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Grabstätte der histologischen Präparate auf dem Ehrenfeld für Verfolgte der NS-Herrschaft der Geschwister-Scholl-Stiftung, Grablage: Bo 73, Nr. 155
© Privatbesitz

Dieter Kullak * 1938

Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

ERMORDET IN DER
"KINDERFACHABTEILUNG"
DER HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
LANGENHORN

DIETER KULLAK
GEB. 30.8.1938
ERMORDET 8.3.1942

further stumbling stones in Langenhorner Chaussee 560:
Gerda Behrmann, Uwe Diekwisch, Peter Evers, Elke Gosch, Claus Grimm, Werner Hammerich, Marianne Harms, Hillene Hellmers, Helga Heuer, Waltraud Imbach, Inge Kersebaum, Hella Körper, Helga Liebschner, Theo Lorenzen, Jutta Müller, Ingrid Neuhaus, Traudel Passburg, Edda Purwin, Angela Quast, Erwin Sänger, Hermann Scheel, Gottfried Simon, Monika Ziemer

Dieter Kullak, born on 30.8.1938 in Hamburg, killed on 8.3.1942 in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home” (Kinderfachabteilung)

Asklepios-Klinik Nord-Ochsenzoll,
Henny-Schütz-Allee, memorial house 25, entrance Langenhorner Chaussee 560

Dieter Kullak was born in Hamburg on August 30, 1938. He initially stayed with his parents, Ottilie Egidie, née Oetzmann, and the locksmith Walter Karl Otto Kullak, in Wandsbek, Kurze Reihe. The time before his birth had already been stressful for Dieter, as his mother had tried to abort the unborn child because she was afraid it might be damaged. She already had four children, one daughter was deaf and dumb due to an accident. Dieter was saved in the womb with the help of medically supervised drug therapy and carried to term. He suffered from "fatal jaundice” and was taken to the Wandsbek Children's Hospital a few days after his birth. His mother was able to breastfeed him for four months.

At the age of about one and a half years, Dieter spent a longer period of time, from March 11 to August 17, 1940, in the Wandsbek General Hospital. His condition did not improve during this time. It was recorded: "He does not sit, does not stand, does not respond to calls and does not speak”. Dieter's nervous disorder was referred to as Little's disease (cerebral palsy). The diagnosis was Little's disease, rickets and debility. The mother refused, to transfer Dieter to the "Alsterdorf Institutions”.

On October 11, 1941, Dieter was referred to Dr. Knigge at the instigation of the Hamburg Health Department for a thorough specialist examination in the "Children's Department of the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home” with the diagnosis of "idiocy”. He noted in the admission record that the mother had only brought her son there reluctantly, and only because she believed that sometimes "signs and wonders still happen”.

Dr. Knigge kept a monthly record of Dieter's state of health:
"11.XII.1941: comes back from the infection ward.
12.I.1942: Unchanged stupid behavior. Always having fits of rage and screaming. Has no contact with the outside world. Had a varicella exanthema [skin rash] at the beginning of the month [...]
17.II.1942: Indifferent and dull. Very sensitive. Screams at the slightest thing.”
The last entries read: "7.III.42 Has a temperature of 39.6 degrees. Shows most severe trachea [windpipe] rustling. Looks pale and decrepit.
8.III.42. Exitus letalis [fatal outcome].
Diagnosis: Littlesch's disease (tetraplegiaspasticainfantitis) [cerebral palsy caused by lack of oxygen during birth]. Idiocy.”

Dieter Kullak was killed in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”. He died at 6:30 a.m. on March 3, 1942 in House 10, Women's Ward II.


In the death certificate, Friedrich Knigge gave the cause of death as "cerebral palsy, idiocy, bronchopneumonia”. Knigge killed with Luminal injections, a sleeping pill. Fever and pneumonia were the result; the children suffered a slow and agonizing death. In most death certificates, as in Dieter's case, the words "bronchopneumonia” refer to these killings.

His parents were informed by telegram three hours later on the same day: "Son Dieter deceased. Come for funeral Monday. Bring birth certificate. Langenhorn institution”.

His body was released for research purposes, presumably without his parents' consent. The "Reichsausschuß zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden” in Berlin covered the costs until March 13, 1942.


Dieter was 3 years, 6 months and 3 days old. The place of his burial is not known.


After the war, on January 18, 1946, in the criminal case against him and others for murder and euthanasia in the "children's ward” of Langenhorn Hospital, Friedrich Knigge gave the following justification in a hearing before the examining magistrate at Hamburg District Court regarding the Dieter Kullak case: "After I had formed a certain opinion about the incurability of the suffering, I made the following statement. After I had formed a firm opinion about the incurability of the suffering, I made a report to the Reich Committee requesting euthanasia treatment. It was carried out on March 7, 1942. The child died the next day”.
He interpreted the report in his favor and blamed the mother: "I could see from the mother's face that she was suffering severely from the awareness that she had caused the child's brain disease by the abortion attempt. I am medically convinced that the child's suffering was indeed caused by the water injection. [...] As I noted in the medical history, the mother came to me again on November 26, 1941 and said that she and her husband agreed to the 'treatment'. I had the impression that she already had the strongest desire to separate from the child during the first conversation. She just didn't want to betray herself and therefore believed she had to refuse first and wait even longer before giving her consent.”

On January 17, 1948, Dieter Kullak's mother testified as a witness in the trial against Dr. Knigge before the examining magistrate: "I had the child at home for almost two years when one day the district welfare officer told me that I should take the child to an institution where it would recover. At first I was against the suggestion, but then I thought that I might be sinning against the child if I kept it at home and decided to have the child placed in an institution. [...] I then received a summons to appear before the Wandsbek Health Department, Schillerstraße. [...] The doctor gave me some hope for the child's recovery and promised me that Dieter would be placed in a sanatorium. The welfare officer [...] told me that Dieter would have a good time in Langenhorn, at least he would get well there.”

When she visited her child in Langenhorn, she recalled, Knigge persuaded her to give her signature and influenced her to agree: "The doctor said he would make an experiment with the child. Either this experiment would lead to recovery or the child would die. However, he needed our consent to carry out the experiment. In order to get our consent, the doctor said to me the following: 'Remember, when the child grows up, it will also be a human being. You have other children, and it will be hard for you to see them forever.”


The physician Marc Burlon made a shocking discovery in 2006. In the basement of the Eppendorf University Hospital, in the neuropathology collection, he found the histological specimens of Dieter Kullak together with those of the children Gerda Behrmann, Werner Hammerich and Marianne Harms (biographies see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), victims of the "euthanasia” crimes in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”, and Agnes Erna Petersen (biography see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), victim of the "euthanasia” crimes in the "children's ward” of the Rothenburgsort children's hospital.

On September 15, 2012, they were buried together in a public funeral service at the Ohlsdorf cemetery, the field of honor for victims of Nazi persecution of the Geschwister Scholl Foundation, grave location Bo 73, No. 155.

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: StaH, 213-12 Staatsanwaltschaft, 0013 Bd. 060 Sonderakte Bd. 40, Schirbaum u. a. Knigge, Bl. 518–561, 0017 Bd. 001 Bayer u. a. Knigge, S. 71; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64217 u. 183/1942 Dieter Kullak; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9933 u. 183/1942 Dieter Kullak; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1942 Sta 1b Nr. 183 Dieter Kullak; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01, 64 UA 1 Akte 29099; Standesamt Hamburg-Wandsbek, Geburtsregister, Nr. 634/1938 Dieter Kullak; Hildegard Thevs: Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort. Biographische Spurensuche, Hamburg 2011, S. 204 (Agnes Petersen).