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Anna Marie Köpke
© StaH

Anna Marie Köpke * 1906

Grindelhof 81 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA MARIE KÖPKE
JG. 1906
EINGEWIESEN
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 19.8.1943
MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 22.9.1943

Anna Marie Köpke, born 4.9.1906 in Altona, admitted to the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home on 29.6.1942, transferred to Meseritz-Obrawalde on 19.8.1943, died 22.9.1943

Grindelhof 81 (Rotherbaum)

Anna Marie Köpke was born in Altona on September 4, 1906. Her parents were the clerk Christian Robert Albrecht Köpke, born on June 14, 1876, and his wife Martha, née Stoldt, born on July 26, 1883.

We know nothing about Anna Marie Köpke's childhood and youth. As a young adult, she trained as a caregiver and probably worked in that profession thereafter.

In the course of her adult life, she seems to have developed symptoms of mental illness, as a result of which she became a patient at the Psychiatric Clinic in Hamburg (Friedrichsberg). On April 30, 1942, she was admitted to this clinic for the second time. At that time she lived with her parents at Grindelhof 81, where the Stolperstein commemorates her.

On June 29, 1942, she was transferred to the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home. There are only a few records in her Langenhorn patient file, which are summarized in the diagnosis "Schizophrenic terminal condition."

On August 19, 1943, Anna Marie Köpke was transferred with a transport of 39 female and 18 male patients to the Meseritz-Obrawalde Sanatorium and Nursing Home in what was then the province of Brandenburg (now Poland).

This institution had become part of the decentralized "euthanasia" in 1942. Immediately after the patients' arrival, the medical staff decided on the basis of their physical condition whether someone was to be put to death immediately or had to work first, e.g. in the gardening or sewing workshop. Those who were no longer able to work were given drugs that led to death.

Anna Marie Köpke died about a month after her arrival on September 22, 1943. Her death certificate contains no indication of the cause of death. We do not know if or how Anne Marie Köpke's parents were informed of their daughter's death.

It can be assumed for certain that Anne Marie Köpke did not die of natural causes.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14784 Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 2196/1906 Anna Marie Köpke, 5966 Heiratsregisterauszug Nr. 782/1905 Christian Robert Albrecht Köpke/Martha Stoldt; 351-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalten Abl. 1995/1 30017 Anna Marie Köpke, Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 310. Michael Wunder, Die Transporte in die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Meseritz-Obrawalde in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 377 ff.