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Anne Liese Neumann
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Anne Liese Neumann * 1925

Poßmoorweg 1 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNE LIESE NEUMANN
JG. 1925
EINGEWIESEN 1938
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 3.10.1944

Anne Liese Neumann, born on 16 November 1925, in Horst (now part of Seevetal), admitted on 30 April 1938, to the former "Alsterdorf Asylum" ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten” now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), transported on 16 August 1943 to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" (also known as the "Am Steinhof" institution), died there on 3 October 1944

Poßmoorweg 1

Anne Liese Neumann was born on 16 November 1925 in Horst, now part of the municipality of Seevetal. Her mother, Auguste Marie Neumann, née Langkeit, born on 10 March 1896, came from the village of Neuhausen what was then the district of Königsberg. Her father was the vehicle driver Johann August Neumann, born on 10 December 1873, in Peterkowke in the north of what was then the province of Posen (today Greater Poland Voivodeship). The couple had married in Hamburg on 23 December 1922.

Anne Liese was the younger of Auguste Marie and Johann August Neumann's two children. We do not know any details about her sibling.

Anne Liese Neumann learned to speak at the age of one, but was still unable to walk at the age of four. From the age of six weeks, she suffered from epileptic seizures, which caused her to convulse and roll her eyes. Her mental development was not age-appropriate.

Due to persistent severe convulsions (status epilepticus), Anne Liese Neumann was admitted to Barmbek General Hospital from 14 to 18 June 1929. According to the medical staff, the child was in a state of constant motor restlessness and spoke incomprehensible words. Her right arm showed clear spasms. Anne Liese Neumann could only sit up on her own for a short time; without support, she immediately fell back. Her right arm and right foot did not correspond to the developmental stage of a three-and-a-half-year-old child. Early childhood esotropia in both eyes (convergent strabismus) was also observed at the hospital.

Although early diagnosis and treatment by an ophthalmologist was important to avoid long-term consequences, there is no mention of treatment in the report from Barmbek Hospital, which is attached to the patient file of the "Alsterderdorf Asylum.” We also do not know how Anne Liese's life unfolded until she was admitted to the then "Alsterdorfer Asylum” in 1938, except that she never attended school.

Anne Liese's mother suffered from persistent severe pain after having two molars extracted in March 1938. She hoped to find help at Barmbek Hospital. The doctors observed a gradual deterioration in her general condition. Auguste Marie Neumann died of pneumonia on 30 March 1938.

One month after her mother's death, Anne Liese Neumann's father took her to the former "Alsterdorf Asylum” on 30 April 1938. The day before, a local doctor had stated: "The patient's admission to the Alsterdorf Asylum is necessary due to imbecility. Signed: Dr. Jahn.”

("Imbecility” is a term no longer in use for moderate mental disability.)

The admission diagnosis at the "Alsterdorf Asylum" was: "Epilepsy, imbecility (lower limit), brain malformation? Completely ataxic. Cannot stand or walk alone. Lively nystagmus. Can speak and perform simple addition tasks."
(The term "ataxic gait” refers to an unsteady, swaying and uncoordinated gait; nystagmus means eye tremors, which can lead to impaired vision.)

According to her patient file, Anne Liese Neumann behaved "very badly” upon admission, "always asking the same questions or repeating everything and singing very loudly.” She initially had to stay in the "waking room” ("Wachsaal").
Restless patients were isolated in "waking rooms” and treated with continuous bathing, sleep therapy, and fever cures. They were introduced at the "Alsterdorf Asylum" in the late 1920s. Over the course of the 1930s, their function changed: now patients were primarily sedated, partly with medication, partly by means of restraints or other measures. Those affected often perceived this as punishment.

In the following months and years, the staff repeatedly observed seizures. Anne Liese Neumann was completely dependent on help with personal hygiene and dressing and undressing, and needed assistance walking. During longer periods of calm, she occupied herself with building blocks and tile games. It was particularly noted that she knew many operas and operettas as well as the corresponding composers.

The entries made in Anne Liese Neumann's patient file at the "Alsterdorf Asylum" ended on 16 August 1943 with the note: "Transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the institution by bombing. Signed Dr. Kreyenberg.”

The "Alsterdorf Asylum" also suffered bomb damage during the massive air raids on Hamburg in late July/early August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah”). With the approval of the health authorities, the director of the institution, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took advantage of the opportunity to get rid of some of the residents who were considered "unproductive, high-maintenance, or particularly difficult” by transporting them to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 August 1943, one of these transports took 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the "Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home” to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” (also known as the "Am Steinhof” institution). Among them was Anne Liese Neumann.

During the admission interview in Vienna, Anne Liese Neumann was able to state her name and age correctly in slowly spoken words. She reported that her mother had already died and her father lived in Hamburg. She was able to state the current date, but not the year. She kept her eyes closed at first and tried to look at the admitting doctor with her right eye when asked to do so; her strabismus had a strong effect on her left eye. Anne Liese Neumann was unable to solve simple arithmetic problems correctly. However, she knew that "Germany was very far away.”

During her time in Vienna, the young woman is said to have been "very rowdy at times” and to have expressed herself in a manner ranging from "cheeky to vulgar.”

On 12 February 1944, Anne Liese's father died in Hamburg. It is not known whether she was informed of this.

No further entries were made in Anne Liese Neumann's file until October 1944. Her weight, which had last been 42 kg in Hamburg, had decreased to 30 kg at the last measurement in August 1944 in Vienna. She died on 3 October 1944, allegedly of pneumonia.

Her body was dissected by the director of the "Wagner von Jauregg Mental Hospital of the City of Vienna,” Hans Bertha, and according to the death certificate, her brain was "fixed in 4% formalin for further examination.”

Under the leadership of Hans Bertha, one of the main figures responsible for implementing the Nazi "Euthanasia” program in Vienna, the number of deaths at the Vienna institution rose dramatically. The institution had been established on the outskirts of the city in 1907. After Austria's annexation to the German Reich, it was transformed into a center for the euphemistically termed "Euthanasia” killings of the sick. During the first phase of Nazi "Euthanasia” from October 1939 to August 1941, the institution served as a transit facility for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the gas murders in the killing centers, mass murder continued in the former transit centers, including the Vienna institution, through overdose of medication, non-treatment of illnesses, and above all through starvation. By the end of 1945, 257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had lost their lives, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Stand: October 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7214 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 684/1938 (Auguste Marie Neumann/Langkeit), 9945 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 103/1944 (Johann August Neumann). Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 144 (Anne Liese Neumann). Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 399. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 331-371. Peter von Rönn, Der Transport nach Wien, in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 425-467. Peter Schwarz, Die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Wien-Steinhof im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Markus Rachbauer / Florian Schwanninger (Hg.), Krieg und Psychiatrie. Lebensbedingungen und Sterblichkeit in österreichischen Heil- und Pflegeanstalten im Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieg (= Historische Texte des Lern- und Gedenkorts Schloss Hartheim, Bd. 5), Innsbruck 2022, S. 101-173. Zu Hans Bertha: https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Hans_Bertha, Zugriff am 30.9.2025.