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Emma Klapproth, Aufnahme vom 10.10.1930
© StaH

Emma Clara Klapproth (née Pfannenberg) * 1866

Ditmar-Koel-Straße 12 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
EMMA CLARA
KLAPPROTH
GEB. PFANNENBERG
JG. 1866
EINGEWIESEN 1928
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 9.4.1943
HEILANSTALT OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 4.9.1943

Emma Clara Klapproth, née Pfannenberg, born on 15 Sept. 1866 in Reppichau/Anhalt, admitted on 9 Sept. 1927 to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg), transferred to the Meseritz-Obrawalde euthanasia killing center, murdered on 4 Sept. 1943

Ditmar-Koel-Strasse 12

Emma Klapproth was born on 15 Sept. 1866 in the small town of Reppichau, District of Dessau, in Anhalt. Her parents, the horse dealer Christian Franz Pfannenberg (born on 15 Oct. 1840) and Sophie Christiane Albertine, née Schröter (born on 25 July 1845), had married there on 22 Mar. 1866. They belonged to the Lutheran Church and had their daughter baptized on 7 Oct. 1866. After Emma, other children were born: Franz (born on 3 Oct. 1868), Anna (born on 6 May 1870, died on 15 July 1879), Clara (born on 25 Aug. 1872), and Albert (born on 7 Oct. 1874).

In 1884, his father Franz Pfannenberg had served a prison sentence in Rendsburg for reasons unknown to us, and two of his children were fostered by relatives. Emma was taken in by her aunt, the widow Marie Amalie Nagel, née Schröter, who moved with her niece to Akazienstrasse 6 in Dessau.

When Emma Pfannenberg married in Hamburg on 30 July 1904 (she signed the marriage certificate with the name of Pfanneberg), she was 37 years old and registered on the Elbe island of Steinwärder (today Steinwerder) at Neuhoferstrasse 38. Her mother had already died in Zwochau near Leipzig, her father’s whereabouts were unknown to her.

Emma married the master boilermaker Friedrich Karl Klapproth (born on 12 Mar. 1855 in Aschersleben), who worked as a master workman and lived on the other side of the Elbe River, at Stubbenhuk 28. The couple moved to Schaarsteinweg 33 in 1910, lived at Karpfangerstrasse 4 in 1912, and finally at Ditmar-Koel-Strasse 12 in 1914.

On 24 Mar. 1925, Emma Klapproth was hit by a stroke of fate, as her husband died in the Harbor Hospital following an accident.

After a little more than two years on 9 Sept. 1927, Emma Klapproth was admitted, at the urging of "Physikus Dr. Rautenberg,” to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital with a diagnosis of "delusions and hallucinations.” From there, the then 61-year-old came to the Langenhorn State Hospital on 9 June 1928. Since Emma Klapproth often complained about physical conditions, the diagnosis of "hypochondriac presenile depression” and "psychogenic traits” was made during her stay in Langenhorn. In calm phases, she was described as polite and friendly; she was orderly and kept away from the other patients. Emma Klapproth was employed in the housekeeping department within the institutional operation, where she proved to be a very diligent and orderly worker. However, as it was noted in the files that her discharge could not be expected in the near future, and she was placed under guardianship in Nov. 1929. In Oct. 1930, following a court order, the Hamburg Building Authority, Housing Department, confiscated her apartment at Ditmar-Koel-Strasse 12. The complaint lodged against this by her appointed guardian, Senior Secretary of the Welfare Authority W. Ehlers, was not taken into consideration. On 4 Nov. 1930, he wrote to the institutional administration in Langenhorn: "As far as Emma Klapproth is concerned, I respectfully inform you that my fosterling’s apartment has been confiscated. My complaint and also my further legal appeal have been rejected. Thus, I have no choice but to vacate the apartment. The effects will have to be auctioned. I kindly ask you to inform my fosterling of the situation in an appropriate manner. Should my fosterling express any further wishes, I kindly ask for immediate notice.”

Over the next eight years, Emma Klapproth’s health does not seem to have improved. In Feb. 1939, it was noted in her file that the "patient recites all kinds of things with a sad face and in a depressed voice.”

On 28 Aug. 1939, Emma Klapproth was transferred to the "welfare and social work education and nursing home” of Sankt Anscharhöhe at Tarpenbeckstrasse 107, to the Emilienstift (an charitable institution originally founded by Emilie Auguste Jenisch in 1883 for "fallen” girls) in order to relieve the burden on the Langenhorn State Hospital, which had been renamed "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt”) in the previous year. The women were accommodated there in very modest quarters; the medical check took place only every four to six weeks by the deputy medical director of the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home.”

Emma Klapproth was employed again in the institutional operation, in the kitchen and in an outdoor unit, probably in agriculture. One of the nurses there, "Nurse Gertrud,” noted that she now tended to be aggressive at times against her fellow patients. "She gets very loud and eccentric. Lately she has been getting several packs.” "Packs” were meant as punishment, with the persons concerned wrapped into wet sheets of cloth that contracted painfully during drying.

Due to the reoccupation of the Emilia Foundation by the Hamburg Youth Authority, Emma Klapproth returned to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” on 10 Oct. 1942. Two years earlier, on 15 Oct. 1940, the management had already filled out a "registration form” concerning the patient Emma Klapproth. Whether this was then actually sent to the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, where "experts” judged who came under consideration for the purpose of killing in an institution intended for it, is not known.

On 9 Apr. 1943, Emma Klapproth was transferred on a collective transport to the Meseritz-Obrawalde "State Asylum” near the German-Polish border. The institution was one of four medical facilities in the occupied eastern territories where targeted killing by doctors and nurses under the "euthanasia” program was taking place by then. Patients’ chances of survival depended on their work performance and willingness to subordinate themselves. The killings took place after selection by the medical director Theophil Mootz, predominantly by drugs such as morphine and Phenobarbital (Luminal), which were injected in lethal doses. A natural cause of death was then reported to the responsible records office.

Emma Klapproth died a few days before her seventy-sixth birthday on 4 Sept. 1943. The official cause of death indicated was "valvular heart defect.” She was buried in the institutional cemetery, probably in a mass grave.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3023 u 797/1904; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 896 u 161/1925; StaH 352-5 Todesbescheinigung 1925, Sta. 2 Nr. 161; StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995, 17456; Patientenakte aus der ehemaligen Landesheilanstalt Meseritz-Obrawalde, Akten-Nr. 1841; http://www.anscharhoehe.de/images/stories/anscharhoehe/aktuell/festschrift_jun2011.pdf (Zugriff
am 4.7.2014); http://gedbas.genealogy.net/person/ancestors/999471966 (Zugriff am 1.8.2014); Auskünfte von Ulf Schröter, E-Mail von 8.8.2014; Bake: Emilie Auguste Jenisch, in: Kopitzsch/Brietzke (Hrsg.): Biografie, Band 2, S. 201; Wunder: Karriere, S. 118–119; Wunder: Transporte, S. 377–382.