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Emma Kahl
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Emma Lucie Kahl (née Woitschach) * 1878

Grasweg 8 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
EMMA LUCIE KAHL
GEB. WOITSCHACH
JG. 1878
EINGEWIESEN 1939
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 25.2.1943
HEILANSTALT ILTEN
ERMORDET 23.3.1945

Emma Lucie Kahl, née Woitschach, born on 1 May 1878 in Hannover, committed to several Hamburg mental institutions since 1935, transferred from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) to the Ilten "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Ilten) near Hannover on 25 Feb. 1943, died there on 23 Mar. 1945.

Grasweg 8 (Winterhude)

Emma Lucie was born in Hannover on 1 May 1878, the daughter of the "money counter” Albert Woitschach and his wife Antoine Emilie Henriette Woitschach, née Gareiss. She was baptized a Protestant in the local garrison parish on 19 May 1878. Nothing is known about her childhood, youth, and education or training.

She was married in this garrison church on 17 May 1902, after the marriage had already been solemnized in a civil ceremony the day before. Her husband was the Hamburg teacher Alfred Detlef Fritz Kahl, born on 18 Feb. 1877 in Warwerort near Büsum (today Dithmarschen District).

The young couple lived in Hamburg, first at Mansteinstrasse 44 in what is today the Hoheluft-West quarter, then for a short time at Eppendorfer Weg 141, and finally, from about 1909, again on Mansteinstrasse, at No. 8; later, they moved to Grasweg 8 in Winterhude.

For many years, the lives of Emma Lucie and Alfred Detlef Fritz Kahl seem to have passed quietly and inconspicuously. However, on 10 Jan. 1935 – Emma Kahl was 64 years old – the police were called by passers-by to the home of Emma and Alfred Kahl on Grasweg around noon. The police reported finding Emma Kahl on the balcony of her apartment, from which she had thrown several suitcases and household items onto the sidewalk, screaming loudly. Alfred Kahl, who had been summoned and been at the seminary school (training school) on Binderstrasse, was unable to persuade his wife to allow him access to their shared apartment. To protect Emma Kahl and those around her, Alfred Kahl had the apartment door opened by force. Emma Kahl – as was reported – was lying in her bed by that time, the apartment furnishings were in disarray, and kitchen and chamber pots were hanging from the lamps.

Alfred Kahl then asked for "appropriate accommodation,” as his wife’s unstable mental condition, ongoing for some time, had worsened to such an extent that her continued stay in the apartment was probably no longer justifiable. Emma Kahl was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg) by ambulance "due to the present danger to the public” in accordance with Sec. 22 of the Hamburg Verhältnisgesetz [i.e., Verhältnis der Verwaltung zur Rechtspflege, a law regulating the relations of the governing authority to the administration of justice; committal to protect or preserve public order]. This legal provision allowed police authorities to "take persons into custody if the person’s own protection or the maintenance of public safety and peace or the prevention of danger to other persons makes this measure necessary.”

In Friedrichsberg, Emma Kahl was diagnosed with "schizophrenia.” Ten months later, on 10 Nov. 1935, she was transferred to what was then the Langenhorn State Hospital. There, as in Friedrichsberg, she was described as a "calm, clean, and outwardly orderly patient.” Until Mar. 1936, she suffered from an abscess, which required treatment in Barmbek General Hospital for a period. There she was apparently changeable in her moods due to hallucinations, berating nurses intemperately.

Emma Kahl’s patient file contains only one report with similar contents for each of the years 1937 to 1939: "In a calm mood and reasonably orderly. Busy with sewing work. At times, states of agitation in connection with hallucinations.”

On 19 May 1939, Emma Kahl was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]) at the request of her husband, because he had no longer been able to bear the high care charges in Langenhorn. We do not know how she fared there and why she was transferred back to the institution (which had since been renamed Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home”) on 1 Aug. 1941. The few reports dating from this time are similar to those from the first Langenhorn phase.

Allegedly due to a lack of space, Emma Kahl was transferred from Langenhorn to the "Dr. Ferdinand Wahrendorff’sche Privatklinik und Sanatorium für Nerven- und Gemütskranke” ("Dr. Ferdinand Wahrendorff’s Private Clinic and Sanatorium for Patients with Nervous Diseases and Emotional Disorders) on 25 Feb. 1943, still operated today under private ownership as the "Klinikum Wahrendorff” (Wahrendorff Clinic) in the Ilten quarter of Sehnde near Hannover.

Overall, 340 mentally ill patients were transferred from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” to the Wahrendorff private clinic in six collective transports, the last of which involved 40 women from Langenhorn to Ilten on 25 Feb. 1943, including Emma Kahl. Of these women, 26 died in Ilten by 31 Dec. 1945.

Emma Kahl’s Ilten medical records contain only five entries corresponding to those in her Langenhorn period. Thus, it was noted, "declines very much physically” (Jan. 1945) and "visible physical deterioration” (Feb. 1945).

Emma Lucie Kahl died on 23 Mar. 1945, reportedly of Marasmus (progressive deterioration of physical and mental powers due to old age or illness).

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: August 2021
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg; StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1 Nr. 22504 Emma Kahl; Evangelisches Kirchenbuchamt Hannover, Hannover Filmnummer 185282, Seitennummer 26;26 Heirat Alfred Detlef Fritz Kahl/Emma Lucie Woitschach, Filmnummer 185293, Seitennummer 47;47 Geburt und Taufe Emma Lucie Woitschach; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Aufnahmebuch Eintrag Nr. 7875 vom 19.5.1939; Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 286; Regina Marien-Luderup, Verlegungen in eine Privatanstalt, Die Transporte nach Ilten, in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 287 ff; Hmb. Verhältnisgesetz: Gesetz betreffend das Verhältnis der Verwaltung zur Rechtspflege, vom 23.4.1879, HmbGVBl. S. 116 in der Fassung des Gesetzes vom 8.10.1923, HmbGVBl. S. 1233.