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Hannchen Hinsch, Weihnachten 1908
© Archiv Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf

Hannchen Hinsch * 1885

Niedernstraße 2 e (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
HANNCHEN HINSCH
JG. 1885
EINGEWIESEN 1899
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 1943
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
TOD AN FOLGEN
19.8.1945

Hannchen Auguste Henriette Hinsch, born 17 Nov. 1885 in Hamburg, institutionalized 7 Dec. 1899 at the then Alsterdorf Asylum, moved 16 Aug. 1943 to the Wagner von Jauregg Mental and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna, died 19 Aug. 1945

Niedernstraße 2, corner of Fischerstraße (Niedernstraße 100)

On 7 Dec. 1899, shortly before the turn of the century, the medical officer Maes instructed that the 14-year-old Hannchen Hinsch be institutionalized at the then Alsterdorf Asylum (today Alsterdorf Evangelical Foundation). He regarded the development of the second-oldest of this working-class family with many children to be severely retarded, both physically and mentally.

Hannchen Hinsch was born on 17 Nov. 1885 in a rear courtyard of Gänge District in old town Hamburg at Breitestraße 11. She grew up in unhealthy living conditions and developed rickets, the "English disease”, at a very young age due to poor nutrition and as a result did not learn to walk or talk until the age of five. Of her twelve brothers, sisters and half-siblings, seven did not survive past early childhood. Her parents Johann Wilhelm Christian Hinsch (born 26 Sept. 1856) and Johanna Carolina Henriette, née Busch (born 12 Dec. 1855), who wed in Hamburg on 7 Sept. 1882, had already separated when their daughter was institutionalized.

Evidently Hannchen had first lived with her father who married a second time – on 13 May 1892 he married Dorothea Henriette Elisabeth Beckmann (born 6 Aug. 1860, died 12 Oct. 1924). In 1913 Johann Hinsch and his family had to leave their apartment at Niederstraße 100 in the course of a clean up of the south part of the old town Altstadt. The region around Niederstraße was torn down to build the Chile House in today’s Kontorhaus District. The family found a new place to live at Deichstraße 10. Following her father’s death, Hannchen was given leave to visit her family, as on 31 Dec. 1921.

An early note in her patient file stated, among other things, "Can read and write fairly fluently and can do a little math.” A copy of her school report card from 1900 confirms that with the assessment "fairly good”. During the following years of her stay at Alsterdorf, only repeated in-patient and out-patient treatments for a variety of illnesses were noted. Moreover, she was often taken to the infirmary because she was so emaciated. In the summer of 1924 it was noted, "Very hard of hearings. Diligent and helpful. Often agitated. Helps out on the ward. Used to be quarrelsome, has been more agreeable as of late. Reliable.”

Hannchen Hinsch worked in the asylum laundry. Over the course of time, her evaluations grew more and more negative. She was described as very "quarrelsome”. Another entry, for instance, states, "is always getting into fights on the ward” and "often sings Christian songs that she then makes fun of.” In 1936 it was noted, "Makes an effort to be peaceful. Only her conversations with herself are disruptive which she has at all times of day, often during prayers.”

Once she got into fights with her fellow patients, she was hard to calm down, was tied to her bed in the evening as punishment or moved to the observation room because she "Causes serious problems in the ward, is malicious, nasty and envious.” In early Apr. 1942, her weight loss was flagged up once again, she was "very frail”. She was returned to the infirmary on suspicion of tuberculosis.

One of the last entries on Hannchen Hinsch, who by now was 57 years old, noted, "Pat.[ient] is constantly insolent and naughty, speaks badly of the staff and stirs up hatred amongst the children. No one wants to have her work for them, the only place she can work is in the vegetable room. Now she constantly complains that such an old girl should have to put up with the damp there and the boys get to hang out on the ward. Pat.[ient] cannot stay there because she provokes and annoys everybody. She hopes her bad behavior will cause her to be moved.”

The managing senior physician Kreyenberg decided where she was to be moved. "Due to severe damage of the asylum by air raids,” Hannchen Hinsch was moved to Vienna on 16 Aug. 1943, along with 227 other women and girls, to Wagner von Jauregg Mental and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna.

When asked during an admission interview in Vienna, she reported, "She had been in the asylum for 44 years already, just because she was a little mentally impaired, but she had always worked in the vegetable room and was also with the children.” Upon her arrival in Vienna she was already underweight at 38 kg. She was quickly confined to bed and considered unsuitable for work.

Her married sister Albertine Meyer (born 9 Feb. 1884) tried to maintain contact with her and was concerned in Sept. 1944 since she had not received any more mail from her. She inquired in Vienna several times as to her sister’s state of health. Although Hannchen Hinsch had been moved to the "care pavilion” on 15 May 1944, the reply from the asylum management states, "Your sister H. H. is in good health, she has not written you because she did not have money to buy writing materials. However we will provide her with postcards. Of course you may visit your sister if you receive travel permission for such a visit.”

Following another inquiry in Mar. 1945, they replied, "Your sister H. H. is confined to bed at the moment due to diarrhea. Generally she is physically somewhat weak. We are trying to get her to write a letter.”

Hannchen Hinsch may have survived the end of the war in Vienna because her sister regularly inquired after her. When she died on 19 Aug. 1945, she had wasted away to an unbelievable 24 kilos. It is possible that she slowly starved to death from food being withheld from her.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakten der Alsterdorfer Anstalten, V 201 Hannchen Hinsch; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2636 u 963/1882; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2096 u 4144/1885; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2796 u 514/1892; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7017 u 7/1921; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 883 u 526/1924; Wunder: Exodus, S. 215.