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Erna Grospitz
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Erna Grospitz * 1909

Sternstraße 123 (Hamburg-Mitte, Sternschanze)

HIER WOHNTE
ERNA GROSPITZ
JG. 1909
EINGEWIESEN 1924
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 21.4.1944

Erna Grospitz, born on 4.6.1909 in Hamburg, admitted to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten (now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 22.1.1924, transferred to Vienna on 16.8.1943 to the Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien, died there on 21.4.1944.

Sternstraße 123 (St. Pauli)

Of her 34 years of life, Erna Grospitz spent about 20 years in what was then the Alsterdorfer Anstalten (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf). She was the youngest of the ten children of Adolfine Grospitz, née Mönk (born 29.11.1869 in Osnabrück) and Ludwig Grospitz (born 21.3.1865 in Hamburg). Both parents were baptized Evangelical Lutherans. They had married in Osnabrück on February 25, 1888. There the four older children were born: Emma Henriette, called Henny, (born 15.8.1888), Elisabeth (born 23.8.1889), Emma Maria Hermine (born 7.1.1892) and Heinrich (born 9.1.1894).

Ludwig Grospitz, a wood turner by trade, came from an old-established family of blacksmiths in Hamburg-Hamm. He moved back there with his family around 1895. His sons Gustav (born 2.12.1896), Otto (born 2.10.1898) and Hugo (born 24.11.1901), were born in Hamm. After the family moved to Kinkelsweg 10 in Eilbek, daughters Frieda (born 23.1.1904) and Erna (born 4.6.1909) followed. (Kinkelsweg, no longer in existence today, was a small street in the densely populated "Dichterviertel" between Seumestraße and Rückertstrasse).

Erna Grospitz was born in the St. Georg Hospital, not in her parents' apartment as was customary at the time. One reason for this may have been that she was a premature child. Unlike usual in such cases, she was not baptized immediately, nor was she baptized later as a child.

When Erna was born, the older sisters had already left the parents' home. Henny worked as a "maid" and married Berthold Volkland, a bleacher. They ran a laundry at Gluckstraße 69 in Eilbek. Not far from them, at Gluckstraße 33, lived Elisabeth. She had graduated from elementary school in Hamm and then became a flatterer. Emma worked as a tailor's assistant, Heinrich was in training to become a painter.

It is not known who, apart from Heinrich, took part in the First World War. Heinrich, who was called "Heini," died as a soldier in northern France on November 16, 1916.

After World War I, Erna Grospitz's parents lived temporarily apart. Ludwig Grospitz retrained as a mechanical engineer. The family moved to St. Pauli to Sternstraße 123. On June 30, 1922, two weeks after Erna's thirteenth birthday, her mother Adolfine Grospitz died in the St. Georg General Hospital.

Erna Grospitz had developed "normally" as an infant, that is, she learned to walk at 1 ¼ years old and to speak well at two. She started school in 1915 or 1916, but was dismissed after half a year as "unschoolable". We do not know her development until the age of 14.

After the end of compulsory schooling, she was unable to begin an education or to pursue a gainful occupation. The Welfare Office intervened and had her medically evaluated. The result was a diagnosis of "feeble-mindedness." (The term "feeble-mindedness," no longer used today, referred to a reduction in intelligence or congenital intelligence deficiency). The parents applied for admission to the Alsterdorf Institutions on December 5, 1923. Shortly thereafter, on January 22, 1924, Erna Grospitz was admitted there and baptized there on February 10, 1924. The Welfare Office covered the costs of her stay.

The admission record stated that Erna Grospitz knew her name, recognized her surroundings, could name people and objects, was sociable and cheerful. Particularly noted were her fine hearing and limited vision. As for her everyday abilities, there were no problems with eating and cleanliness, but she could not dress and undress properly.

Erna was classified as a play child, not a foster child. She did not initially develop any other skills or interests.

She received regular visits from family members and, on the occasion of her sister Frieda's wedding on April 23, 1924, she also received leave until August 30.

After the first year in the Alsterdorf institutions, Erna Grospitz's patient file noted that she was anxious, tearful, had fits of rage with a destructive instinct, could neither read nor write, and had to be washed and combed. She spoke clearly and her vocabulary was appropriate for her age. However, she was not fit for school or work, but only for simple manual tasks.

Erna grew and gained weight, from 81 pounds on her arrival to 125 pounds at the end of 1929. By April 1940, her weight hovered around 66 kilograms, after which it dropped step by step to 46 kilograms in January 1943.

Year after year until 1931, the staff noted Erna Grospitz's awkwardness, but also her clear speech and easy grasp of melodies. The cause of her clumsiness was thought to be her poor eyesight. She reacted to special events in her environment either intensely with joy or with anger and found her balance again on extended walks, during which she sang and talked to herself.

In 1940 Erna Grospitz suffered a small seizure for the first time, another one in June 1941. A year later the report on the course of the disease read: "Pat.[ientin] takes care of her personal hygiene herself, only needs to be combed, is in itself very tidy. In nature she is good-natured, very sensitive, often obstinate, then rages very much. She is kept busy in the department with walks and light work, which she performs conscientiously."

The last entry is dated August 16, 1943: "Due to severe damage to the institutions by air raid, transferred to Vienna. Dr. Kreyenberg." Gerhard Kreyenberg, senior physician at the asylum and a member of the NSDAP and SA, was referring to "Operation Gomorrah," the Allied air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943.

The Alsterdorf asylums of the time had to take in bomb-addled and wounded soldiers. To ease the burden on the institution, Pastor Lensch, the director of the institution, obtained permission from the Hamburg health authorities to transfer patients to "air-safe" institutions. A transport of 228 girls and women from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home left Hamburg on August 16, 1943, and went to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna." Among them was Erna Grospitz.

Upon admission to Vienna, the medical examination revealed no findings in the lungs or heart. In her patient files it was noted that she was quiet, disoriented, unclean and bedridden. After a short period of adjustment, however, she was oriented, answered questions correctly, and talked about her siblings.

The first message from Vienna that reached the Grospitz family was dated November 1, 1943, when the attending physician informed her father that Erna was in Pavilion 21. "It is a case of congenital imbecility. Pat.[ient] has adjusted well to the changed conditions. The physical condition is unchanged. [...]".

At the beginning of 1944 Anna Grospitz is said to have not left her bed, to have been disoriented and to have hardly eaten anything. She had spat blood. She was then diagnosed with pneumonia and pleurisy.

Simon Grospitz, Erna Grospitz's uncle, inquired about his niece in Vienna in April 1944. He received the following message dated 10 May 1944: "Pat.[ient] suddenly fell ill on 18.4.44. Three days later on 4/21/44 at 5:15 a.m. death occurred rapidly as a result of cardiac insufficiency." In contrast, the autopsy report lists "pneumonia" as the cause of death.

Erna Grospitz was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg, 257 had died by the end of 1945, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: March 2023
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Hamburger Adressbücher; StaH 332-5, Personenstandsregister; 332-8 Meldewesen, 741-4, K 6161; 352-8/7, Abl. 1985/1, Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, 20812; Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Einwohnerakte V 337; Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner: Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, Stuttgart, 3. Aufl. 2016.