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August Hinck mit Ehefrau, o. D.
© Privatbesitz

August Hinck * 1865

Stresemannstraße 224 (Altona, Altona-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
AUGUST HINCK
JG. 1865
EINGEWIESEN 1943
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 22.10.1943
HEILANSTALT
MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 8.5.1944

August Hinck, born 13.4.1865 in Wedel (Schleswig-Holstein), admitted to the Nursing and Care Home Hamburg-Langenhorn on 10.4.1941, murdered in the Nursing and Care Home Meseritz-Obrawalde on 8.5.1944

Stresemannstrasse 224 (Altona-Nord)

August Hinck was born in Wedel (Schleswig-Holstein) on 13 April 1865. He was the son of Christian Nicolaus Carl Hinck, a labourer, and his wife Catharina Margarethe Dorothea, née Hinrichs. We know nothing about his childhood and education.

August Hinck was 29 years old when he married Elisa Amanda Schulz, a maid, in Altona on 17 March 1894. His profession was given in the marriage certificate as "Master Shoemaker”. August Hinck’s wife was also born in Wedel on 17 Dec 1871. She was the daughter of Jochim Hinrich Schulz, a bricklayer, and his wife Margaretha Catharina, née Fredeland.

At the time of the marriage, August Hinck lived in a basement apartment in Altona, Adolphstraße 60 (today Bernstorffstraße), his bride in Altona in Schuhmacherstraße 14. The Altona address book of 1893 and 1894 shows him as a shoemaker, from 1895 as a master shoemaker. So August Hinck must have passed his master's examination in 1893, or at the latest in 1894.

At the time of his marriage, August Hinck lived in a basement flat in Altona, Adolphstrasse 60 (today Bernstorffstrasse), and his wife in Altona, too, Schumacherstrasse 14. In its 1893 and 1894 editions, the Altona Address Book still identifies him as an Assistant Shoemaker and from 1895 onwards as a Master Shoemaker. So August Hinck must have passed his master craftsman's examination in 1893, or at the latest in 1894.

The young couple apparently found a better place to live very soon. Their address was now Adolphstrasse95, Ground Floor. Here, August Hinck’s and his wife’s three children were born: Jonny Christian Heinrich Adolf, born on 9 Feb1895, Alma Amanda Margarethe, born on 2 Sept 1896 and Adolph August Heinrich, born on 12 July 1898.

Around 1899, the family moved to Victoriastrasse 66 and, a few years later, to Viehhofstraße 7, both addresses located in Altona. From 1911 onwards, August Hinck was listed in the Altona Address Book as a "lanternkeeper” at the address Viehhofstraße 5. August Hinck apparently practiced this profession until he retired in 1932/1933. The Hinck family continued to live in Altona, from 1912/1913 at Kreuzweg 19, which was renamed Karl Marx-Straße from about 1931, Schlageterstraße from 1933, and Stresemannstraße from 1945. The building in which the family lived still exists and can be found today at Stresemannstrasse 224.

At the advanced age of 75, August Hinck suffered a stroke. He subsequently developed age-related delusions, which led to his admission to the psychiatric and mental hospital of the Hansische Universität Eilbecktal and, in March 1941, to his transfer to the Nursing and Care Home Langenhorn. He was described as "easily irritated, undiscerning, difficult to keep in bed”.

August Hinck pushed for his discharge from the institution. He wanted to work again. His wife and one of his sons managed to get him a leave of absence "gegen Revers” (at his/their own responsibility) from 27 April 1941 which was shortly after considered by the Home as a discharge. On 14 Aug 1941, one of his sons brought August Hinck again to the Langenhorn Asylum because – as it was described in the patient’s record – "the attacks are occurring again and with greater intensity”. There had been a risk to his life. August Hinck could not be cared for at home because his wife was in hospital with a broken leg.

On 23 Dec 1941, August Hinck was given leave for visiting his wife and he was discharged as "improved” on 22 Jan 1942. Already in June, the resident physician W. Frey again arranged for August Hinck's readmission to Langenhorn. He was perceived there as "rather confused”. In 1942/1943 August Hinck lived for a little more than a year in the Nursing and Care Home Lüneburg and was then transferred back to Langenhorn. We do not know the reasons for his stay in Lüneburg.

August Hinck had been back in Langenhorn for just a month when he was assigned to a patient transport with which 50 patients were deported to the "Nursing and Care Home” Meseritz-Obrawalde in the then Province of Brandenburg (today Międzyrzeczin Poland). August Hinck outlived the transport by half a year. He died on 8 May 1944.

Under the management of the NS multipurpose official, Walter Grabowski, who had been appointed "Economic Director”, Meseritz-Obrawalde was part of the decentralised euthanasia programme from 1942 onwards. The killings began in summer 1942 in death chambers which had been especially set up for this purpose and in which carersand nurses administered lethal doses of drugs to the patients. Patients were illtreated for petty reasons. Patients fit for work were exploited to the maximum in agriculture, in workshops and in industrial companies.

Information on the number of people murdered there varies depending on the source. For example, before a Russian military tribunal in April 1945, a head nurse gave the number of patients killed in Meseritz-Obrawalde as 18,000. Based on the registers found, a Russian army commission of inquiry cited 700 deaths for 1942, 2,260 deaths for 1943, and 3,814 deaths for 1944


Ulrich Hinck-Blessin, August Hinck's great-grandson, wrote to the Stolperstein-Initiative Hamburg in December 2022:
Marlies Meyer, 85 years old, still remembers well how she sat on August Hinck's lap. She is his granddaughter. When the laying of the Stolperstein in memory of August Hinck was being prepared, Marlies said that she was pleased that the murder of her grandfather was being clearly addressed for once. Although the murder of her grandfather was not kept secret in the family, no framework was found to honour August Hinck in the right way or even to investigate his further fate. This only became possible through the Stolperstein initiative.

Often when the family meets with Marlies Meyer, she brings up the topic of the "Stolperstein" and Marlies always says how happy, relieved and grateful she is that her grandfather's fate, which was "ended" in such an undignified way, has now found a dignified setting. For her, it is a kind of closure of a wound that has lasted for decades. Marlies always exhales deeply. You can clearly see how relieved she is. Her emotionality was always surprising at first, but it also shows how significant this stumbling block is to her

Translator: Steve Robinson

Stand: August 2021
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6288 Geburtsregister Nr. 521/1895 Jonny Christian Heinrich Adolf Hinck; 6295 Geburtsregister Nr. 2661/1896 Alma Amanda Margaretha Hinck; 6304 Geburtsregister Nr. 2063/1898 Adolf August Heinrich Hinck; 5930 Heiratsregister Nr. 169/1894 August Hinck/Elise Amanda Schulz; 352-8/7 Krankenhäuser Abl. 1/1995 Nr. 28368 August Hinck; Michael Wunder, Euthanasie in den letzten Kriegsjahren, S. 61 ff. Husum 1992; https://www.gedenkort-t4.eu/de/historische-orte/q4bdb-landesheilanstalt-meseritz-obrawalde#schnellueberblick (Zugriff am 30.11.2020); Harald Jenner, Die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mesetz-Obrawalde – Der unbekannte Tötungssort, in: "Euthanasieverbrechen"-Verbrechen im besetzten Europa, Hrsg. Osterloh, Schulte, Steinbacher, Göttingen 2022, S. 97 ff.
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