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Maximilian Hintze, August 1936
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Maximilian Hintze * 1876

Krausestraße 70 (Hamburg-Nord, Dulsberg)

HIER WOHNTE
MAXIMILIAN HINTZE
JG. 1876
EINGEWIESEN 7.8.1943
’HEILANSTALT’
EICHBERG
ERMORDET 8.9.1943

Maximilian Hintze, born on 3 June 1876 in Groß Borstel, died in the Eichberg Mental Institution (Heilanstalt) in Hesse on 8 Sep. 1943

Krausestraße 70 (Ahrensburger Straße 70)

Maximilian Hintze was admitted to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten; today: Alsterdorf Evangelical Foundation) in Oct. 1923. Until then he had lived at Ahrensburger Straße 70, now Krausestraße, in the Dulsberg neighborhood. His father, the bookkeeper Adolph Hintze, had died in 1918. His mother, Dorothea Hintze, had died at the time of his admission to the Alsterdorf Asylum. Maximilian Hintze had five siblings, who had also died by1923.

Maximilian’s father left him 50,000 Reichsmarks, a not inconsiderable sum by the standards of the time, but it quickly melted away amid the galloping inflation of the early 1920s. In other times, Maximilian Hintze would probably have never become a resident of the Alsterdorf Asylum. His relatives stated in Oct. 1923 that under normal economic circumstances they would have kept him in their home, but at the moment it was completely impossible for them to keep him in their care. In Oct. 1923 the hyperinflation that followed the First World War was almost at its peak. Bread cost 200,000 Reichsmarks per day, and by the next day the price had doubled. Anyone who received wages attempted to buy groceries with his pay at once, in order to receive at least some modest value in exchange for his hard-earned cash. A few hours later, the value of the wages was already markedly lower. Then, in Nov. 1923, a currency reform put an end to the horrendous inflation, and the situation gradually stabilized. In these difficult circumstances, the relatives may have hoped to have at least ensured the basic needs of Maximilian Hintze by placing him in the Alsterdorf Asylum.

During the following years, he was always well integrated into the family of his relatives, as far as this was possible, given his residence in the institution. This conclusion can be drawn, at least for the next 12 years, from the frequency of his periods of absence while visiting his relatives.

Maximilian was described as pleasant-natured and rather cheerful. It was said that he liked to keep busy, enjoyed doing small errands, and was a willing helper with domestic chores. He suffered from a severe mental handicap that prevented him from learning to read and write.

In 1941 it was recorded that he could no longer be used for work tasks because of his age. At this time he was 65 years old. In the spring of 1943, it was once again recorded that he was affable by nature and was well liked by his fellow patients. However, it was said that he had become frail of late.

On 7 Aug. 1943, along with many other patients, according to a short memo from Chief Physician Dr. Kreyenberg, he was "transferred to Eichberg because of heavy damage to the institution in an air raid.” (In 1943 Dr. Kreyenberg was, after Pastor Lensch, who was the head of the Alsterdorf Asylum and subsequently an SA warrant officer, the second-most important person in the removal of "no longer useful” residents from the Alsterdorf Asylum. He was a board member of the Alsterdorf Asylum, had been a member of the NSDAP and SA since 1933, and was active on behalf of the Racial Policy Office of the NSDAP.) Maximilian Hintze must have always been a slender, delicate individual. His highest weight, 57 kg, was recorded in 1935/1936. In early 1942 he still weighed 55 kg. One and one-half years later, in July 1943, his weight was only 44 kg.

Maximilian Hintze died only one month after his removal from Alsterdorf, on 8 Sep. 1943. It can be assumed with certainty that he was murdered.

Maximilian Hintze’s destination, what was then the Eichberg Regional Mental Asylum (Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt Eichberg), located not far from Eltville on the Rhine, was one of the many so-called intermediate institutions for the Hadamar killing center near Limburg an der Lahn. The physicians are said to have made regular "rounds” in the mental institution to determine which patient should be murdered next. Then the patient in question received a fatal injection the next morning.

Translator: Kathleen Luft

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Evang. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakten der Alsterdorfer Anstalten, V7 (Maximilian Hintze); Michael Wunder/Ingrid Genkel/Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1987; Bericht über das "Aktive Museum Spiegelgasse", Wiesbadener Kurier vom 12.8.2008.