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Porträt Sophie Schult
Sophie Schult, 27 Jahre alt, 2918
© Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf

Sophie Schult * 1911

Hohenfelder Straße 15 (Hamburg-Nord, Hohenfelde)


HIER WOHNTE
SOPHIE SCHULT
JG. 1911
EINGEWIESEN 19.3.1933
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 27.6.1944

Sophie Schult, born 14 Mar. 1911 in Hamburg, moved 16 Aug. 1943 to Wagner von Jauregg Mental and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna where she died on 27 June 1944

Hohenfelder Straße 15

Little Sophie suffered respiratory arrest during her birth after her mother had been in labor for three days. Her mother Marie suffered from a heart condition and polyarthritis, and at the time of Sophie’s birth she also had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid. From birth, Sophie also showed signs of having a thyroid disorder which had to be treated with drugs. Marie Schult already had two children when Sophie was born. Two more came after her, however they died within their first year of life, one from a lung infection, the other from measles.

Marie Schult, born in Hamburg on 31 May 1878, was the daughter of the shoe maker Heinrich Rohmeier and his wife Helene Sophia, née Engelbrecht. She became a laborer, and on 7 Nov. 1899 she married the mason Friedrich Schult, born in Hamburg on 13 Aug. 1873. They both belonged to the Lutheran Church and lived in Rothenburgsort. They divorced ten days after Sophie was born. Sophie remained with her mother. Marie Schult assumed her maiden name of Rohmeier and that same year married a second time. On 9 Nov. 1911 she wed the laborer Hermann Heuck from Süderdithmarschen, born on 4 June 1864, who was fourteen years her senior. The family lived at Hardenstraße 36 in Rothenburgsort until they became self-employed in Hohenfelde after World War I at Hohenfelder Straße 15. Sophie’s father Friedrich Schult never remarried. He died in 1940.

Sophie began to walk at the age of two and to talk at four. When she was meant to start school, she was held back for lack of maturity and two years later admitted directly to the "special needs school” which dismissed her after fourteen days of school attendance as "not capable of being educated”. On 30 Sept. 1919 she was admitted to Friedrichsberg State Hospital, Hamburg’s psychiatric clinic at the time, for one month of observation. The teacher from the special needs school accompanied her mother and reported to the doctor at admissions that Sophie had a certain retentive ability but her motor skills were clumsy which influenced her ability to write and close buttons on her clothing. Physically the doctor found no abnormalities. When asking knowledge questions, he found that Sophie could not recite the days of the week or the seasons of the year. She knew the numbers from 1 to 15, but she could not do any arithmetic with them. After two days of settling in at the clinic, Sophie made friends with the other children, showed an interest in everything new, but quickly grew tired when learning. After two weeks she stood out from time to time as being loud and naughty. She was sent home with the diagnosis of "feeble mindedness” and released from further attendance at the special needs school.

In late 1928 the youth welfare office applied for Sophie to be admitted to the then Alsterdorfer Asylum. On 1 Dec. 1928, Dr. Wendt from the special education counseling center of the youth welfare office recommended she live in a home, in his expert opinion, "The girl’s mother has to work and is herself physically ill and not up to raising her daughter, above all the mother cannot supervise Sophie adequately such that the now 17-year-old girl is left on her own, endangering her to a certain extent. The Alsterdorfer Asylum would be an appropriate home for her. Her mother agrees.” Her mother did not, however, use the referral from 21 Feb. 1929, and Sophie remained with her family.

On 18 Jan. 1930, Marie Schult suffered a pulmonary embolism. Her recovery was only temporary. She died on 29 Jan. 1930 at Barmbek General Hospital.

Even after the death of her mother, Sophie remained living at home and joined an unspecified "girls’ association”. When she accused her stepfather of approaching her in an indecent manner early in 1933, she was taken in by the home of the youth welfare authority on Averhoffstraße. An evaluation discounted "the daughter’s accusations”, however her "anxiety” was taken seriously. At the same time Sophie’s accusations against her stepfather led people to believe she was interest in sex. As a consequence, she was forced to undergo sterilization in Mar. 1936 at Eppendorf University Hospital. It was also thought that she could receive better support for her development at a facility like the then Alsterdorfer Asylum which is why she was not released to go home but instead was temporarily housed at the girls’ home in Alstertwiete. She arrived at "Alsterdorf” on 19 May 1933. Five days later, proceedings were begun to declare her incapacitated and she received a legal guardian.

Sophie Schult did not stand out at the asylum. She was considered independent, clean, orderly, and got along with others, she cleaned vegetables and ran errands. In Nov. 1935 she was examined at Barmbek General Hospital because of her underactive thyroid, yet that did not lead to an improvement in her condition.

Her stepfather Hermann Heuck, who had kept in touch with her, died in late 1937 at St. Georg General Hospital. After his death, one of Sophie’s sisters stayed in contact with her.

Based on a medical evaluation from Apr. 1938, the social services administration agreed to cover the costs for Sophie Schult until 1 June 1948. However she would not live to see that day. The heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 had two consequences for her: Her sister was bombed out in Hamm and evacuated to Prignitz, so the two lost contact with each other for a time. Sophie herself along with 227 girls and women from the Alsterdorfer Asylum were moved to the Wagner von Jauregg Mental and Nursing Home of Vienna on 16 Aug. 1943.

Upon admission, she was well oriented in terms of herself but she did not understand what "Vienna” and "war” meant. At just over 5 feet tall (155 cm), she weighed 119 lbs. (54 kg) and maintained that weight for several months. Her medical evaluation was still positive, like the one in Alsterdorf. On 21 Mar. 1944 the institution filled out the registration form for patients in mental and nursing facilities. The form stated, "Busy making noodles, only on occasion as she frequently requires bed rest due to swollen legs. No visitors, no addresses of close relatives known.” That was evidently her death sentence. In mid May 1944, Sophie Schult was "transferred to the nursing facility” where she died twelve days later, allegedly of heart failure and "pulmonary embolism” at the age of 33. The autopsy report confirmed gastroenteritis and bronchitis. Her brain was fixed in formol.

Sophie Schult’s sister inquired about her in early Aug. August 1944 and received the reply, "Your sister died from severe gastroenteritis which led to massive diarrhea that could not be treated. That primary illness led to general weakness of the body. We were unable to administer a strict diet due to her mental state.” Sophie Schult was buried at the Central Cemetery in Vienna, followed later, in 2002, by her brain.


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


Stand: December 2019
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1068 u. 2120/1937; 2934 u. 518/1899; 3187 u. 328/1911; 7113 u. 188/1930; Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, V 237; Hamburger Adressbücher; Harald Jenner, Die Meldebögen in den Alsterdorfer Anstalten, in: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, 2. Aufl., Hamburg, 1988, S. 169–178; Michael Wunder, Die Abtransporte von 1941, in: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, 2. Aufl., Hamburg, 1988, S. 181–188; ders.: Der Exodus von 1943, ebd., S. 189–236.

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