Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Hans-Jürgen Hobein
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Hans-Jürgen Hobein * 1934

Langenfelder Straße 91 (Altona, Altona-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
HANS-JÜRGEN HOBEIN
JG. 1934
EINGEWIESEN 1936
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT‘ 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
KALMENHOF / IDSTEIN
ERMORDET 14.3.1944

Hans-Jürgen Hobein, born on 14.3.1934 in Altona, admitted on 12.2.1936 to what was then known as the "Alsterdorf Asylum" ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten"), transferred on 7.8.1943 to the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”) near Idstein, where he died on 24.8.1943

Langenfelder Straße 91

Hans-Jürgen Wolfgang (callname Hans-Jürgen) Hobein was born on 14 March 1934 in the then still independent Prussian city of Altona (today Hamburg).

His parents, police sergeant Ernst Gustav Wilhelm Hobein, born on 12 August 1896 in Altona, and Paula Hobein, née Sievers, born on 9 December 1905 in Altona, lived at Langenfelder Straße 91 in Altona. They had married in Altona in 1929 and had their first child, Roswitha, on 15 March 1933. Hans-Jürgen was followed on 19 May 1937 by his brother Wolfgang, who died at the age of two on 15 October 1939 at the University Hospital in Eppendorf from bone marrow inflammation, blood poisoning and circulatory failure.

Hans-Jürgen Hobein suffered from cramps up to ten times a day at the age of three months. He had developed rickets. He was in the Hamburg infant home at Hochallee 1 from 31 January to 12 February 1936. We do not know who arranged for him to be admitted to the infant home. On 6 February 1936, the senior physician, Ludwig Gmelin, informed the Hamburg Police Officers' Sick and Death Benefit Fund that the boy urgently needed to be admitted to the "Alsterdorf Asylum" hospital ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten" now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), as specialist neurological observation of the child was necessary due to suspected brain damage. In the medical admission form, Ludwig Gmelin wrote that the almost two-year-old "idiotic" boy had a completely blank expression on his face. He was physically well developed, but his muscles were completely limp. The boy could not sit up, he slumped and shook his head.

He was admitted to the "Alsterdorf Asylum" on 12 February 1936. During the admission examination, the father described his son as apathetic and sociable, suffering from convulsions and sometimes laughing for no reason. The senior physician, SA-member Gerhard Kreyenberg, diagnosed "idiocy" on the same day. ("idiocy" is a term no longer in use today for a severe form of intellectual disability.)

During his first year in Alsterdorf, Hans-Jürgen Hobein was treated in the infirmary for extended periods due to gastrointestinal infections, pneumonia, feverish flu and chickenpox among other things. He was classified as a "complete ward patient" who was constantly in bed and unclean. He did not speak and had to be fed, did not respond to anything and took no interest in his surroundings. Hans-Jürgen was unable to speak, stand or sit and was said to have banged his head against the bed boards on numerous occasions.

In 1940, he suffered frequent seizures. Otherwise, his condition until 1943 corresponded to the descriptions of previous years. The boy was described as a "bedridden child" who was completely dependent on care and did not know what to do with toys.

The entries in Hans-Jürgen Hobein's patient file ended on 6 August 1943 with a final note from the institution's doctor, SA-member Gerhard Kreyenberg: "Transferred because the Alsterdorf Asylum has been destroyed."

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrah), the "Alsterdorf Asylum" also suffered damage on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. The director of the institution, SA-member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities for permission to transfer 750 patients, allegedly to make room for the wounded and those affected by the bombing. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred in three transports between 7 and 16 August to the "Eichberg State Sanatorium" ("Landesheilanstalt Eichberg") near Wiesbaden, the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”) in Idstein in the Rheingau, the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Mainkofen" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen”) near Passau, and the "Wagner von Jauregg - Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien") in Vienna.

On 7 August 1943, a total of 128 people were transported to the "Eichberg State Sanatorium" in the Rheingau (76 people) and the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" near Idstein (52 people). Nine-year-old Hans-Jürgen Hobein was among them. The transport reached the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" on 8 August.

Jürgen Hobein lived there for only a few more days. He died on 23 August 1943, allegedly of "idiocy and marasmus" (a severe form of malnutrition).

The Kalmenhof institution was founded in 1888 as a progressive, educationally oriented facility for people with intellectual disabilities. In 1939, it was incorporated into the "Euthanasia" programme of "Aktion T4" (named after the address of the Berlin euthanasia centre, Tiergartenstraße 4). The patients were transferred from there to the neighbouring Hadamar killing centre and murdered. After the official end of the "Euthanasia" murders in August 1941, the cover organisation "Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Hereditary and Congenital Serious Illnesses" ("Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden"), which belonged to the Berlin "Euthanasia" centre, set up a so-called children's ward at Kalmenhof. In this department, children were killed by overdoses of drugs such as Luminal, scopolamine or morphine.

It can be assumed with certainty that Hans-Jürgen Hobein did not die a natural death in this "special children's ward".

Based on earlier research, the stumbling stone commemorating Hans-Jürgen Hobein lists his date of death as 14 March 1944. The correct date is 24 August 1943.

Stand: October 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg 1942. StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6177 Geburtsregister Nr. 832/1896 (Ernst Gustav Wilhelm Hobein), 1313 Heiratsregister Nr. 1109/1929 (Ernst Hobein /Paula Sievers), 9906 Sterberegister Nr. 1560/1939 (Wolfgang Hobein), Standesamt Idstein Nr. 133/1943 Sterberegisterauszug (Hans-Jürgen Hobein). Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 69 (Hans-Jürgen Hobein). Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 258. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 283 ff. https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/24708/NS-Kindereuthanasie-Ohne-jede-moralische-Skrupel (Zugriff am 7.8.2025).