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Annemarie Stövhase mit ihrem Sohn (1920er Jahre)
© Joachim Lankow

Annemarie Stövhase (née Kahl) * 1890

Erdkampsweg 85 (Hamburg-Nord, Fuhlsbüttel)

1943 Heilanstalt Steinhof Wien
ermordet am 8.1.1944

Annemarie Stövhase, née Kahl, born 30.9.90 in Neukloster, admitted to the "Alsterdorf Institutions" on 25.9.1934, "transferred" to the "Wagner von Jauregg Nursing and Care Institution Vienna”, Steinhof, on 16.8.1943, died there on 26.11.1944

Erdkampsweg 85

Annemarie Stövhase loved Hamburg more than anything - this is how she was remembered by her nephew Joachim Lankow.

Anna Maria Lucie Johanna Kahl was born on September 30, 1890 in Neukloster near Wismar, Mecklenburg, the daughter of Karolina, née Kollmorgen, and Johann Kahl. Her father owned the local sawmill. One year after Annemarie’s birth he took his own life. Her mother continued to run the business and married her second husband, Helmut Stapelmann, when Annemarie was seven years old. In the same year Annemarie's sister Elisabeth was born, one year later, her sister Ella. Annemarie and her two sisters attended a private girls' secondary school in Neukloster up to secondary school certificate level. After this, Annemarie’s parents wanted her to study housekeeping at home and then learn how to run their saw mill. However, Annemarie perceived this as a constraint and rebelled against it. Living together at home became difficult. She rejected a marriage which had been in prospect, left her parents' house and moved to Hamburg where she felt free.

She got a job at the post office, where she met her future husband. On October 13, 1921, she married Otto Karl Friedrich Stövhase, a senior postal clerk who was one year younger than her. They moved into a ground-floor flat at Erdkampsweg 85, within the "Am weißen Berge" housing estate, which belonged to the non-profit building society of the Greater-Hamburg Tenants' Association of 1890 e.G.m.b.H (Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft des Mietervereins Groß-Hamburg von 1890 e.G.m.b.H.). The Erdkampsweg 83-87 estate houses were inhabited exclusively by postal workers. In her house with its six flats, all five neighbours were postal inspectors. When her mother died in 1923, Annemarie lost an important source of support. Four years later, Annemarie Stövhase gave birth to her son Horst on June 30, 1927. By then, her marriage was already in crisis.

In June 1934, Annemarie's husband initiated divorce proceedings on the advice of senior physician Dr Lottig from the Youth Welfare Office. On September 15, 1934, at the urging of the Youth Welfare Office, mother and child were separated. Horst went to live with his father. At the end of September 1934 Annemarie became conspicuous. When she was admitted to the "Alsterdorf Institutions" (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) in Hamburg on September 25, 1934, her flat was, according to the reords, in a conspicuously untidy state. Annemarie refused to leave the flat and remained sitting on her things. She alternately cried and laughed. According to the neighbours’s statements, she had wandered around confused for days and spent the night in pergolas. A nurse took her from Erdkampsweg to the "Alsterdorf Institutions", where she was treated by Dr Kreyenberg. After four days he diagnosed her with schizophrenia.

On October 10, 1934, Annemarie was transferred to the "Friedrichsberg State Hospital" for a neurological examination. The result of the diagnosis there was paralysis. It was supposed to be a progressive paralysis with progressing dementia as a result of syphilis. The minutes of November 19, 1934 record how Annemarie Stövhase rebelled against Dr Kreyenberg's ordered treatment: "I won't stay here. I won't take any more injections. You can give them to your wife, but not to me, you understand! The injections make you ill. You say they make you well? They make you sick! I get a fever from them." Annemarie wanted to go home and longed for her little son Horst. If she resisted treatment, she was transferred to the "guard room", the ward for "excited imbeciles", to keep her calm. This meant punishment and isolation. Permanent baths, sleep and fever cures were carried out there. Annemarie was given a fever therapy, heart medication, malaria blood and Salvarsan - an arsenic compound, which was used at that time to treat syphilis (lues). She frequently threatened to take her own life if she was not allowed to go home.

In January 1935, Annemarie Stövhase was provisionally incapacitated and a carer was appointed as her guardian. Sterilisation due to an alleged hereditary disease, which a public health officer had applied for following an expert opinion by senior physician Dr Lottig, was rejected by the Hamburg Hereditary Health Court in December 1934.

The marriage was legally dissolved on September 19, 1935 due to Annemarie’s mental illness, the cause being paralysis. Her divorced husband tried to shift on his obligation to pay for the catering costs. On August 19, 1936, upon the request of the senior public prosecutor, the District Court made a final decision on the incapacitation. The reasons given were among others the following: "She agrees to her incapacitation, the significance of which she can hardly fail to recognize."

Annemarie’s sister Elisabeth Lankow tried to help her as much as she could. She often asked for leave for her sister. A letter from brother-in-law Alfred Lankow to guardian Dr Ellen Zahn in January 1936 reveals his concerns and those of his wife about Annemarie Stövhase's accommodation and state of mind:
"During our last visit in October, my wife and I gained a picture of my unhappy sister-in-law's situation that revealed the full misery of her existence. In the meantime, we have received letters from her and from other sources, the content of which is the recurring wish to take her out of the terrible surroundings, which, in the accumulation of so much human misery, is indeed a place of horror for a person who is not completely lost in mental derangement, which cannot be said of Mrs. St.. She experiences her stay as being buried alive and threatens to end her life if she is not rescued. As you will understand, we are deeply shocked and, especially as we are accused of not doing enough for her, we are in doubt as to what to do to improve the lot of the poor. Dr Kreyenberg and Dr Hansing have strongly advised against taking her out of the institution, quite apart from the fact that this would not be possible at all without your consent. Given the nature of her condition, the doctor gave us no prospect of improvement and denied the possibility of her being placed in a home environment - for example with us. [...] Perhaps by working together we can still find a way to restore my sister-in-law's peace of mind Dr Kreyenberg agreed at the time that Mrs St. should see the boy about once a month. In her last letter she writes again that the child is being withhold from her. I kindly ask you to look into the matter if necessary."

In February 1936, Elisabeth Lankow wrote to Dr Hansing asking urgently and repeatedly for leave for her sister.
"As you will also know, for many weeks the poor woman has had an ardent desire to go on holiday to her father. She keeps writing to my father begging him to take her away for a few weeks. Father would love to fulfil her wish, but when he was there with my husband in February and my husband spoke to you about this holiday, you unfortunately declared it was impossible. However, we are now quite shocked by the many pleading requests of the poor woman and would so much like to give her the small pleasure of a holiday. [...] I would also have a really good, in every way reliable care there, and after all, she is not dangerous. [...] I ask you once again, Miss Doctor, to discuss this matter with the senior physician, perhaps her condition will allow the holiday to be granted after all. It would take a burden off all our minds. Her many requests and entreaties to see her parents' house again weigh so heavily on us."

This petition was also rejected by Dr Kreyenberg.

Annemarie Stövhase spent almost four years in the "Alsterdorf Institutions" until she was released on June 31, 1939 on a trial basis. Later on, however, she was again admitted for treatment to the " Nursing Institution Langenhorn" and in the meantime also to the " Psychiatric and Mental Clinic of the Hanseatic University Eilbek". On March 7, 1941, she was again transferred to the "Alsterdorf Institutions". About a month later, Annemarie was found in the nurses' garden with her clothes torn; she had tried to escape from the institution. She was then taken to the guard room. When she resisted or was very restless, she was strapped down.

On Annemarie's penultimate day in the "Alsterdorf Institutions", the minutes state: "[...] works in the vegetable room, she is always hard-working there. She doesn't like to be without work, if she has to take a break, she constantly asks to be allowed to go back. She is quiet [...]." Dr Kreyenberg's last report, dated August 16, 1943, states: "Transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the institutions caused by air raids". This bomb damage is said to have never taken place.

On August 16, 1943, Annemarie Stövhase was transported together with 227 girls and women from the "Alsterdorf Institutions" by buses to the railway station and transferred, together with patients from the Nursing and Care Institution Langenhorn", by a special train to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg Nursing and Care Institution of the City of Vienna where they arrived one day later. According to the minutes, Annemarie Stövhase came to her admission appointment with Dr Wunderer with a note saying "Wiener Versorgungsheim". There she wanted to go, she wanted to go to the laundry, she had always worked there. Her son was 17 years old. She liked working for free, it gave her great pleasure. On September 6, 1943, the following was recorded: "Sent back by the laundry as unusable." The guardian apparently had not been informed about this hasty "transfer action", because on August 27, 1943 her husband wrote on her behalf to the former "Alsterdorf Institutions" to enquire about Annemarie Stövhase's whereabouts and condition.

In mid-September 1944, Annemarie Stövhase’s weight was noted as 38 kg. Since her admission, she had lost 11 kg in weight within a year due to malnutrition. On October 9, 1944, she was transferred to the "Nursing Home".

Elisabeth Lankow tried in vain to bring her sister home from Vienna. The minutes of the "Jauregg Institutions" of November 23, 1944 sent a message written on November 13, 1944 for Annemarie's sister Elisabeth Lankow: "Your sister A. St. is still physically unwell and is unlikely to be able to withstand transfer to Mecklenburg in her present condition. Her death is to be expected. Dr Wunderer". Annemarie's death was recorded on November 26, 1944 as "Exitus letalis at 9:20" and "Progressive paralysis". Annemarie Stövhase was 54 years old. Her death was not the result of the natural course of an illness. Annemarie Stövhase was a victim of the National Socialist state's "euthanasia programme". Her sister Elisabeth Lankow transferred 300 RM for a burial in a single grave in Vienna. A transfer for burial in her home town was not possible. Later enquiries by the Alsterdorf Foundation revealed that neither a grave, nor any entries of it can be found. After the war, Elisabeth Lankow had an inscription with the name of her sister Annemarie Stövhase carved into the family gravestone in the cemetery of her birthplace Neukloster.

Translation Steve Robinson
Stand: April 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 5; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Auskünfte Dr. Michael Wunder; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Akte Nr. 1397/1648, Aufnahmebuch Nr. 7544/8210, Akte Nr. V 231(1648); StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, 8756 u. 599/1921; Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, MAbt. 209, A14: Annemarie Stövhase; Götz Aly: Medizin gegen Unbrauchbare, in: Aussonderung und Tod. Die klinische Hinrichtung der Unbrauchbaren (Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik, Bd. 1), Berlin 1985, S. 9–74, hier S. 57; Klaus Böhme/Uwe Lohalm: Wege in den Tod. Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (Forum Zeitgeschichte, Bd. 2), Hamburg 1993; Gesche M. Cordes: Stolpersteine und Angehörige in Hamburg, Herzogenrath 2012; Herbert Diercks: "Euthanasie". Die Morde an Menschen mit Behinderungen und psychischen Erkrankungen in Hamburg im Nationalsozialismus, Texte, Fotos und Dokumente, hrsg. von der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Hamburg 2014; Eberhard Gabriel/Wolfgang Neugebauer (Hrsg.): NS-Euthanasie in Wien, Wien/Köln/Weimar 2000; Waltraud Häupl: Die ermordeten Kinder von Spiegelgrund. Gedenkdokumentation für die Opfer der NS-Kindereuthanasie in Wien, Köln/Wien 2006; Ernst Klee: "Euthanasie" im NS-Staat. Die "Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens", Frankfurt am Main 1997, S. 440 f.; Antje Kosemund: Spurensuche Irma, Berichte und Dokumente zur Geschichte der "Euthanasie-Morde" an Pfleglingen aus den Alsterdorfer Anstalten, Hamburg 2006; Wolfgang Neugebauer: Wiener Psychiatrie und NS-Verbrechen, in: Brigitta Keintzel/Eberhard Gabriel (Hrsg.): Gründe der Seele. Die Wiener Psychiatrie im 20. Jahrhundert, Wien 1999, S. 136–164, hier S. 144; Michael Wunder: Euthanasie in den letzten Kriegsjahren: Die Jahre 1944 und 1945 in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Hamburg-Langenhorn, Husum 1992, S. 9; Michael Wunder/Ingrid Genkel/Harald Jenner: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1987. Vielen Dank an Joachim Lankow (verst. 2018)!
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