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Emma Krüger, Mai 1938
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Emma Krüger * 1869

Hammer Landstraße / Ecke Rumpffsweg (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

HIER WOHNTE
EMMA KRÜGER
JG. 1869
EINGEWIESEN 1887
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF WIEN
TOT 24.5.1945

Emma Krüger, born 9.10.1869 in Hamburg, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum on 6.6.1887, "transferred" to Vienna on 16.8.1943 to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", died there on 24.5.1945.

Hammer Landstraße / corner of Rumpffsweg (Hamm)

Anna Maria Emma Krüger was born on 9 Oct 1869 in her parents' flat in Borstelmannsweg in Hamburg-Hamm. She was born into a family of boatmen. Her father Johann Carl Krüger from Beelitz in the then Prussian province of Brandenburg was, like his father, an Ewerführer (an Ewer is a type of ship). Emma's mother Henriette, née Jechow, born on 26 June 1828 in Brandenburg upon the river Havel, also came from a shipping family.

The family also included her seven years older sister Pauline, called Paula, born on 18 July 1862 in Brandenburg, and two other siblings whose names and dates of birth we do not know.

Nothing has been transmitted about Emma Krüger's childhood and early youth. The sixteen-year-old girl was examined for her mental state in April 1886 because her admission to the Alsterdorf Asylum, now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, had been applied for. We do not know who made the request for admission. Obviously the Hamburg city administration was already involved, because according to the note in Emma Krüger's patient file, the examination was carried out "on behalf of Senator Kunhardt". This probably refers to Georg Ferdinand Kunhardt, chief of police and head of the Hamburg justice administration, who had been elected to the Senate in 1869.

The report on Emma Krüger said: "The girl is physically somewhat developed, but with the gestures of a small child, she speaks very poorly, only her mother can understand her. She has never been able to attend school, she is harmless, well able to do domestic work but only under instruction. She lacks the usual terms, e. g. the days of the week, the seasons, the names of families, etc. She is an idiot and quite suitable for the Alsterdorf Asylum." ("Idiocy" is an outdated term for a severe form of intelligence impairment).

Emma Krüger was admitted to the Alsterdorf Institutions on 6 March 1887. She was a resident of this institution for almost 56 of her 75 years of life.

According to the first reports in the patient file, the nurses experienced Emma Krüger in very contrasting ways. While one nurse complained a lot about Emma Krüger because she was easily defiant and "made a spectacle", another one reported that Emma Krüger was obedient as soon as she was spoken to in a friendly manner. She was willing to do various tasks and helped to clean the dormitory. After Emma Krüger had been transferred to another department in June 1883, she was described as very active. She could not write and could only speak indistinctly and with a stammer.

On 9 Feb 1901, the Alsterdorf Asylum concluded a contract with the "Allgemeine Armen-Anstalt Hamburg" (Hamburg General Poorhouse Institution) which stated: The poorhouse "hands Emma Krüger over to the asylum to be fed and educated in accordance with the house rules and commits to pay an annual boarding fee of Mk. 450". The boarding fee was increased several times in the following years.

This could indicate that Emma's mother, who worked as a laundress, had her accommodation in the Allgemeine Armen-Anstalt Hamburg in Finkenau Street in the Uhlenhorst district already in 1901. She died there on 8 Aug 1909. Her husband – Emma's father – had died earlier, as her death certificate shows. His place of death and the date of death have not been found.

After Henriette Krüger's death, the eldest daughter, Pauline/Paula, divorced Niemann, married Lisser, kept in touch with her sister Emma until the end of her life.

Until about 1930, the reports on Emma Krüger were essentially repeated. On the one hand, she was good-natured and calm, on the other hand, easily irritable and very rowdy. She was still able to perform small manual tasks such as cleaning boots and sweeping rooms. In the following years, it was said several times about her "agitated, grumbles about food, resists being put to bed by hitting, pinching and biting". As it is said in the patient's file, the whole section suffered from her behaviour. As a result, she was deported to the guard room several times.

"Guard rooms" already existed in the 1910s. Restless patients were isolated there and treated with permanent baths, sleep cures and fever cures. They were not introduced in the Alsterdorf Asylum until the end of the 1920s. In the course of the 1930s, their function changed: now patients were mainly sedated, partly with medication, partly by means of restraints or other measures. Those affected often perceived this as punishment.

In the 1930s and 1940s, too, the reports about Emma Krüger testify to changing behaviour. In early 1934, for example, it is said she "is very faithful and conscientious, but nothing must get in her way, otherwise she can be unbearable a whole day long. At other times she can be quite devout at some activity, especially if no one disturbs her. When reading aloud, she doesn't move, sits in her chair with her hands folded and stares ahead." Nine years later, in early 1943, it is said: "Patient does her personal hygiene independently under supervision. She does small manual tasks in another ward. In her free time she likes to play with toys. She talks a lot, is easily excited and then rages. Otherwise she is friendly, approachable and affectionate."

During "Operation Gomorrah", the heavy air raids on Hamburg in July/August 1943, the Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered bomb damages. In order to make room for wounded soldiers and bomb victims, the director of the institution, Pastor Friedrich Lensch, in consultation with the health authorities, had some of the residents who were considered to be "weak in labour, in need of care or particularly difficult" transferred to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 Aug 1943, a transport with 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf left together with 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home for the Wagner von Jauregg sanatorium and nursing home of the city of Vienna. Among them was the 73-year-old Emma Krüger. Her patient file kept in the Alsterdorf Asylum was sent along to Vienna and continued in the institution there. The transport arrived in Vienna on 17 Aug 1943.

Emma Krüger's sister Paula Lisser was listed as the contact person in this file. She had been accommodated in Grauerort near Stade after being bombed out in Hamburg.

According to the patient file, the admission interview in Vienna revealed that Emma Krüger knew her name, but was else completely disoriented. She was able to state her age correctly, but also agreed when another age was suggested to her. She knew that her parents were already deceased, but that other relatives were still alive. She claimed to be able to read, but would name any letters when given something to read. Congenital imbecility (an outdated term for congenital or early-acquired mental retardation of medium degree) was noted as a diagnosis, as well as a stammer that made communication difficult.

Paula Lisser asked the management of the Wagner von Jauregg sanatorium and nursing home for a message about her sister on 29 Oct 1943. She had learned through the Alsterdorf institutions that her sister was in the Vienna asylum. Paula Lisser enclosed a letter intended for her sister and asked her to read it to Emma. The institution confirmed on 11 Nov that Emma Krüger "arrived at the institution here on 17 Aug with a large transport of patients and is currently being cared for here. She is calm and in good spirits, and was also pleased to receive your letter. Yours sincerely. The director Hofrat Dr. Mauczka".

On 5 Feb 1944, Paula Lisser turned to the Alsterdorf institutions seeking help after she had received no reply to several letters from Vienna: "Since I, as a sister of your former inmate Emma Krüger, am very worried about my sister, I hereby turn to you in confidence. As you informed me at the time, my sister has been admitted to a sanatorium and nursing home in Vienna. Unfortunately, I have not received any answer from this institution as to how she is doing and I am naturally very worried about this. After all, she is a human being of 74 years of age and has always felt sorrow for me in Hamburg when I have not been with her for four weeks. Would it be possible to bring her back to Hamburg? The fare would be paid by my granddaughter. Please let me know or instruct the asylum in Vienna to send me news of my sister's condition from time to time. I myself am already 82 years old and completely bombed out. I will gladly reimburse the expenses. Enclosed is 12 Pfg. postage. Thanking you in advance for your efforts, Mrs. Paula Lisser sends her German greetings.

The Alsterdorf Asylum forwarded Paula Lisser's desperate letter to Vienna "for reasons of responsibility". It is not known whether she ever received a reply; in any case, Emma Krüger remained in Vienna.

It was not until another letter from Paula Lisser on 7 Aug 1944 that the institution in Vienna replied on 18 Aug, "that your sister's condition is essentially unchanged. Physically she is well so far, her weight is unchanged at 39 kg."

In fact, Emma Krüger lay sore and had to be transferred to the nursing area of the institution. Although she became weaker, she was able to keep herself clean. On 12 Dec 1944, she was transferred back to Pavilion 19. At the beginning of January 1945, the Vienna asylum informed her sister that "her condition [...] has recently deteriorated mentally and physically. She is lost, decrepit and in need of care. Must be kept in bed lately." Paula Lisser sent a card for Emma asking to have it read to her. She did not receive an acknowledgement of this.

Apparently Paula Lisser remained in the dark about her sister's condition throughout 1945 and the first months of 1946. On 7 May 1946, she again turned to the asylum in Vienna with a foreboding request to be told "what happened to my sister Emma Krüger". A month later, on 4 June, she received the following message: "Unfortunately, we have to inform you that your sister Mrs. Emma Krüger died of heart muscle damage on 24 May 1945." Further information on the cause of death is missing from the patient file, which has only been incompletely preserved.

Emma Krüger lived to see the end of Nazi rule, but was too weakened to be recovered and repatriated under the circumstances. She died at the age of 75.

196 of the 228 girls and women from Alsterdorf had died by the end of 1945.

The house in Borstelmannsweg was later given the house number 137. It was destroyed during the Second World War, and the course of the street was changed when the district was rebuilt after the war. Therefore, Emma Krüger is commemorated with a stumbling stone at the corner of Hammer Landstraße and Rumpffsweg.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: December 2022
© Ingo Wille/Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Hamburger Adressbücher; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 3029/96/1904 Heiratsregister Friedrich Wilhelm August Lisser/Henriette Sophie Pauline Niemann, 6888/758/1909 Sterberegister Henriette Charlotte Wilhelmine Krüger; Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Patientenakte Emma Krüger; Wunder, Genkel, Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, 3. Aufl., Stuttgart 2016, S. 331 ff.; Böhme, Klaus, Lohalm, Uwe (Hrsg.), Wege in den Tod, S. 425-437, Hamburg 1993. Zu Ferdinand Kunhardt, http://www.hamburger-persoenlichkeiten.de, Zugriff 7.6.2021.