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Alwin Knötsch
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Alwin Knötsch * 1894

Herderstraße 24 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
ALWIN KNÖTSCH
JG. 1894
EINGEWIESEN 1938
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 12.10.1943
HEILANSTALT HADAMAR
ERMORDET 29.10.1943

Alwin Willi Knötsch, born 30.1.1894 in Hamburg, residence in several Hamburg institutions and homes, last from 31.10.1938 in the former Alsterdorf Asylum (today Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), on 7.8.1943 transferred to the Landesheilanstalt Eichberg in Rheingau, from there deported on 12.10.1943 to the Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Hadamar, murdered on 29.10.1943

Herderstraße 24, Barmbek-Süd

Alwin Willi Knötsch was born on 30 January 1894 in his parents' apartment in Hamburg-Winterhude, Geibelstraße 36, House 3. He was born in the breech position. We do not know whether this resulted in a lack of oxygen for the child.

Alwin's father, the carpenter Friedrich Carl Hermann Knötsch, was born on 31 January 1859 in Grödel near Riesa in Saxony, while his mother, Auguste Emma, née Menzel, was born on 14 December 1855 in Kamenz in Saxony. Both parents belonged to the Lutheran denomination. We do not know the date of their marriage.

Alwin Knötsch had seven siblings: Friedrich Max, born on 5 April 1887, Alma Martha, born on 26 November 1888, the twins Thora Erika and Frieda Elsa, born on 5 September 1890, Bruno Paul, born on 22 October 1892, Franz Otto, born on 5 October 1895, and Anna Ida, born on 15 July 1897. They were all born in Hamburg.

Three of the siblings, Friedrich Max and the twins Thora Erika and Frieda Elsa, died at the age of five or younger. Anna Ida Knötsch died when she was seven years old. The other siblings reached adulthood: Bruno Paul took his own life at the age of 46. We know that Franz Otto Knötsch worked as a disinfector and married Anna Maria Dorothee, divorced Müller, née Stampehl, in 1917. We know nothing about the further fate of this couple, nor about Alma Martha's fate.

Alwin Knötsch suffered from rickets as a child and his development was severely retarded. He attended the auxiliary school in Bachstraße in Barmbek-Süd from 1 October 1903 to 23 March 1911 (auxiliary school is a name no longer used today for independent special or curative education schools). Alwin Knötsch broke off an apprenticeship as a basket maker after two days. Until November 1926, he found several short-term jobs at Hamburg companies, the longest from November 1921 to March 1923 at Deutsche Werft shipyard. After one and a half years as a ship cleaner, he "went on the dole", i.e. he was unemployed. Alwin Knötsch lived with his father at Herderstraße 24. Friedrich Carl Hermann Knötsch was already a widower; his wife August Emma, Alwin Knötsch's mother, had died on 26 July 1919.

Alwin Knötsch was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital on 2 December 1926. He was diagnosed with "idiocy". This term, which is no longer used in medicine today, referred to a severe mental disability that was congenital or acquired in early childhood. It is not known how he came to be admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital. On 13 September 1929 he was transferred to the Farmsen care home (Versorgungsheim) and from there, after an interim stay in the Langenhorn State Hospital, he was admitted to the Barmbek General Hospital for sterilization in April 1936.

The basis for this procedure was the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" of July 1933, with which the National Socialists had established the formal legal basis for the forced "infertilisation" of supposedly "hereditarily diseased" and "alcoholics". According to this law, a person could be rendered infertile (sterilized) "if, according to the experience of medical science, it is highly probable that their offspring will suffer from severe physical or mental hereditary defects". (Reichsgesetzblatt I No. 86/1933 p. 146 ff.).

After nine days, Alwin Knötsch returned to the Farmsen care home on 15 April 1936. He lived there for the next two and a half years until he was admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 31 October 1938. The director of the Farmsen care home had previously sent a medical report to the welfare authorities:
"K.[nötsch] has congenital feeblemindedness of a high degree. For a time, K. also suffered from epileptic seizures. In the last few years he also showed mental disorders that could be interpreted as schizophrenia (graft hebephrenia). The experiences in the Farmsen institution have shown that K. is incapable of regular activity due to his mental deficiency. K. is also physically handicapped by a curvature of the lumbar spine and anomalies in the position of his hip joints. K. is unfit for military service as a result of the aforementioned ailments.
Attn. Buchta, Senior Consultant."

In the Alsterdorf Asylum, Alwin Knötsch was perceived as quiet, lacking in drive and at times very confused.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrha), the Alsterdorf institutions also suffered damage on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, head of the institution, asked the health authorities to approve the transfer of 750 patients, allegedly to make room for wounded and bomb-damaged people. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred to the "Landesheilanstalt Eichberg" near Wiesbaden, the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof" in Idstein im Rheingau, the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen" near Passau and the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" in Vienna.

Alwin Knötsch was one of the 76 children and men who were transported to the "Eichberg State Sanatorium" on 7 August 1943. The last entry in his medical file, dated 6 August 1943, read: "Transferred to Eichberg due to severe damage to the institutions caused by air raids." Two months later, on 12 October 1943, Alwin Knötsch was transferred to the Hadamar State Sanatorium and Nursing Home near Limburg.

During the first phase of Nazi "euthanasia" ("Aktion T4"), Eichberg was one of the intermediate institutions for the Hadamar killing center near Limburg an der Lahn. After the official end of the gas murders in the killing centers at the end of August 1941, murders continued in the existing intermediate institutions. In Hadamar, one of the gas murder centers during the first phase of the "euthanasia”, people were now killed with overdoses of medication.

Alwin Knötsch died in Hadamar 17 days after his arrival on 29 October 1943. As cause of death was noted "mental illness, intestinal engorgement". It can be safely assumed that he did not die of natural causes.

Alwin Knötsch became 49 years old.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland
Stand: December 2024
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg; StaH 332-5 Geburtsregister 9096 Nr. 231/1894 Alwin Willi Knötsch, 2140 Nr. 1351/1887 Friedrich Max Knötsch, 2220 Nr. 2582/1890 Thora Erika Knötsch, 2220 Nr. 2583/1890 Frieda Elsa Knötsch, 2170 Nr. 4413/1888 Alma Martha Knötsch, 6362 Nr. 1989/1897 Anna Ida Knötsch, 9077 Nr. 1650/1892 Bruno Paul Knötsch, 6348 Nr. 2640/1895 Franz Otto Knötsch, Heiratsregister 6536 Nr. 324/1895 Franz Otto Knötsch/Anna Maria Dorothee Müller, Sterberegister 1108 Nr. 595/1939 Bruno Paul Knötsch, 300 Nr. 477/1891 Frieda Elsa Knötsch, 7856 Nr. 1497/1891 Thora Erika Knötsch, 7864 Nr. 1439/1892 Friedrich Max Knötsch, 6861 Nr. 615/1905 Anna Ida Knötsch, 6986 Nr. 889/1919 Auguste Emma Knötsch geb. Menzel, 1108 Nr. 595/1939 Bruno Paul Knötsch, 7246 Nr. 150/1941 Friedrich Karl Hermann Knötsch. Standesamt Hadamar, Sterberegister Nr. 79/1944 Alwin Willi Knötsch. Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 106. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 35, 289 ff. Henry Friedländer, Der Weg zum NS-Genozid – Von der Euthanasie zur Endlösung, Berlin 1997, S. 264.