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Irmgard Meggers
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Irmgard Meggers * 1907

Borner Stieg 34 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

HIER WOHNTE
IRMGARD MEGGERS
JG. 1907
EINGEWIESEN 1933
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF, WIEN
ERMORDET 30.3.1944

Irmgard Brunhilde Meggers, born on 13.9.1907 in Hamburg, admitted to the then Alsterdorfer Anstalten (today: Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 25.6.1933, transferred to Vienna on 16.8.1943 to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", died on 30.3.1944 in Vienna

Borner Stieg 34 (Langenhorn)

Irmgard Brunhilde Meggers was born on Sept. 13, 1907 as the oldest of six children of the married couple Meggers. The parents, Frieda Margareta Johanne, née Grill, born on April 29, 1880 in Albersdorf in Süderdithmarschen, and Heinrich Klaus Johann Meggers, born on January 22, 1872 in Geltorf, district of Schleswig, had married on October 3, 1905 in Hamburg.

At the time of Irmgard's birth, they lived at Beethovenstraße 13 in Hamburg in the South of district Barmbek. Heinrich Meggers gave his occupation at the time of his marriage as "Rhedereibeamter." Later he called himself a "private civil servant." (Civil servants are, according to today's understanding, exclusively servants of the state with a special duty of loyalty to their employer. Until the time of the Weimar Republic, however, salaried employees of private companies entrusted with management and administrative functions were also referred to as "civil servants". They had a special relationship of trust with the company and their rights and duties were similar to those of civil servants).

Irmgard Meggers' parents both belonged to the Lutheran Church. They were deeply religious, as were their children later, and understood and accepted the mental disability of two of their children as a test from God.

Irmgard Meggers fell down a flight of stairs at the age of six. She then suffered a first seizure with convulsions and became unconscious. This repeated itself from time to time. She first attended elementary school and later the "auxiliary school" ("Hilfsschule”) that existed for children with learning difficulties. ("Hilfsschule" was a name no longer used today for independent special educational or curative schools for children who, for various reasons, were not considered capable of attending elementary school.) However, "states of agitation" led to two stays in what was then the Friedrichsberg State Hospital between October 1920 and the end of February 1921.
On April 5, 1921, Irmgard Meggers was admitted to the Langenhorn State Hospital. According to her medical history, she suffered intermittent seizures, severe states of agitation and clouding of consciousness. On November 15, 1927, the now twenty-year-old woman was discharged at her own request as "improved." A quarter of a year later, while living with her parents, she became a resident and patient of the "Diakonische Heim- und Pflegeanstalten” in Kropp, south of Schleswig, on February 18, 1928, at the instigation of the Hamburg Welfare Office.

Irmgard's younger brother Heinrich Friedrich, born on June 30, 1919, was already living in the institution in Kropp. The admission of Irmgard Meggers to the institution appeared "necessary from the medical point of view in the personal, family and public interest". Irmgard Meggers was confirmed in Kropp on April 7, 1929. The parents were very concerned about Irmgard. It is recorded that she spent Christmas 1929 with her parents and also visited her parents "on vacation" at many other times.

On December 11, 1931, Irmgard Meggers' brother Heinrich Friedrich was admitted to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten. The reason for his transfer has not been handed down. On June 25, 1933, Irmgard Meggers also became a resident of the Alsterdorfer Anstalten. The siblings now lived in the same institution and could meet there more often. In addition, care by parents was now easier than visits to two institutions far apart.

On November 7, 1933, the Alsterdorf institutions reported to the police that Irmgard Meggers had escaped from the institution. She was described to the police as "strikingly long and slender, 176 cm," dressed in a blue wash dress, an apron, a red sweater and a cardigan. The same day, she appeared at her parents' home in Henstedt. Irmgard's father informed the Alsterdorfer Anstalten: "Our daughter Irmgard arrived home today and, when she has calmed down, we will kindly try to bring her back there. For the time being, we are keeping her here on leave. God's greetings! Sincerely. Heinr. Meggers".

The next day, Heinrich Meggers sent a detailed letter to the management of the Alsterdorf Institutions: "According to her stories, she has again hit a girl in the face. Fearing the consequences of this rash act, she then climbed over the bars and escaped. Irmgard is again in a state of mind that makes it impossible for her to stay in her parents' home for any length of time. We will try to carry her for a short time and then hope to persuade her by amicable persuasion to return to the Alsterdorf institutions. However, I kindly ask you to make arrangements now, if possible, so that Irmgard is then taken to an institution from which escape is impossible, since she also escaped from the Kropper institution under similar circumstances on September 28, 1932, and arrived at home. For many years we have tried again and again to help Irmgard and bring her back. We have sent up countless prayers for her to the throne of God. But it is still the old song with her that an occupation in the dining room of the employees would suit her particularly well. If another attempt could be made with her in this regard, I would sincerely request that it be done without applying draconian measures that would cause a complete dissolution. [...] In the name of Jesus Christ, with a heart full of gratitude, I cordially greet you, Yours, Heinrich Meggers and wife and Irmgard."

How much Irmgard Meggers was aware of and suffered from her mental illness is clear from a letter she wrote to a Sister Elisabeth at the asylum during her absence from Alsterdorf: "In spite of all the excitement I have had, I have nevertheless regained my composure. Please give my regards to Sister Maria Lüth and Sister Selma. May God truly bless them both, since they have had so much patience with me. God willing and we are alive, I will return on Saturday [...] with my mother, who would like to speak to you, if at all possible. Hopefully I will not be locked up, since I have caused you this grief of running away. My young years have already passed through soul-distressing times. May God finally send me a change after long years. But I must, since I have no other choice, bend under His cross and become silent in prayer. I greet you cordially dear Sister Elisabeth and your loving Irmgard, commanded by the Lord."

In the meantime, the National Socialists had taken power in Germany and were preparing to realize their eugenic, racial hygienic and racial political ideas. According to the "Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses" (Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases), which came into force on January 1, 1934, "anyone who is hereditarily ill could be rendered infertile (sterilized) by surgical intervention if, according to the experience of medical science, it is highly probable that his offspring will suffer from severe physical and mental hereditary defects."

The Alsterdorf institutions applied for a large number of sterilizations to the "hereditary health court" set up for this purpose, apparently also for Irmgard Meggers. In July 1934, the "Erbgesundheitsgericht" requested Irmgard Meggers' medical history and decided that she was to be sterilized. She had to end a vacation with her parents early on September 25, 1934, because the procedure was scheduled at the Barmbek General Hospital. Irmgard Meggers' patient file contains a note that her parents had been informed of the impending operation, but no indication of how they reacted to this coercive state measure.

In the following years, Irmgard's parents often requested joint leave for their daughter and her brother Heinrich. Both then traveled independently by subway to Ochsenzoll station and from there by bus to Henstedt. At the beginning of 1937, the Meggers moved back to Hamburg, to Pagenfelderstraße 13 in Horn. Irmgard's father died a short time later on May 30, 1937, at the age of 65.

Frieda Meggers, Irmgard's mother, continued to care for her son and daughter in Alsterdorf and for family cohesion. For example, she requested leave for both of them for a Sunday in September 1937 to visit their father's grave in Ohlsdorf. The eldest son Wolfgang also visited his siblings and often requested family leave for them.

On March 9, 1941, Irmgard Meggers' mother sent a letter to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten: "Dear Pastor! My Irmgard is on leave with me today and tomorrow. She was delighted to tell me that Mr. Juhtow had asked her if she would like to help the dear Traute Olsen family in Tangstedt, whom we have already met. Irmgard especially loves God's great outdoors, which is especially beautiful out there in Tangstedt. For the sense of duty to be able to help would be satisfying for Irmgard. It would also be very nice for Heini if Irmgard could meet him from time to time. Since the poor man unfortunately cannot write, and so he apparently sometimes suffers from homesickness. I am so grateful to God, and to you, dear Pastor, that both children are allowed to stay in your institution in good care, and above all to come under God's word, where they can recover more and more in body and soul. For me it is a great comfort to have our Savior, He helps me to carry my cross, which He has imposed on me (for my good). Now, dear pastor, I will put everything in God's hand. He will guide it right. I would be very grateful to hear from you soon. God be with you! With kind regards also from Irmgard I remain, Your Mrs. Frieder Meggers, Hamburg 34, Horner Stieg 9"

But the desired employment of her daughter in a private family apparently did not come about.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg at the end of July/beginning of August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah"), the Alsterdorf institutions also suffered bomb damage. The management of the institution took the opportunity, after consultation with the health authorities, to transfer some of the residents who were considered to be "weak in labor, in need of care or particularly difficult" to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On August 16, 1943, a transport with 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home left for the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" in Vienna (also known as the "Am Steinhof" institution). Among them was Irmgard Meggers.

During "Aktion-T4" (a camouflage term for the Nazis' "euthanasia" program, so named for the location of the Berlin euthanasia headquarters at Tiergartenstraße 4), the Vienna institution had been an intermediate facility for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the gas murders in the killing centers in August 1941, mass murders took place in the Vienna institution itself: through overdoses of medication and non-treatment of illness, but above all through deprivation of food.

Irmgard Meggers died on March 30, 1944.

Of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg there, 257 had died by the end of 1945, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Irmgard Meggers' brother Heinrich Friedrich died of pulmonary tuberculosis in the Alsterdorf institutions on March 8, 1944.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9951 Sterberegister 375/1944 Heinrich Friedrich Meggers, 5966 Heiratsregister Nr. 995/1905 Heinrich Klaus Johann Meggers/Frieda Margaretha Johanne Grill, 1073 Sterberegister Nr. 348/1937 Heinrich Klaus Johann Meggers; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Sonderakte V 155 (Irmgard Meggers); Harald Jenner, … ein langer Weg, Kropper Anstalten, Diakonissenanstalt, Diakoniewerk Kropp, Kropp 1990. Privatbeamter: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamtentum#Beamte_in_privaten_Betrieben (Zugriff am 13.1.2021).