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Jutta Müller * 1940

Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

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

JUTTA MÜLLER
GEB. 14.7.1940
ERMORDET 10.6.1943

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, Dieter Kullak, Helga Liebschner, Theo Lorenzen, Ingrid Neuhaus, Traudel Passburg, Edda Purwin, Angela Quast, Erwin Sänger, Hermann Scheel, Gottfried Simon, Monika Ziemer

Jutta Müller, born on 14.7.1940 in Hamburg, killed on 10.6.1943 in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home” (Kinderfachabteilung)

Asklepios Clinic North Ochsenzoll,
Henny-Schütz-Allee, memorial house 25, entrance Langenhorner Chaussee 560

Jutta Müller was born in Hamburg on July 14, 1940. She was the daughter of Wilma Elfriede, née Bollhagen, and the electromechanic Heinrich Fritz Karl Müller, who had been married since March 1935. Jutta was born prematurely at six and a half months and had to spend the first quarter of her life in an incubator at the Finkenau Women's Hospital. On October 7, 1940, she came home to Gerstenkamp 15, Barmbek-Süd. She was baptized Lutheran.

When no progress was made in her development, she spent time in various hospitals, initially in the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital in January 1941, as she was suffering from diarrhea. She was then treated by Dr. Roggenkemper, who arranged for her to be transferred to Eppendorf Hospital on April 21, 1941. There, the attending physician told her parents that Jutta was terminally ill.

Three weeks later, after her mother suffered a nervous breakdown, Jutta was sent to the Averhoffstraße orphanage. She stayed there for four months before being transferred to the "Alsterdorfer Anstalten”. From there, on May 9, 1942, she was transferred to the "Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home”, House 10, with a certificate of "feeblemindedness”; her parents received a written notification of this. The "Reichsausschuß zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden” (Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Conditions) in Berlin initially covered the costs from June 24, 1942 for four months and then finally until May 9, 1943.

On September 20, 1942, Friedrich Knigge had asked her parents to pick Jutta up again. Her fate took its course with the reply letter from her father: "In the last few days I received another request to bring my child, who was under observation there, back to my home. I regret that I cannot comply with this request for the following reasons: Since the birth of this child, my wife has become so mentally and physically fragile that I have reason to fear the worst. I am prepared to provide a medical report on her state of health. Her collapse would be complete if she were forced to take this incurable child back into her care; moreover, she is not at all capable of looking after our child. I would also like to point out that I work as an electrical engineer in an armaments factory and, given my excessive workload, I can expect to be looked after by a healthy woman. It is our wish to have a healthy child again soon. To our regret, this expectation would be shattered if the incurable child were to be forcibly returned to us. I am sending a copy of this letter to the social welfare administration and ask the management of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home to refrain from further requests, as we have received so far, as my wife will then always have to suffer serious relapses, which I will no longer be able to bear in the long term. I will try to find suitable accommodation for my child through the social services. With German greetings [...]”

The hospital records have not been preserved.

Jutta Müller was killed after more than a year in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”. She died on June 10, 1943 at 11:30 a.m. in House M 10, Women's Ward II.
In the death certificate, Dr. Knigge gave the cause of death as "idiocy”, "hydrocephalus” (hydrocephalus, a pathological enlargement of the fluid spaces of the brain [cerebral ventricles] filled with cerebrospinal fluid [nerve water]) and "bronchitis”.

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 Jutta's case, the words "bronchopneumonia” or "bronchitis” refer to this killing.

Jutta was 2 years, 10 months, 4 weeks and 6 days old.

She was the last child - as far as is known - to be killed in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”.


One week later, on June 16, 1943 at 12:00 noon, Jutta Müller was transferred from Langenhorn to Ohlsdorf Cemetery Chapel 1. Her funeral took place the next day at 12:00 noon by the funeral director Harbuk "with decorations, plants and harmonium and organ music”. Her father had chosen a single grave for her, grave site W 6, No. 494, which is no longer preserved.


After the war, on 18 January 1946, in the criminal case against him and others for murder and euthanasia in the "children's ward” of Langenhorn Hospital, Dr. Knigge gave the following justification in a hearing before the examining magistrate at Hamburg District Court regarding the Jutta Müller case: "The child came to me on 9 May 1942. I waited a long time because I hoped that something would come of the child after all. With this in mind, I reported to the Reich Committee. As the attachment from October 16, 1942 shows, I was reminded again to submit a new report. I submitted this report on October 27, 1942. [...] He also bears the sign that Senator Ofterdinger has seen him. At the time I asked for more observation time, which the Reichsausschuss was very reluctant to grant. As I was able to conclude from many inquiries in other cases, the committee wanted to have the shortest possible observation times in order to save costs. But here too I got my way and observed the child for a year. Physically, the child was small and weak. The bones were thickened by rickets and the spine was curved. As with Littles' disease [cerebral palsy], the tension in the arms and legs was increased. The legs were also held in a scissor position, as in Littlesch's disease. Due to a pathological brain stimulus, the hands were constantly clenched into fists. Initially, the child seemed to make little progress. Later, however, there was a serious setback. Her mental development continued to decline. In the spring of 1943 the child was so dull and aphatic that I now had to change my diagnosis. Like the earlier examinations, I now also assumed incurable idiocy, which could be explained by the inadequate brain development that could no longer be compensated for. On May 10, 1943, I reported to the Reich Committee. After consent had been obtained, the child was given Luminal on June 8 or 9, 1943 and died on June 10, 1943. The parents had already attracted the attention of the previous doctors with their unbelievable behavior. The mother also made a hollow hysterical scream at me that she didn't want the child back under any circumstances. If the child came back, she would go to Ohlsdorf. The father often asked in a reproachful manner when something would happen to the child; his wife was still going to pieces over it. I didn't allow myself to be influenced by either the father or the mother. Because I was initially counting on the possibility of development, I waited over a year before starting treatment. My disgruntlement at the heartlessness of the parents also contributed to my prolonging the observation.”

Jutta's mother Wilma Müller testified in court on February 5, 1948: "Dr. Knigge was very harsh and unfriendly to me. He asked me if I wanted to see the child. I replied that I was not in a position to do so. He did not ask me any further questions, nor did he say anything. [...] After April 21, 1941, when my child was taken to the Eppendorf hospital, I never saw the child again. [...] We had the child transferred to Langenhorn because we were of the opinion that the child's life would be artificially prolonged in the institutions in Alsterdorf. My husband had once visited Jutta in the institution and on this occasion again received a particularly sad impression of the seriously ill child. My husband told me that the matron or a head nurse was standing at the child's bedside. My husband told me that he had said: 'Isn't it sad that such a poor worm is being kept alive? The sick child lives and my wife perishes. To which the matron replied: 'Mr. Müller, then it's better that you have the child transferred to Langenhorn. We then applied in writing for the child to be transferred from Alsterdorf to Langenhorn. When my husband told me this, I had imagined that my child would not be artificially nursed in Langenhorn. To this day, I am also of the opinion that Jutta died of natural causes.”

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: StaH, 213-12 Staatsanwaltschaft, 013/060, Akte 29782, 0017 Bd. 001, Bayer Dr. Wilhelm, u. a., S. 70, S. 140 f., S.228 f.; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64247 u. 737/1943 Jutta Müller; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9943 u. 737/1943 Jutta Müller; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1943 Sta 1b Nr. 737 Jutta Müller; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01, 64 UA 6 Akte 29782; Standesamt Hamburg 6, Geburtsregister, Nr. 3207/1940 Jutta Müller; Archiv Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Beerdigungsregister 1943, Nr. 4660, Grabbrief 51012/1943.