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Anna Hamer, Juli 1937
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Anna Hamer * 1909

Kedenburgstraße 7 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA HAMER
JG. 1909
EINGEWIESEN 1929
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF WIEN
TOT 21.7.1945

Anna Hamer, born on 19 Sept. 1909 in Wandsbek, transferred on 16 Aug. 1943 from the former Alsterdorf Asylum to the "Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt,” died on 21 July 1945

Kedenburgstrasse 7

Emilie Dorothea Anna Hamer was born in Wandsbek as the oldest child of Johannes Heinrich Hamer (born on 7 Aug. 1885 in Segeberg) and Marie Dorothea, née Bührens (born on 21 Nov. 1889 in Klein Heuwisch near Neunkirchen). She had three younger brothers, one of whom died at the age of about two years, reportedly of what was then termed "convulsions of dentition” ("Zahnkrämpfe”).

The father was actually a gardener, but since 1920, he earned the family’s living as a streetcar conductor. His wife had been a maid before their wedding. They were married on 14 Aug. 1909. Anna was born on 19 Sept. 1909. The family lived in Wandsbek, from 1919 onward at Manteuffelstrasse 7.

Anna, called Anni, attended the eight-grade Hinschenfelde elementary school (Volksschule) on Volksdorfer Strasse (today Walddörferstrasse) from 1916 to 1923. Although she was a good student, she was not able to train for a profession afterward. Even the attempt to "bring her into position” [i.e., get her a job as a domestic servant] failed. Anna had bone tuberculosis and she had been suffering from epilepsy since she was 14 years old. She often injured herself during her "pretty severe seizures.”

Anna stayed with her family and helped her mother in the household. At the age of 19, on 23 Mar. 1929, she was admitted for the first time to the then Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten; today Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf). The costs of her committal were borne by the welfare authorities. Her medical file indicated that without medical supervision and care, she was at risk. The year before she had given birth to a son, who was named Werner.

From the parents’ point of view, committal of their daughter in Alsterdorf was not intended to be a permanent solution. They corresponded with the institutional administration and made regular requests to bring Anna home "on leave.”

The following letter to Anna dated 1 July 1930 reads:
"Dear daughter!
When would you like to go on leave again, please let us know; your image has become very beautiful, a pity for your illness, if the head nurse thinks that you are probably in the institution for something else, she is seriously mistaken, if you did not have the cramps, you could earn your bread as much as she has to earn it herself. By the way, we will continue to stand by this winter and you will be picked up [to come home] in spring anyway. Now dear daughter, we have submitted a request for leave for you from Friday 8 August to Friday 22 August. Mummy will come and get you; you should then bring your jacket and umbrella.
Until then many greetings and kisses
Your parents & siblings and little Werner.”

Since the beginning of Mar. 1931, Johannes Hamer pressed for the discharge of his daughter. In April, the Hamer couple felt "compelled to help themselves” and did not bring Anna back to Alsterdorf after a family stay.

On 14 Aug. 1934, Anna Hamer was forcibly sterilized in accordance with the "Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” ("Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses”). She was not undergoing inpatient treatment at that time, so it is unclear who brought about the decision of the then "Hereditary Health Court.”

A second admission to Alsterdorf took place on 2 June 1937; Anna’s health deteriorated, she was reportedly in a "semi-conscious epileptic state” and could no longer be adequately supervised at home.

Anna was described as "slow, dreamy, and cumbersome in her actions.” Her food intake was considered very poor, her pronunciation unclear. After a few days, she became "more accessible and clearer,” but could not remember her admission.

By then, Anna Hamer was classified as "permanently in need of institutional care.” For her seizures, she received the sedative and sleep-inducing drug called Phenobarbital (Luminal), commonly used in epilepsy treatment.

In Alsterdorf, she was once again occupied with housework and handicrafts and was described by the nursing staff as a patient who was always friendly, helpful, and agreeable and as someone who did the housework she was instructed to do neatly and tidily.

In her medical file, the following was noted: "Shows skill and understanding for the work assigned to her, completes it satisfactorily. Agreeable, quiet, friendly, and complaisant.” Occasionally, she was also described as "very dissatisfied” and "insolent.”

Her family continued to keep in touch and took Anna home on a regular basis.

In the opinion of the nursing staff, Anna changed from Oct. 1938 onward. Apparently, she had constantly been in dispute, had also become "violent” and "recalcitrant,” had caused "a lot of difficulties,” mostly when she had returned from a family stay. She was repeatedly isolated in the "observation room” ("Wachsaal”) and strapped in bed. When she became very restless, screamed and tried to tear the bedding, she was given a "protective jacket” ("Schutzjacke” – i.e., straitjacket) and as a sedative and sleep-inducing drug, she was given paraldehyde, a substance no longer in use today. The "observation rooms” already existed in the 1910s, and in the Alsterdorf Asylum they were not introduced until the end of the 1920s. There, restless patients were isolated and treated with permanent baths as well as sleep and fever therapies. In the course of the 1930s, their function changed: By then, patients were mainly immobilized, partly with medication, partly by means of fixation or other measures. Those affected often felt that this was punishment.

An entry from July 1942 notes Anna’s "very” limited work capacity, that she was no longer able to clean the dormitory on her own. In the same year, the report to the welfare authorities stated, "Pat.[ient] suffers from epilepsy with not very frequent but severe seizures, also clouding of consciousness and considerable changes in character. She is irritable and unfriendly, often sits around idly and has slackened a lot overall.”

On 16 July 1943, her medical file stated, "Pat.[ient] came back from her Pentecost leave, stayed in bed the next day with the note that she was tired, soiled and wetted herself, and on top of that, she was insolent.”

One month later, the senior physician Gerhard Kreyenberg entered the following in Anna Hamer’s file: "Transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the institution by air raid.”

After the massive air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah”), the institutional administration took the opportunity to transfer hundreds of patients to other sanatoriums and nursing homes with several transports in order to make room for bomb victims and the wounded. One of these transports comprised of 228 girls and women left the Alsterdorf Asylum on 16 August destined for the Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt in Vienna. One of them was Anna Hamer.

At her admission interview in Vienna, Anna was described as calm and content, fully oriented. Weighing 47 kilograms (approx. 104 lbs) on arrival, she was classified as requiring care. "Due to clumsiness,” she was put in a cot, but according to the entries in her file, she continued to behave calmly and obediently.

Anna Hamer lived to see the end of the war in Vienna in Apr. 1945. In the summer, it was noted that she was weak and declining noticeably. Anna Hamer died on 21 July 1945, the cause of death being epilepsy and enterocolitis (enteritis). She weighed only 34 kilograms (about 75 lbs) by the time of her death. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 3,500 patients became victims of killing induced by starvation at Steinhof. Anna Hamer’s family only learned of her death upon request: In Apr. 1946, her brother asked for immediate notification: "Since the parents have remained without any news since June 1944, they are understandably very worried. A letter of reply came in May: "[...] unfortunately, we must inform you that Ms. Anna Hamer died of severe enteritis on 21 July 1945. At that time, it was not possible to notify relatives due to the existing blockade of postal traffic from Austria to Germany. The body was buried by the municipal authorities in a common grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery on 24 July.”

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

Stand: July 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Sonderakte 330; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 4088 u 116/1909; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 4561 u 43/1913; Uwe Schmidt: Hamburger Schulen im "Dritten Reich". Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, 3. Aufl. Stuttgart 2016.