Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Günther Penning * 1933

Flotowstraße 14 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
GÜNTHER PENNING
JG. 1933
EINGEWIESEN 1936
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 7.8.1943
‚HEILANSTALT‘
KALMENHOF / IDSTEIN
ERMORDET 4.9.1943

Günter Penning, born 12.2.1933 in Hamburg, admitted to the then Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) for the first time on 26.6.1935 and again on 2.11.1936, deported to Idstein in Rheingau to the ‘Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof’ on 7.8.1943, died there on 4.9.1943

Flotowstraße 14, Barmbek-Süd

Günter Penning was born on 12 February 1933 in the women's clinic in Finkenau Street in Hamburg's Uhlenhorst district. His first name was often spelt Günther in official documents. On his birth certificate, he was called Günter (without an h).

His parents, the postal clerk Rudolf Johann Friedrich Penning, born on 1 January 1896 in Krenzlinerhütte (Mecklenburg), and his wife Henny Berta Ella, née Prösch, born on 20 September 1902 (place of birth unknown), lived with their older son Walter, born on 30 June 1927, at Flotowstraße 14 in the Barmbeck district (now Barmbek-Süd).

Günter Penning's eyes were misaligned from birth, causing him to squint.

According to his parents, Günter initially developed well. They then noticed that the child behaved differently to his brother. The child ate poorly, did not swallow and largely refused solid food.

The parents presented the boy several times to the paediatrician W. Roggenkämper, who admitted him to the paediatric clinic of the St. Georg General Hospital in Baustraße (now Hinrichsenstraße) for observation in April 1934. We know neither the duration nor the results of this hospitalisation.

On 21 June 1935, Günter Penning was admitted to Barmbek General Hospital for observation with a diagnosis of gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining) and dyspepsia (mostly stomach-related complaints in the upper abdomen). According to the medical report, he made an anxious impression. When someone approached his bed, he began to scream. He only reacted to being spoken to by crying. The report also states that Günter lay in bed all day without moving and sucked his finger. His food intake was also poor during his stay at the Barmbek hospital. The medical director of the hospital, Edgar Reye, diagnosed ‘simple idiocy’. (‘Idiocy’ is no longer a common term for a severe form of intellectual disability). Further developments would have to be awaited.

On the recommendation of Edgar Reye, Günter Penning was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) for observation on 26 June 1935 and released home to his parents on 11 September 1935.

On 2 November 1936, the parents brought their son back to the Alsterdorf Asylum because he was causing them great difficulties. There he was described as being in complete need of help and care. He could not walk or speak. The diagnosis ‘idiocy’ is written in red on his patient file.

Over the course of time, it contains several entries on common illnesses such as influenza, tonsillitis, an excema or boils. Diphtheria required a four-week hospitalisation. He once broke his collarbone.

It was not until September 1938 that a brief report on Günter Penning's condition can be found in his patient file. After that, he still had to be cared for and fed. However, he was able to eat bread, chocolate and fruit. His character was described as friendly. He was happy when people spent time with him. Taken by the hand, he could already walk a little.

In contrast to the doctor Edgar Reye, who had diagnosed a small cranium but explicitly no microcephaly in the Barmbek hospital, the Alsterdorf Asylum told the Hamburg police chief in October 1938 that a ‘statutory vaccination that was actually due could be omitted due to the microcephaly’. (Microcephaly refers to an abnormally small head, often due to a brain that is too small or not normally developed).

In 1941, the boy still had to be fed. His personal hygiene required the help of the carers and he was wetting himself. He is said to have been very lively at times, but mostly he sat quietly in his chair and took no interest in his surroundings. He could neither speak nor walk independently. In 1942, the nine-year-old boy was assigned to the men's section of the asylum.

In March 1943, Günter Penning was said to be a ‘recumbent child’. He was unclean day and night, did not play or occupy himself, but sometimes responded to calls. As soon as he was not wearing a ‘protective jacket’, he would pinch his cheeks with both hands and smear himself with saliva. He was fed with soaked bread and mashed potatoes. He was happy about his parents’ visit.

The already few entries in Günter Penning's medical file ended on 7 August 1943: ‘Transferred to Idstein due to severe damage to the asylum caused by an air raid. Attn. Dr Kreyenberg’.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrah), the Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered damage on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. The head of the institution, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took the opportunity 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. He asked the health authorities to approve the transfer of 750 patients, allegedly to make room for the wounded and bomb-damaged. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred to the ‘Landesheilanstalt Eichberg’ near Wiesbaden, the ‘Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof’ in Idstein im Rheingau, the ‘Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen’ near Passau and the ‘Landesheilanstalt Am Steinhof’ in Vienna.

With the first transport on 7 August 1943, a total of 128 girls, boys and men were deported to the Eichberg sanatorium and nursing home in Rheingau (76) and the Kalmenhof sanatorium near Idstein (52). Günter Penning was one of the 52 children who arrived at the ‘Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof’ on 8 August 1943.

Founded in 1888, the Kalmenhof institution was originally a progressive, educationally orientated facility for people with mental disabilities. In 1939, it was included in the ‘Euthanasia’ programme of ‘Aktion-T4’ (a cover name after the headquarters of the Berlin euthanasia centre at Tiergartenstraße 4). The patients were transferred from there to the neighbouring Hadamar killing centre and murdered with gas. After the official halt to the ‘Euthanasia’ murders in August 1941, the front organisation ‘Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schweren Leiden’ (Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Conditions), which belonged to the Berlin ‘Euthanasia’ centre, set up a ‘children's ward’ at Kalmenhof, where children were killed with overdoses of drugs such as Luminal, scopolamine or morphine.

Ten-year-old Günter Penning died on 4 September 1943, just seven days after his arrival at the "Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof", with the cause of death stated on the death certificate as ‘idiocy, gastroenteritis, marasmus’. (Marasmus is a disease that develops as a result of chronic quantitative malnutrition).

It is safe to assume that Günter Penning was killed.

Stand: May 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg (mehrere Jahrgänge), Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Sonderakte V 73 (Günter Penning). Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 289 ff.