Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Clara Fritsche
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Clara Fritsche (née Rudolph) * 1880

Borgesch 4 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)

HIER WOHNTE
CLARA FRITSCHE
GEB. RUDOLPH
JG. 1880
EINGEWIESEN 1935
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
TOT 28.10.1945

Clara Fritsche, née Rudolph, born on 10.8.1880 in Hanover, admitted to the former "Alsterdorf Asylum" ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten" now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 30.7.1935, transported on 16.8.1943 to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg – Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", also known as the institution "Am Steinhof"), where she died on 28.10.1945

Borgesch 4

Clara Sofie Minna Luise (callname Clara) Fritsche was born on 10 August 1880 in Hanover, the daughter of master tailor Heinrich Rudolph and his wife Therese, née Luksch. We know nothing about her childhood, school days, or education.

On 9 October 1900, she married waiter Wilhelm Otto Fritsche in Hanover, who was born on 21 March 1875 in Nebra an der Unstrut. Their first child, Hans Heinrich Fritz Otto, born on 10 February 1901 in Hanover, is said to have lived only about six months.

Soon afterwards, the Fritsche couple moved to Hamburg. Their second child, Willy Franz Otto, was born on 15 April 1903 at Baumeisterstraße 17 in the St. Georg district. Walther Curt Bernhard followed on 10 February 1905, born at Kleine Bäckerstraße 26 in Hamburg's old town, which no longer exists today.

Her patient records show that Clara Fritsche later terminated three pregnancies with "envelopes” i.e., abortions. There are no references to the consequences of these events, which were probably also psychologically stressful.

From 1920 to 1928, the Fritsche family was listed in the Hamburg address book at Borgesch 4/5 in St. Georg. Wilhelm Fritsche was employed as a night porter at the Palasthotel on Neuer Jungfernstieg from 1923.

After serious conflicts between the spouses, Clara Fritsche was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital for the first time on 1 October 1923. She had verbally abused her husband and previously demanded that the police remove him from their shared apartment. In a 24-page letter full of delusions about relatives who were supposedly still alive but had in fact been dead for a long time, with whom she claimed to be in contact, she stated that she was suffering from an alleged illegitimate birth.

At the Friedrichsberg State Hospital, Clara Fritsche repeated the delusions she had already expressed. At her husband's insistence and with the consent of a doctor, she was discharged on 9 October 1923 as cured.

In April 1925, Clara Fritsche appeared at the Friedrichsberg State Hospital and demanded that her husband, whom she had divorced at the beginning of 1925, be admitted on the grounds that he was mentally ill.

Shortly thereafter, Clara Fritsche was briefly admitted to the Harbour hospital (Hafenkrankenhaus) for "persecution mania.” At the Friedrichsberg State Hospital, the doctor, private lecturer Hermann Josephi, assessed Clara Fritsche at the end of 1926 as needing institutional care because she was considered a danger to the public. She suffered from delusions and felt harassed and persecuted at times. His summary verdict was: "Typical case of paranoid dementia, of youthful insanity with delusions of persecution.” Clara Fritsche's condition remained unchanged in the years that followed. She was deemed incapable of managing her own affairs. She was also considered a danger to the public because she had seriously insulted various people and allegedly driven her husband to such despair that he wanted to shoot himself and her. She was said to have scattered hot ashes in front of a neighbor's door and threatened the police that she would shoot her former husband and his acquaintances. Another source of danger to others was considered to be the fact that she regarded an acquaintance from the neighborhood as her alleged sister and a man from the neighborhood as her son.

It was recommended that Clara Fritsche be declared legally incompetent in accordance with the provisions of § 6 BGB (German Civil Code) at that time and that a guardian be appointed to manage her affairs and determine her place of residence. This took effect on 19 October 1925.

Despite the previous heavy burdens imposed on him by his wife, Wilhelm Fritsche remained in occasional contact with her even after the divorce. He had since found accommodation at Rostocker Straße 70, also in St. Georg.

As no improvement was expected in the following years, Clara Fritsche was transferred to the then "Alsterdorf Asylum" ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten", now "Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf") on 30 July 1935 with a diagnosis of "dementia paranoides.” ("Dementia paranoides” is an outdated term for a form of dementia characterized by pronounced delusions and mistrust.)

There, Clara Fritsche was initially perceived as "very quiet and calm, as well as independent in her personal hygiene”. She wanted to become a magazine administrator and was kept busy with sewing and laundry, which she did diligently and accurately. If she was prevented from sharing her meals with the imaginary birds she claimed to have brought with her from Friedrichsberg, she became very agitated.

Reports from subsequent years were similar to previous ones. Clara Fritsche was self-sufficient in terms of personal hygiene and kept her clothes tidy. She diligently and reliably carried out sewing and darning tasks. She confused the people around her and associated them with her family. At times she became agitated and violent towards fellow patients.

On 16 August 1943, the institution's doctor, SA-member Gerhard Keyenberg, noted in Clara Fritsche's medical file: "Transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the Asylum caused by air raids. Dr. Kreyenberg.”

The "Alsterdorf Asylum" also suffered bomb damage during the heavy air raids on Hamburg in late July/early August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah”). The institution's director, SA-member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took advantage of the opportunity to remove some of the residents who were considered "unproductive, requiring intensive care, or particularly difficult” by transporting them to other sanatoriums and nursing homes with the approval of the health authorities. On 16 August 1943, one of these transports took 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the "Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home" to the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” (also known as the "Am Steinhof” institution) in Vienna. Among them was Clara Fritsche.

When she was admitted to the Vienna institution, she reportedly appeared "calm and content.” She did not consider herself mentally ill and did not know that she was in a psychiatric institution. She reported hearing voices that coveted her wealth and earnings. Later in 1943, she was still considered "calm, pure, oriented”. A September memo to the Hamburg police chief stated that she was "in the final stages of persecution mania.” Discharge was not possible because the patient could not be left to her own devices and there was no suitable supervision.

According to her medical records, she suffered a fainting spell in April 1944. Clara Fritsche was said to have eaten very little and needed bed rest. After she had recovered, she was described as calm, agreeable, and orderly, but without occupation. In contrast, another report to the Hamburg police president in November stated that Clara Fritsche was becoming troublesome and dangerous due to her defense against supposed attacks from her surroundings. She was "currently still in need of institutional care.”

In 1945, reports on Clara Fritsche initially continued as in previous years. In the meantime, she had become severely emaciated. Her weight had dropped from about 37 kg when she was admitted to Vienna to 35.5 kg in July and 29 kg in September.

On 20 October 1945, reports were made of diarrhea and "visible physical decline.” Clara Fritsche died on 28 October 1945 with the cause of death listed as "paranoia, enterocolitis, inanition.”
(Inanition refers to weight loss to less than 80 % of normal weight combined with complete exhaustion and depletion as a result of inadequate nutrition or wasting diseases.)

During the first phase of Nazi "Euthanasia” from October 1939 to August 1941, the institution in Vienna served as a transit facility for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the murders in the killing centers, mass killings continued in the former transit centers, including the Vienna institution: through overdose of medication, non-treatment of illnesses, and above all through deprivation of food.
By the end of 1945, 257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had lost their lives, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Stand: October 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg (mehrere Jahrgänge); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 13920 Geburtsregister Nr. 758/1903 (Willy Franz Otto Fritsche), 14430 Geburtsregister Nr. 3/1905 (Walther Curt Bernhard Fritsche); Standesamt Hannover Geburtsregister Nr. 2746/1880 (Clara Sofie Minna Luise Rudolph), (Heiratsregister Nr. 1560/1900 (Wilhelm Otto Fritsche/Clara Sofie Minna Luise Rudolph). Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 349 (Clara Fritsche). Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 331-371. Peter von Rönn, Der Transport nach Wien, in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 425-467. Peter Schwarz, Die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Wien-Steinhof im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Markus Rachbauer, Florian Schwanninger (Hg.), Krieg und Psychiatrie, Lebensbedingungen und Sterblichkeit in österreichischen Heil- und Pflegeanstalten im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg, Innsbruck/Wien 2022.