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Walter Leverentz * 1905

Schwenckestraße 62 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
WALTER LEVERENTZ
JG. 1905
EINGEWIESEN 1910
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
13.10.1943 WEILMÜNSTER
ERMORDET 6.4.1944

Walter Johannes Albert Paul Leverentz, born 13 July 1905 in Hamburg, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten’, now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 10 March 1910, transferred to the State Sanatorium Eichberg (‘Landesheilanstalt Eichberg’) near Eltville on 7 August 1943, transferred to the ‘State Sanatorium Weilmünster’ (‘Landesheilanstalt Weilmünster’) on 13 October 1943, died there on 6 April 1944

Schwenckestraße 62 (Eimsbüttel)

Walter Johannes Albert Paul (callname Walter) Leverentz was born in Hamburg on 13 July 1905. He was the eldest child of the clerk Alfred Theodor Richard Leverentz, born on 11 November 1879 in Hamburg, and his wife Albertine Hermine Wilhelmine Leverentz, née Fischer, born on 1 December 1880 in Hamburg. The couple married in Hamburg on 16 July 1904 and settled at Schwenckestraße 62, a street in the north of Eimsbüttel with spacious apartment blocks from the Wilhelminian era.

By 1909, three sisters had been born: Käthe, born on 24 August 1907, Wilma Albertine Christine, born on 3 April 1909, and Elisabeth Albertine, born on 6 December 1911.

Walter Leverentz's birth was very difficult. At the age of eight weeks, he fell ill with meningitis. According to his mother, he had his first seizures. He learnt to walk at the age of 1 ¾ and to speak at the age of three. In January 1910, Dr A. Peeck, a doctor in private practice, ruled that the now five-year-old had to be admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten’, now ‘Evangelische Stitung Alsterdorf’) due to ‘idiocy’. He had fits of rage, was feebleminded, could not eat on his own and spoke imperfectly. (The terms ‘feeblemindedness’ and ‘idiocy’, which are no longer used today, denote intellectual disability and congenital intellectual weakness or a severe form of intellectual disability).

Walter Leverentz was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum on 10 March 1910. According to a medical report by senior physician Kellner dated 24 January 1923, Walter Leverentz suffered from epilepsy and hydrocephaly (Hydrocephalus), was unable to work and had to be admitted to hospital frequently due to illness. He was also diagnosed with strabismus (crossed eyes) and kyphosis (curvature of the spine).

In 1925, Walter Leverentz's father complained to the Alsterdorf Asylum, that Walter had broken both feet in an accident there, which led to a permanent walking disability. There was a dispute between Walter Leverentz's father and the Alsterdorf Asyslum about the treatment of the consequences of the accident, including whether a carer had said to Walter, ‘Walter - what happened before - they're keeping quiet about it.’ In connection with this, there was also a dispute about the boarding allowance to be paid by Walter's father. The Alsterdorf Asylum asked him to remove his son from the asylum if he did not fulfil his payment obligations. However, this did not happen.

According to his medical records, Walter Leverentz was bedridden and unclean from 1925 to 1928. It was said that his mental faculties had declined considerably as a result of many seizures. During 1928, he was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum hospital ‘due to agitation’. He was said to have shouted and sworn, thrown all accessible objects and flung the bedding on the floor. The fits of agitation were attributed to a ‘strongly functional character’, because ‘as soon as he is alone, with no one around him, he becomes calmer.’ Apparently, the Alsterdorf Asylum were overwhelmed. They wrote: ‘In the long term, Pat.[ient] is not suitable for the Alsterdorf Asylum.’ Towards the end of 1928, however, the reports changed. Walter Leverentz was ‘much calmer’ and ‘no more complaints’ were made about him. He now spent his days out of bed doing small jobs, behaving in a friendly and good-natured manner.

During the 1930s, Walter Leverentz worked in basket and mat weaving. The staff now described him as hard-working and diligent. This development was interrupted by convulsive states during which he cried continuously. He was generally cheerful and calm and was happy to play little jokes. He avoided arguments and endeavoured to help himself despite his physical disability. In the 1940s, the reports were similar to those of the previous years. On 26 March 1943 it read: ‘Pat.[ent] has few seizures, he is good-natured and friendly, keeps himself clean and is interested in his surroundings. He used to work in basket making. He can answer questions appropriately, likes to look at magazines, is quite attentive.’

The entries in Walter Leverentz's patient file ended on 7 August 1943, when the senior physician at the Alsterdorf Asylum, Gerhard Kreyenberg, wrote: ‘Transferred to Eichberg due to damage to the institution caused by air raids.’

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrha), the Alsterdorf Asylum was also damaged on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. The director of the asylum, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities for permission to transfer 750 patients, allegedly to make room for wounded and bomb-damaged persons. Three transports between 7 and 16 Aug., brought a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men to the ‘State sanatorium Eichberg’ (‘Landesheilanstalt Eichberg’) near Wiesbaden, to the ‘Curative Education Institution Kalmenhof’ (‘Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof’) in Idstein, Rheingau, to the ‘Sanatorium and Nursing Home Mainkofen’ (‘Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen’) near Passau and to the ‘Wagner von Jauregg-Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” (‘Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien’) in Vienna (also known as the institution ‘Am Steinhof’).

Walter Leverentz was one of the 76 children and men who were transferred to the ‘State sanatorium Eichberg’ on 7 August 1943.

The Alsterdorf patients arrived in Hattenheim on 8 August 1943, crammed into a goods wagon, where they were loaded onto lorries ‘like cattle’ and taken to the ‘Eichberg State Sanatorium’.

The ‘State sanatorium Eichberg’ in Hessen was one of the institutions closely involved in the National Socialists' ‘Euthanasia’ programme. The head physician of the institution, Friedrich Mennecke, was one of the staunch supporters and executors of this murder programme as an expert at the T4 headquarters in Berlin and head of various medical commissions. In the first phase of the murder of the sick, the ‘Eichberg State Sanatorium’ served as one of the numerous stations where those selected were collected before they were sent to the gas chambers of the nearby Hadamar killing centre.

After this phase of the National Socialist ‘Euthanasia’ programme was officially halted at the end of August 1941, the murders continued in Eichberg. The patients were largely left to their own devices. They also received more than inadequate care. The lives of the patients were often ended by injections. This method had been developed in the ‘paediatric ward’ of the ‘Eichberg State Sanatorium’, which was set up in 1940/41, and was later also carried out in other wards of this institution.

Walter Leverentz did not remain in Eichberg, but was transferred to the ‘State Sanatorium Weilmünster’ (‘Landesheilanstalt Weilmünster) am Taunus’ on 13 October 1943. We do not know the reason for this.

In Weilmünster, the patients lived in the most miserable conditions. The number of deaths in the years from 1940 to 1944 was far above the previous average. This sad record was the result of the constant starvation suffered by the patients from the very beginning, their inadequate medical care in the event of illness and the deliberate use of lethal drugs.

Walter Leverentz died there on 6 April 1944.

We do not know how and when his parents learnt of his death, nor what became of them.

What is known is the fate of the sisters: Käthe Leverentz later worked as an office clerk. Wilma Albertine Christine worked as a seamstress. She had been married to the electrical engineer Adolf Matthias Wilckens since 17 August 1929. The couple lived in Hamburg-Altona, Altonaerstraße 67, and both died in an air raid on 25 July 1943. Elisabeth Albertine married the shipping clerk Werner Ludwig Georg Boether on 24 June 1939. Elisabeth Albertine Boether suffered from a congenital curvature of the spine. She was described as ‘completely deformed but intelligent’. She died of heart disease on 8 May 1947.

Stand: January 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg diverse Jahrgänge; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14440 Geburtsregister Nr. 905/1905 (Walter Johannes Albert Paul Leverentz); 8636 Heiratsregister Nr. 487/1904 (Alfred Theodor Richard Leverentz/Albertine Hermine Wilhelmine Fischer), 13113 Heiratsregister Nr. 510/1929 (Wilma Leverentz/Adolf Wilcken); Standesamt Weilmünster Sterberegister Nr. 579/1944 (Walter Johannes Albert Paul Leverentz); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 126 (Walter Leverentz). 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., 299 ff.