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Elise Kramer
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Elise Kramer * 1906

Borstelmannsweg 70 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

HIER WOHNTE
ELISE KRAMER
JG. 1906
EINGEWIESEN 1931
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 7.4.1944

Elise Emma Kramer, born on 23.5.1906 in Hamburg, admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum on 5.8.1931, transferred to Vienna to the ‘Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien’ (also known as the ‘Am Steinhof’ institution) on 16.8.1943, died there on 7.4.1944

Borstelmannsweg 70 (Hamm)

Elise Emma Kramer (called Elise) was born on 23 May 1906 in Hamburg-Hammerbrook, Jenischstraße 6 (today Wandalenweg). Her parents lived there with two sons and then also with Elise Kramer in a basement flat.

The older brother, named Paul Christian Adam Hermann, was also born there on 16 March 1898. The second brother, whose name and date of birth we do not know, had died before Elise was born.

The parents, the baker Christian Carl August Theodor Kramer, born on 17 October 1868 in Niederwildungen (now Bad Wildungen) in North Hesse, and the mother, Emma Dorothea Margarethe Kramer, née Weinreich, born on 16 May 1878 in Hamburg, had married on 6 May 1897 in Hamburg.

Christian Kramer apparently made several attempts to set up his own business. In the Hamburg address book of 1900, he was listed at Jenischstraße 6 with the reference ‘Grünwaren’ (green goods), and in the years after Elise Kramer's birth, he ran a bread business according to the address book.

Elise Kramer was baptised an Evangelical Lutheran in the year of her birth. Her parents noticed developmental delays at an early age. The girl only learnt to walk at the age of five. She was also hard of hearing and took a long time to understand things. Attending the auxiliary school (Hilfsschule) Rosenallee in Hammerbrook was unsuccessful (Hilfsschule is a name no longer used today for independent special or curative education schools).

From the age of ten, Elise Kramer had frequent ‘fits’ during which she raved and screamed. The Luminal (a barbiturate used to treat epilepsy) prescribed by her general practitioner initially led to periods of calm, during which Elise was able to carry out simple tasks in her parents' home. However, the medication lost its effect after a while, so that the seizures that started again became increasingly violent. The neighbourhood felt very disturbed by Elise Kramer at night.

During the years in Jenischstraße, Christian Kramer was listed in the Hamburg address book as a bread dealer. After moving to Borstelmannsweg 70 around 1929/1930, the address book lists his occupation as ‘baker’. His state of health, the challenges posed by Elise's limitations and behavioural problems as well as the potentially impaired health of his wife may have contributed to the loss of his professional independence. Emma Dorothea Margarethe Kramer died on 26 October 1930 in St. Georg General Hospital at the age of 58.

After the death of his wife, Elise Kramer's father was initially supported in caring for his daughter by his single sister, whose name we do not know. On 15 July 1931, he applied to the Hamburg welfare authorities for his daughter to be placed in the Alsterdorfer Anstalten (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf). The reason he gave was that he was suffering from a heart condition and his daughter was constantly screaming and raving. As a result, 25-year-old Elise Kramer was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum on 5 August 1931.

There, she was diagnosed with ‘mental feeblemindedness’/idiocy’ and ‘schizophrenia’. (‘feeblemindedness’ and ‘idiocy’ are no longer common terms for a moderate mental disability or a severe form of intellectual disability).

According to reports, Elise Kramer initially behaved in the Alsterdorf institutions in an apathetic, quiet and withdrawn manner, as well as being good-natured, friendly and agreeable. She reportedly heard voices and was constantly talking to herself.

Her moods reportedly changed greatly. In August 1931, she was said to have been very loud at night and to have laughed, screamed and cried for more than six hours without interruption in one night, so that she was placed separately from the other patients in the ‘guard room’. Restless patients were isolated in ‘guard rooms’ and treated with permanent baths, sleep and fever cures. Guard rooms were introduced in the Alsterdorf Asylum at the end of the 1920s. Their function changed over the course of the 1930s: patients were now mainly sedated here, sometimes with medication, sometimes with restraints or other measures. Those affected often perceived this as punishment.

By 1933, Elise Kramer's hearing had deteriorated to such an extent that contact and communication with her was only possible by touching and repeatedly calling directly into one ear. She endeavoured to work with a needle, thread and scraps of fabric. When asked what was to become of it, she replied ‘A letter Heil’. It was easy to see that she wanted to sew a swastika. She skilfully made various figures out of artificial flowers. Once she cut a sole out of cardboard that fitted perfectly into her sandal.

According to reports, Elise Kramer was able to take care of her personal hygiene on her own in the following years. She knew the names of her fellow patients, was friendly towards them, but mostly kept to herself. She knew how to keep herself busy and continued to be considered good-natured, friendly and agreeable.

Elise's father died of coronary sclerosis on 9 November 1938 while being transported from the flat in Borstelmansweg to St. Georg Hospital. We do not know whether Elise Kramer was informed of this. There is no mention of this in her patient file.

At the beginning of 1943, the now 36-year-old Elise Kramer was described as a ‘play child’ who lived entirely in her own world of thoughts but always knew how to occupy herself. She was said to have kept herself very clean and handled her things properly. In addition, she was again described as good-natured, sociable and affectionate.

On 16 August 1943, senior physician Gerhard Kreyenberg noted: ‘Relocated to Vienna due to severe damage to the institutions caused by air raids.’

The Alsterdorf Asylum, established in the 19th century as a diaconal institution for mentally and physically handicapped and mentally ill children and adults, had been transformed into a sanatorium and nursing home, a ‘special hospital for all kinds of mental defects’, as it was called in the degrading language of the National Socialists, after the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933 under the management of the later SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch and senior physician Gerhard Kreyenberg. At the end of July/beginning of August 1943, the Alsterdorf Asylum were also hit by heavy bombing raids (‘Operation Gomorrah’). The head of the institution took the opportunity, with the approval of the health authorities, to get rid of some of the residents who were considered ‘weak in labour, in need of care or particularly difficult’ by transporting them to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 August 1943, Elise Kramer was transported to Vienna to the ‘Wagner von Jauregg sanatorium and nursing home‘ (‘Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien’ also known as the ‘Am Steinhof’ institution) together with 227 girls and women from the Alsterdorf Asylum and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home.

It was noted in Elise Kramer's file about the admission interview in Vienna that she only moved her lips in response to questions, but gave no intelligible answers. She was said to have lashed out in such a way that she ‘had to get the jacket’. This term referred to the colloquially known ‘straitjacket’, which could be used to enforce extensive restriction of movement. There are hardly any records of Elises Kramer's subsequent stay in the institution in Vienna. She had to remain in bed due to persistent weakness. On 6 April 1944, her temperature rose to 39 degrees. She allegedly suffered from ‘oral salivary gland pneumonia’.

Elise Kramer died on 7 April 1944 at the age of 37.

During the first phase of Nazi "euthanasia" from October 1939, the institution in Vienna was an intermediate institution for the Hartheim killing centre near Linz. After the official end of the murders in the gas killing centres at the end of August 1941, mass murders continued in previous intermediate institutions, including the Vienna institution itself: through overdoses of medication and non-treatment of illnesses, but above all through food deprivation. By the end of 1945, 257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had died, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Translation: Ingo Wille

Stand: June 2025
© SchülerInnen der Berufsschule Anckelmannstraße und Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg diverse Jahrgänge; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2450 Geburtsregister Nr. 640/1898 (Paul Christian Adam Hermann Kramer), 14701 Geburtsregister Nr. 929/1906 (Elise Emma Kramer), 2895 Heiratsregister Nr. 185/1897 (Emma Dorothea Margarethe Weinreich/ Christian Carl August Theodor Kramer), 963 Sterberegister Nr. 1616/1930 (Emma Dorothea Margarethe Kramer), 1084 Sterberegister Nr. 1945/1938 (Paul Christian Adam Hermann Kramer); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 178 (Elise Kramer). 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 ff. 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., 331 ff. https://www.alsterdorf.de/geschichte/#nationalsozialismushttps://www.alsterdorf.de/geschichte/#nationalsozialismus (Zugriff am 20.2.2025), https://www.gedenkstaettesteinhof.at/de/ausstellung/14-mord-durch-hunger (Zugriff am 20.2.2025)