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Reinhard Postner
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Reinhard Postner * 1939

Wilhelmsburger Straße 1 (Hamburg-Mitte, Veddel)

HIER WOHNTE
REINHARD POSTNER
JG. 1939
EINGEWIESEN 1943
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
´VERLEGT‘ 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
KALMENHOF / IDSTEIN
ERMORDET 23.8.1943

Reinhard Postner, born on 8.3.1939 in Marktredwitz (Upper Franconia), admitted on 14.4.1943 to the former "Alsterdorf Asylum" ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten” now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), "transferred” on 7.8.1943 to the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof") near Idstein (Taunus), where he died on 23.8.1943

Wilhelmsburger Straße 1

Reinhard Joseph Alexander (callname Reinhard) Postner was born on 8 March 1939 in the Upper Franconian town of Marktredwitz. His parents were customs secretary Alois Postner, born on 1 May 1906 in Waldershof in the Fichtelgebirge, and his wife Emma, née Schüler, born on 16 March 1911 in Matgendorf in Mecklenburg. They were already living at Wilhelmsburger Straße 1 in the Veddel district of Hamburg when their son Reinhard was born. Reinhard had an older sister, Ingrid, born on 9 June 1935, about whom we know nothing more.

Reinhard's birth is said to have been complicated. In March 1940 Otto Ullrich, director of the University Children's Hospital and Polyclinic in Rostock, certified that he suffered from "organically caused Salaam convulsions”. (Salaam seizures are a main feature of West syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy in infants. The baby's body suddenly jerks, the head bows forward jerkily as if nodding, the arms are thrown forward and brought together in front of the chest. This movement is reminiscent of the Salaam greeting. The disease can lead to developmental delays and disorders.)

Reinhard Postner was a patient at Rostock University Hospital from 11 June to 27 July 1940; whether this was in connection with the seizures or for other reasons is not known.

We also have no information about whether the family was living in Rostock at that time and, if so, when they returned to Hamburg. A letter from his father, Alois Postner, dated 31 July 1944, to the "Alsterdorfer Asylum” ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten") indicates that the family was living in Waldersdorf, the birthplace of Alois Postner, at that time.

When Reinhard Postner was admitted to the "Alsterdorfer Asylum", the senior physician, SA-member Gerhard Kreyenberg, diagnosed him with "idiocy and epilepsy.” ("idiocy” is a term no longer in use today for a severe form of intellectual disability.)

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrah), the "Alsterdorfer 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 transported to the "Eichberg State Sanatorium" ("Landesheilanstalt Eichberg”) near Wiesbaden, the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”) in Idstein in the Rheingau, the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Mainkofen" ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen”) near Passau, and the "State Sanatorium Am Steinhof" ("Landesheilanstalt Am Steinhof”) in Vienna.

On 7 August 1943, a total of 128 boys and men were transported to the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Eichberg" in the Rheingau region (76 people) and the "Sanatorium and Nursing home Kalmenhof" near Idstein (52 people). Among them was Reinhard Postner, now four years old, whose transport reached the Kalmenhof institution on 8 August.

There he lived for only sixteen days. He died on 24 August 1943, allegedly from "epilepsy, idiocy, status epilepticus, and marasmus” (severe form of malnutrition).

The Kalmenhof institution was founded in 1888 as a progressive, educationally oriented facility for people with intellectual disabilities. In 1939, it was incorporated into the "Euthanasia” program of "Aktion T4” (named after the address of the Berlin Euthanasia center, Tiergartenstraße 4). The patients were taken from there to the neighboring Hadamar killing center and murdered. After the official end of the killing of the sick in August 1941, the cover organization "Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Hereditary and Congenital Severe Illnesses” ("Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden"), which belonged to the Berlin "Euthanasia” center, set up a so-called children's ward at Kalmenhof. In this ward, children were killed by overdoses of drugs such as Luminal, scopolamine, or morphine.

It can be assumed that Reinhard Postner died an unnatural death in this "special children's ward.”

Stand: October 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Standesamt Idstein Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 129/1943 (Reinhard Postner); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 76 (Reinhard Postner). Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 258. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 283 ff. https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/24708/NS-Kindereuthanasie-Ohne-jede-moralische-Skrupel (Zugriff am 7.8.2025).