Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Alfons Ode, 44 Jahre alt
© Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv

Alfons Ode * 1895

Papenstraße 33 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
ALFONS ODE
JG. 1895
EINGEWIESEN 1943
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
"VERLEGT" 1943
HADAMAR
ERMORDET 15.11.1943

Alfons Ode, born 3 Dec. 1895 in Wandsbek, killed 15 Nov. 1943 at Hadamar State Asylum

Papenstraße 33

Heinrich Friedrich Alfons Ode’s parents, the carpenter Heinrich Joachim Hans Ode and his wife Lina, née Kronenberg, lived in Wandsbek at Schulgasse 7 and belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. They already had two daughters when Alfons was born in 1895. He attended elementary school in Wandsbek and finished as one of its best students.

His father became paralyzed as a result of a back ailment and died in 1905. Alfons worked as a courier to support his mother financially and after finishing elementary school in 1910 continued in that job full time for three years at the banking house M. M. Warburg & Co. K. G. Thanks to his good performance, he rose in the management of office administration until he was drafted into the army in Aug. 1917 where he was only employed as a typist. During that time he contracted syphilis and underwent treatment with salvarsan in 1918. It was later discovered that the treatment did not lead to the desired complete recovery.

On 12 Oct. 1920, Alfons Ode, also spelled Ohde, married Carla Mühlig, born in Hamburg on 8 June 1894, who also lived in Eilbek at Seumestraße 1.

The couple moved in with Alfons’ mother at Papenstraße 33. The two eldest children of Alfons and Carla Ode both died before reaching the age of one, the two younger sons were healthy. However Alfons infected his wife with syphilis. He himself suffered longterm effects of the illness, including progressive paralysis which easily set him off and made him violent. Due to this, their children were sent to live with relatives. In the summer of 1933, he was given a treatment for malaria at Barmbek General Hospital which slightly improved his condition. The Warburg bank employed him again, giving him easy work that he could manage. Alfons Ode behaved calmly and normally as long as he did not encounter any conflict.

Due to his wife’s illness, their domestic problems grew since Carla Ode could no longer manage to take care of the household. Arguments turned violent, sometimes involving his mother. Carla Ode was hospitalized at Barmbek General Hospital when her husband was admitted for the second time in May 1934. After a few days, he was discharged at his own urgent request. Carla Ode was moved to the Friedrichsberg State Asylum where she died on 7 July 1934.

A month later, Alfons Ode was himself admitted to Friedrichsberg. When he arrived, he appeared unfazed by his wife’s death, only commenting that his mother was now taking care of the household which was an improvement. Alfons Ode was discharged into his mother’s care at her new address at Eilbeker Weg 215. His violent episodes did not diminish, and as a result he was taken to what at that time was called the Alsterdorfer Asylum on 4 July 1935 where he was monitored (see Harry Becker). After a brief stay, the head nurse H. Rath from Volksdorf took him into private nursing care. Alfons Ode enjoyed the sunny start of autumn in the countryside. He was very friendly and effusively polite, however in addition to his quick irritability he developed other idiosyncracies that led his nurse to return him to Friedrichsberg State Asylum on 31 Oct. 1935. At times he did not eat anything and hoarded chestnuts, grass and other perishables in his suitcase. He raved to the admitting physician about his "dearest mother who had the great kindness to accompany him there”. He said he had returned to Hamburg to "fulfill her heartfelt desire that he live with her”. Since he showed no significant change in his illness, the doctor had him moved back to the Alsterdorfer Asylum, not least because of financial reasons. After the many changes in the previous five years, the Alsterdorfer Asylum became his home as of 4 Nov. 1935 which he slowly got used to.

His sons, six and ten years old, led a normal life. Alfons Ode’s two sisters were both married, the younger with his wife’s brother. That brother-in-law assumed custodianship of his estate and paid his care at the asylum out of Alfons Ode’s retirement fund and pension that he had acquired as a bank employee. Alfons Ode’s condition remained unstable. In addition to his hoarding compulsion, he developed the pressing need to write, however that subsided after two years. At the end of 1937, he was declared unfit for military service and was removed from service in 1941.

In the daily life at the asylum he helped clean the dormitory for a time but withdrew increasingly into himself. At the time of his admission, he was 175 cm tall and weighed 90.5 kg. By Mar. 1940 his weight never dropped below 81 kg, but then in Oct. 1942 it dropped to 53 kg.

During the heavy air raids in the summer of 1943, Alfons’ mother Lina Ode lost her apartment in Eilbek and first found shelter in Tetschen, Elbe, and later in Harburg. On 7 Aug. 1943, Alfons Ode was removed from Alsterdorf along with 127 other children and men and delivered the next day to the completely overcrowded Eichberg Mental and Nursing Home. When his mother learned of his move, she planned to visit him there, but her plan failed.

On 12 Oct. 1943 Alfons Ode was transferred to Hadamar State Mental Hospital where mass killings of mentally ill or disabled people were carried out as part of Operation T4 until Aug. 1941 using carbon monoxide. After that time, Hadamar performed decentralized "euthanasia”, meaning that individuals were killed by being deprived of food, through general neglect or by being administered an overdose of drugs. In Nov. 1943, hospital management sent his mother "notification of his worsening condition” which granted her permission to visit him. It is not known whether that visit took place. Shortly before his 48th birthday, on 15 Nov., Alfons Ode died, allegedly from stomach flu.

His brother-in-law immediately transferred the 400 RM burial costs so that he could be buried at Ohlsdorfer Cemetery in Hamburg. Lina Ode received her son’s wedding ring and other personal affects by mail. She died on 1 Apr. 1960.


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

Stand: January 2018
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv; V 98; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 6580-724/1920; 7156-685/1934; 10118-925/1960; Wunder, Exodus in: Wunder, Genkel, Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene.