among the 469 inmates of the Alsterdorf Institute who, on the initiative of its director, Pastor Friedrich Lensch, in close cooperation with Hamburg public health officials, were transported out of Hamburg.

On 7 August 1943, he was transferred along with 75 other Alsterdorf children and men to the "Eichberg State Mental Hospital and Clinic” in Hesse. Ten weeks later his next station was the Weilmünster State Mental Hospital. In this establishment the sick lived in the most wretched conditions. The number of deaths there in the years between 1940 and 1944 was far above the average than in previous years. These sad results were the result of constant hunger, which the patients suffered from immediately, the deficient medical care for their illnesses, and the application of lethal medications.

On 8.31.1944, Gustav Wagener was numbered among the many dead at ”Weilmünster State Mental Hospital."


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2019
© Klaus Möller

Quellen: Gedenkbuch der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf; Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Krankenakte Gustav Wageners (V121); Wunder u. a., Kein Halten, 2. Auflage.