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Porträt Käti Schultze April 1938
© Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv

Margarethe Käti Schultze * 1921

Heinrich-Heine-Weg 33 (Bergedorf, Bergedorf)

HIER WOHNTE
MARGARETHE KÄTI
SCHULTZE
JG. 1921
EINGEWIESEN 1931
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 24.6.1944

Margarethe Käti Schultze, born 1/19/1921 in Bergedorf, 11/11/1931 Alsterdorfer Anstalten, 8/16/1943 Wagner von Jauregg mental hospital in Vienna, died there on 6/24/1944

Heinrich-Heine-Weg 33

Käti Schultze died at the age of 23 at the Wagner von Jauregg municipal mental hospital of Vienna, where she had spent the last ten months of her life. As Käti was unable to write, her worried parents tried to keep in contact with the hospital management – in vain. Her father Richard Schultze, an insurance company clerk experienced in correspondence with institutions, therefore appealed to the magistrate of Vienna and if her parents could visit her. He was informed of the "disturbing deterioration” of his daughter’s condition. Until then, he had not even known she was ill. He asked the hospital management for information about Käti’s condition, about the whereabouts of two packages in which he had included two stamped self-addressed postcards to confirm their receipt, and the possibilities of visiting her. In mid-April, the hospital’s medical director wrote him that Käti was suffering from a peritonitis, which at first had not been detected, because she had told nothing definite about her ailments. Then, it had been too late for an operation. In the meantime, the disorder had been contained; a complete remission was improbable. Käti’s general condition had severely deteriorated. As to the packages, he wrote that none had been received since the beginning of the year. As to visits, the parents could of course come. The institution did not offer accommodation, but was easy to reach in half an hour from the center of town by streetcar.

On March 22nd, 1944, the hospital management had filled in Report Form 1 of the euthanasia in Berlin, giving the diagnosis "imbecility, epilepsy”, with the main symptoms "answers stutteringly and grinning, speaks slurred and barely intelligible, intelligence questions poor and disoriented.” This refers to a ten-minute Rorschach test that Käti had been subject to in the middle of January. In the field "incurable disease”, the entry was "tuberous sclerosis”, a genetic disease affecting the brain with facial angiofibroma and subependymal nodules. "Type of occupation: without occupation. This, in connection with the information that she had no visitors, facilitated the euthanasia experts’ verdict on life and death. However, it could not be determined whether this notice was actually sent in view of Käti’s acute illness and her father’s letter.

Richard and Alwine Schultze did not visit their daughter immediately. Her condition deteriorated rapidly. Mortally ill. She was transferred to the nursing department within the institution, and died early in the morning of June 24th, allegedly of enteritis, which was confirmed by the autopsy. Her parents received the telegraphic notice of Käti’s death the next day. The telegram also stated she was going to be buried soon. As her parents were unable to attend, Richard Schultze telegraphed 150 RM to pay for the burial, which was to take place at the Vienna central cemetery. Käti’s parents were not informed that their daughter’s brain had been removed as a whole and preserved in formaldehyde as an anatomic specimen.

The Vienna hospital was unable to fulfill the parents’ desire for a photo, because the patients were not photographed. Pictures of Käti dated 1932 and 1938 reveal the girl’s basic disease, tuberous sclerosis – her cheeks are covered the small nodules that only gradually appeared in the course of her development.

Käti was the second child of Richard Schultze, born 5/16/1884, and his wife Alwine Maria, née Goslar, born 5/18/1895. Käti’s elder sister already attended school when Käti was born in 1921. The Schultze family obviously was able to get along in the economically difficult times of German inflation and the following world economic crisis. Käti’s birth and her first weeks went without complications, until she had first seizures when she was three months old. Her parents had Käti baptized on May 16th, 1921. Three months later because of the baby’s seizures and skin trouble, they took her to the children’s hospital in Baustrasse (now Hinrichsenstrasse) in Borgfelde, a department of St. Georg general hospital. Significantly improved, Käti was discharged from the hospital two and a half weeks later. When she was 14 months old, her brother was born.

Käti returned to Baustrasse children’s hospital when seizures recurred, mostly at night, and an eczema on her head returned. The examination revealed that her large fontanel was not yet closed. Regarding her psychic and mental development, the doctors classified Käti as "idiotic”, because she did not fix her eyes on people who looked at her. She was friendly, sang and laughed; sitting in her bed, she occupied herself with stereotype gestures, recognized her parents when they came to visit, but took no further notice of them. After a week without seizures, her parents took Käti home.

Unlike her elder sister, Käti only learned to walk surely when she was three years old and to speak understandably at seven. At that age, she had already spent her first four months at the Alsterdorf institution, until her parents took her home on their own accord, as they had with the previous stay at the hospital.

Her mother attributed Käti’s delayed development and her seizures to the infections she herself had suffered when she was pregnant, a case of pneumonia and the flu. At Käti’s second admission to Alsterdorf, adverse effects of a vaccination were also considered.

Käti was unable to attend regular school, but went to the "special school” in Bergedorf when she was eight. After a year and half, her learning potential was exhausted, and she left school. That Käti now again determined family life day and night was such a burden for her parents and her siblings that the parents reluctantly decided to take her back to Alsterdorf. There, she would be stimulated within the bounds of her possibilities and still receive the affection from her family during visits and on vacations. On November 11th, 1931, Käti Schultze was admitted to the Alsterdorf institution for the second time.

As long as her father could manage, he paid for part of Käti’s board; then, welfare assumed the costs. The welfare agency required a justification of the necessity for keeping the girl in institutional care from the management. On November 15th, 1932, Dr. Gerhard Kreyenberg wrote: "Käti Schultze … is a considerably imbecilic child suffering from tuberous sclerosis and severe seizures. She is very active, especially at night, and often makes stereotype gestures. She has the habits of an infant (sticking her fingers in her mouth, etc.) Attending school is impossible because of her low mental level. At playschool, where she often disturbs the other children by her restless nature, she is very dependent, cannot concentrate and is unable to grasp even the simplest games and tasks. Occasionally, she gets very excited, screams and breaks windows. From the medical point of view, discharging her to the care of her parents cannot be recommended by any means, because the patient’s two healthy siblings could be severely endangered by her incalculable attacks of excitement. Due to the nature of her illness, improvement is not to be expected; on the contrary, we must reckon with further continuous deterioration of her condition.” In the following years, the need for Käti Schultze’s enduring placement at the institution was established by an almost identical text.

Against her seizures, Käti received Luminal in slight dosage. She left playschool and spent most her seizure-free time quietly doing mostly nothing but smiling friendlily, She was able to eat on her own, albeit with a little assistance; the same applied to personal hygiene.

Whilst the number of days Käti could leave the institution was limited to five a month at the beginning of her sojourn, the duration was extended from the mid-1930s, so that she could spend a lot of time with her parents and siblings. In 1941, Käti’s sister wanted to get married, so she needed a health certificate. The health agency was not satisfied with a mere certificate, but wanted to see her complete record. The file contained no indication of any hereditary burden. After the devastating bombing of Hamburg, the Alsterdorfer Anstalten had to make room for bombing victims, homeless and wounded people, and transferred hundreds of patients to other institutions, Käti Schultze and 227 other girls and women were Wagner von Jauregg municipal mental hospital in Vienna, formerly named Steinhof. On September 30th, 1943, her mother Alwine received a short notice that Käti was restless, but content. This was the last contact until her father wrote to the Vienna Magistrate. Käti’s parents, however, were not to see their daughter again.

When the public learned of the existence of the so-called "Steinhof Brain Collection” in the 1990s, it was checked to see if it included mortal remains of patients from Alsterdorf. The brain of Margarethe Käti Schultze was not found among the specimens.


Translation by Peter Hubschmid 2018
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 236; Wunder, Michael, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Hamburg, 2. Aufl. 1988.