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Frieda Henck, 61 Jahre alt
© Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv

Frieda Henck (née Struckmann) * 1873

Papenstraße 34-42 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
FRIEDA HENCK
GEB. STRUCKMANN
JG. 1873
EINGEWIESEN 1935
HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 1943
HEILANSTALT AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 13.3.1945

Frieda Henck, née Struckmann, born on 26 Aug. 1873 in Neu-Lüblow/Mecklenburg, transferred on 16 Aug. 1943 to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, died there on 13 May 1945

Papenstrasse 34–42 (Papenstrasse 38)

Just having come of age and provided with an ample dowry, Frieda Struckmann got married to the cabinetmaker Wilhelm Heinrich Christian Henck in Neustadt/Mecklenburg (today: Neustadt-Glewe) on 27 Nov. 1894.

Her parents, Friedrich Joachim Heinrich and Hanna Sofie Friederike, née Henning, as well as the three siblings belonged to the Lutheran Church and lived in Neu-Lüblow near Ludwigslust.

Frieda had good marks in school. She left the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) after completing all grades, working as a domestic help until her marriage. The first of the children she delivered was daughter Berta in 1895, followed by Albert and Karla. The children had come of age when, after 25 years, the marriage of Frieda and Wilhelm Henck ended in divorce in 1921. In terms of the reasons, Frieda Henck indicated that her husband had used up her fortune.

Just when Frieda Henck began hearing voices and then quietly speaking to herself is not known. She lived with her daughter Berta at Papenstrasse 38, until the strain on the family became too much. In 1933, she was admitted to the sanatorium in Sachsenberg near Schwerin, which had jurisdiction in her place of residence. Given a diagnosis of living "under the influence of hallucinations and delusions,” she was discharged again soon.

Since she was not able either to return to her daughter or live on her own, she was accommodated in the Hamburg-Farmsen care home (Versorgungsheim Hamburg-Farmsen) in Nov. 1933 at the age of 60.

According to her own information, she liked it there rather well, but only half a year later, on 25 Apr. 1934, Frieda was committed to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg). She was a small person, standing at 1.52 meters (about 5 feet), weighing 56 kilograms (about 123 lbs) when admitted to Friedrichsberg. Only one year later, the state hospital was cleared to make room for mentally healthy patients. A total of 700 patients were transferred to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Langenhorn), which was completely overcrowded as a result.

With a diagnosis of "Dementia paranoides, schizophrenia,” Frieda Henck came to Langenhorn on a collective transport on 3 June 1935. The welfare authority covered the costs for accommodation. Frieda was "not a serious case.” She knew where she was; she managed to orient herself in terms of time; and she was not seriously hampered in her powers of memory. From time to time, she was caught up in severe states of excitement, but generally she was apathetic and reduced in affects displayed.

In order to relieve the institution, the Langenhorn institutional administration transferred women allegedly suffering from very serious disabilities to the Anscharhöhe, a Protestant welfare and social institution in Hamburg-Eppendorf, where the hospital charges were lower besides. Although not severely disabled, Frieda Henck was transferred there after six weeks of "Langenhorn” and accommodated in the historic Emilienstift, a charitable foundation.

She now worked in the vegetable cellar. Her relatives took her home during the Christmas holidays in 1936 and 1937, and in Aug. 1938, she was one more time given a four-day leave to stay with them. After each visit, the states of excitement came to the fore more markedly. Frieda Henck was esteemed at the Emilienstift as an industrious manual worker. Whether her behavior changed or only the assessment was impossible to establish; at any rate, in May 1942 she was described as distracted, cold, and hallucinating.

In Aug. 1943, the management of the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” also assembled former patients and transferred them to more remote institutions, in order to make room for sick and wounded patients in the course of the planning concerning disaster medicine of the German Reich and the Hamburg public health department. In this connection, Frieda Henck was transferred to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a "sanatorium and nursing home”, on 16 Aug. 1943. She was part of a transport comprised of 72 women from Langenhorn and 228 girls and women from the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten), which arrived in Vienna the following day. Upon arriving, she was friendly and informative, knew that she had come to Vienna because of the air raids on Hamburg, and claimed to feel safe there, only longing for her children, among whom she also counted her niece and grandson.

Frieda Henck spent time in the dayroom, helped with sewing work, was calm and content, as the management reported to one of her daughters in Nov. 1943; things stayed this way until early 1944. The institutional administration had not received any reply from the daughter due to her being bombed out. On 22 Feb. 1944, the institutional management filled out the registration form for the "euthanasia” central office, T4, in Berlin and put down that Frieda Henck suffered from ideas of reference and paranoia, did not have any visitors, and was idle, two negative criteria that spelled the difference between life and death. In contrast to these details, there were the reports by the medical and nursing staff. According to them, she was able to work in the sewing room, even though she repeatedly suffered from diarrhea. She temporarily lost weight, though gaining again to reach her weight at the time of admission, 41 kilograms (approx. 90 lbs). In Feb. 1945, her state of health deteriorated to such an extent that the institutional management sent a message to one of her daughters, which, however, was returned to sender as undeliverable, as was the subsequent notification of her death. Frieda Henck lived to see the end of the war and of the "Third Reich,” though dying five days later, on 13 May 1945, of myocardial degeneration, arteriosclerosis, and enterocolitis (inflammation of the small intestine and colon). She reached the age of 71.
It took until 1947 for her family to learn about her death.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 1995/1, 21667; Krankenakte der Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, Wien, fotografiert von Ingo Wille im Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Wien, 2012; Jenner, Harald, 100 Jahre Anscharhöhe 1886–1986; Wunder, Michael, Exodus, in Wunder, Genkel, Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene, S. 189ff.