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Walter Rissel
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Walter Rissel * 1889

Bachstraße 105 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
WALTER RISSEL
JG. 1889
EINGEWIESEN 1939
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT` 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
12.10.1943 HADAMAR
ERMORDET 16.10.1943

Walter Rissel, born on 11.7.1889 in Bielefeld, admitted on 13.4.1939 to the former Alsterdorfer Asylum (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), on 7.8.1943 "transferred" to the "State Hospital Eichberg" in Hattenheim (today Eltville/Rheingau), further transferred on 12.10.1943 to the "State Hospital Hadamar" (Limburg-Weilburg district), murdered there on 16.10.1943.

Bachstraße 105

Walter Rissel was born on 11 July 1889 in Bielefeld, the son of Albert and Auguste Rissel, née Krentler. He was a so-called seven-month baby and was often ill during his childhood.

We learn something about his school days and education from his wife Minna Johanna: after he was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum in 1939, she reported that he had attended secondary school in Bielefeld up to the first grade. (The first grade was the highest at that time). He learned the trade of lathe operator, worked in this profession for several years in Bielefeld and elsewhere, and rose to the position of foreman. At the beginning of the First World War, Walter Rissel began his master craftsman training and passed his master craftsman‘s examination in 1919. From 1918 to 1920, he attended an engineering school with the aim of becoming an engineer.

His marriage to Minna Johanna, née Flandermeier, born on 17 March 1890 in Bünde in Westphalia, produced a son, Kurt, on 1 December 1915 in Hanover. In December 1917, the family settled in Hamburg. From 1921 onwards, Walter Rissel was listed in the Hamburg address book as a foreman at Bachstraße 105 in Barmbek.

According to his wife, Walter Rissel had been suffering from seizures since the age of 17. After several years without any seizures, Walter Rissel began suffering from them twice a week from February 1920 onwards. His wife described him as forgetful, morose and gloomy. He was no longer able to work in his profession, except for small temporary jobs.

After three seizures, he spent almost three months in Barmbek Hospital in 1921, including several weeks in a twilight state and completely disoriented. The diagnosis was epilepsy. The seizures recurred in the following years, accompanied by personality changes that made it increasingly difficult to deal with him. After a temporary stay at the Hamburg Nursing Home (Versorgungsheim), Walter Rissel returned to live at home at Bachstraße 105.

On 20 June 1934, Dr. W. Schaar, a general practitioner at Hamburger Straße 95, who may have been treating Walter Rissel on an outpatient basis for some time, reported to the health and welfare authorities that Walter Rissel was suffering from "hereditary epilepsy".

On 5 November 1934, the Hereditary Health Court (Erbgesundheitsgericht) ruled that Walter Rissel should be sterilised. The formal basis for this procedure was the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases in Offspring’ (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses). According to this law, which was enacted in July 1933, a person could be rendered infertile (sterilised) "if, based on the experience of medical science, it is highly probable that their offspring will suffer from severe physical or mental hereditary defects" (see Reichsgesetzblatt I No. 86/1933 p. 146 ff.).

There had been no previous cases of epilepsy in Walter Rissel‘s family. Nevertheless, the court assumed a "hereditary defect", justifying this on the grounds that epilepsy "is almost always based on hereditary predisposition. However, it is sometimes also the result of brain damage caused by injury or infectious diseases. In such cases, however, the injuries or diseases are so severe that they regularly attract the attention of those around the patient and require medical treatment. Since it is impossible to determine with certainty whether such severe damage has occurred, only hereditary predisposition can be considered as the cause of epilepsy. This predisposition tends to manifest itself only when it is inherited simultaneously from both the father‘s and mother‘s side (hidden inheritance). This explains why a patient suffering from hereditary epilepsy often has no known ancestors or collateral relatives who suffer from the same disease. Heredity is then determined not so much by family history as by general mass statistical experience."

The operation was performed on 10 January 1935 at Barmbek Hospital by assistant physician Alfred Bessin. On 17 January, Walter Rissel was discharged home in "good condition", as it was stated.

On 15 January 1939, Walter Rissel was admitted to what was then known as the Alsterdorfer Asylum (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf). The reason for this is not documented. Upon admission, Walter Rissel appeared to be severely confused and stared blankly ahead. In the days following his admission, he suffered several mild seizures and one severe seizure. Although there is no evidence of any improvement in his condition, Walter Rissel was discharged to his wife on 23 January 1939.

Three months later, on 14 April 1939, Walter Rissel returned to Alsterdorf. Shortly afterwards, the management of the Alsterdorf Asylum initiated proceedings to have him declared legally incompetent, which the local court ordered on the grounds that it was necessary due to mental illness. He was deemed incapable of managing his own affairs without harming his own interests. Although he was clearly not legally competent, Walter Rissel was persuaded to sign a statement in which he agreed not to object to his incapacitation.

Walter Rissel‘s patient file contains only a few entries about his further development. They end on 7 August 1943 with a note from the institution"s doctor and SA member Gerhard Kreyenberg: "Transferred to Eichberg due to severe damage to the asylum caused by air raids."

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 director of the institution, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities for permission to transfer 750 patients, allegedly to make room for the wounded and those affected by the bombing. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred to the Eichberg State Hospital (Landesheilanstalt Eichberg) in Hattenheim (today Eltville, Rheingau), the Kalmenhof Sanatorium in Idstein in the Rheingau, the Mainkofen Sanatorium near Passau and the Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium of the City of Vienna in Vienna.
Walter Rissel was one of the 76 men and children who were taken to the Eichberg State Hospital on 7 August 1943.

Meanwhile, in Hamburg, the house at Bachstraße 105 was destroyed during the bombings in July/August 1943. Minna Rissel moved in with relatives in Lübbeke (Wiehengebirge, East Westphalia-Lippe). In response to her written enquiry to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten on 23 August 1943 about her husband, she received information on 30 August 1943 that he had been "transferred" to Eichberg.

On 5 October 1943, Minna Rissel sent a postcard to the Eichberg State Hospital asking them to inform her immediately about her husband‘s condition. She had written to her husband about five weeks earlier with an enclosed reply card, but had not received a response. This request can be found in Walter Rissel"s patient file. Minna Rissel‘s writing is clearly marked with a cross in blue pencil, symbolising Walter Rissel"s death. It had been registered at the Hadamar State Hospital in what is now the district of Limburg-Weilburg. Walter Rissel had been transferred there from Eichberg on 12 October 1943, together with 23 other men from the Alsterdorf transport.

From January to August 1941, the Hadamar State Hospital was one of six killing centres involved in the Nazi "Euthanasia" programme, in which people with mental and physical disabilities and mental illnesses were murdered using poison gas. In contrast to 1941, from 1942 onwards, patients were no longer killed by gas, but by overdoses of medication, deliberate malnutrition and neglect of medical care. Once admitted to Hadamar, the chances of survival were negligible. Only in exceptional cases did people survive longer than a few weeks or months.

On 18 October 1943, the Hadamar State Hospital wrote to Minna Rissel that her card dated 5 October 1943 addressed to the Eichberg institution would be "dealt with" by the Hadamar institution due to its jurisdiction. It continued: "Your husband was transferred to this institution on 12 October 1943 as part of measures deemed important for the war effort. Unfortunately, we were unable to inform you of the transfer because no files had been sent from the Hamburg Langenhorn Mental Hospital when he was first transferred, and we therefore did not have your address. We regret to inform you that your husband passed away at this institution on 16 October. The funeral will take place today at our institution‘s cemetery in a quiet ceremony."

The death register contains an entry stating that Walter Rissel died on 16 October 1943 at 7:00 a.m. in the Hadamar State Hospital from mental illness and intestinal flu.

We do not know what became of Minna Johanna Rissel and her son Kurt.

Stand: February 2026
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg 1921, 1922; StaH 352-11 Gesundheitsämter 3494 Erbgesundheitsgerichtverfahren Walter Rissel; Stadtarchiv Bünde Geburtsregister Nr. 132/1890 (Minna Johanna Flandermeier); Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 299-314, insbesondere S. 306f.