Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Ernst Sebras
© Quelle: Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin am Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Ernst Sebras * 1903

Hellbrookstraße 52 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
ERNST SEBRAS
JG. 1903
EINGEWIESEN 1932
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
‚VERLEGT‘ 2.4.1943
MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 25.4.1944

Ernst Sebras, born on 18.9.1903 in Hamburg, admitted to the Langenhorn State Hospital on 30.8.1932, transferred to the Neustadt/Holstein State Hospital and Nursing Home, on 3.5.1941 transferred back to Langenhorn, on 5.5.1941 transferred to the Lüneburg Mental Hospital, on 2.4.1943 transferred to the Meseritz-Obrawalde Mental Hospital, where he died on 25.4.1944

Hellbrookstraße 52

Ernst Heinrich Willi Alwin Sebras (known as Ernst) was born on 18 September 1903 in Hamburg. He was the eldest child of Heinrich Friedrich Ernst Sebras, a Reichsbahn switchman born on 8 August 1872 in Wiembeck (a district of Lemgo), and his wife Sophie Marie Anna Dorothea, née Kleinfeld, born on 19 September 1877 in Lübeck. While Ernst Sebras' father belonged to the Evangelical Reformed Church, his wife professed the Lutheran faith.

The couple married on 19 October 1901 in Hamburg and initially moved into an apartment at Wohldorfer Straße 51 in Barmbek. Ernst Sebras was born here. He was followed by Karl Simon Heinrich on 8 August 1905, Marie Auguste Erna Elise on 1 August 1907, Anna Berta on 22 October 1908, Heinrich Friedrich on 1 January 1910, Max Johannes on 20 December 1912, who died on 31 January 1913, and Erna Frieda on 22 January 1914.

The birth of Ernst Sebras was complicated. It had to be assisted with special forceps, which may have had a negative effect on the boy's later mental abilities.

After his parents divorced in June 1919, 16-year-old Ernst Sebras stayed with his father. After completing an apprenticeship as a locksmith from 1920 to 1924, he found employment with a carriage manufacturing company, but then became unemployed.

Ernst Sebras was admitted to Barmbek General Hospital on 5 March 1930. His father reported that Ernst had previously been cheerful and full of life. However, he had changed over the previous two years, crying a lot and complaining of headaches. On 19 April 1930, Ernst Sebras was discharged as "cured" and placed in the care of a general practitioner. However, on 7 April 1931, he had to be readmitted to hospital at his own request.

His father's housekeeper reported that Ernst Sebras had been expressing ideas of persecution for a long time and had rented a furnished room because he feared she would poison him at home. As there were no apparent physical complaints, Ernst Sebras was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital on 17 April 1931 with a diagnosis of "schizophrenia". He was displeased about this and wanted to be discharged. When asked why he had gone to Barmbek Hospital, he stated that he was often overcome by terrible restlessness and anxiety at night. He also claimed that the housekeeper had poisoned his food. As he appeared calm on the outside, Ernst Sebras was discharged on 11 June 1931 to his father's home at Hellbrookstraße 52.

On 27 February 1932, his father had him admitted once again to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital. The patient file lists the reason for admission as "mental illness in the form of agitation, paranoid ideas and fear of poison". During his stay in Friedrichsberg, he also exhibited periods of agitation. In July 1932, the medical director Wilhelm Weygandt reported to the health authorities that Ernst Sebras was suffering from hallucinations, expressing delusions of persecution and was confused. He often behaved anxiously and helplessly. Institutional treatment was necessary for his protection. Ernst Sebras, on the other hand, was convinced that he did not belong in a "madhouse" and demanded his release.

On 30 August 1932, Ernst Sebras was transferred to the Hamburg-Langenhorn State Hospital. There he protested vehemently against his transfer. He claimed that he had been told in Friedrichsberg that he would be released. He wanted to return to his father to prepare for a return to work. He had been admitted to Friedrichsberg because he had no job. He had previously consulted a doctor because he had seen many images and heard voices at night during bad dreams, which he believed were caused by "some kind of transmission".
In 1935, it was noted that Ernst Sebras' condition had deteriorated somewhat. His letters to the police were "confused" and barely comprehensible.

On 28 November 1936, the Langenhorn State Hospital applied for the sterilisation of Ernst Sebras. After his transfer to the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf on 8 June 1937, the procedure was carried out. On 15 June 1937, he returned to the Langenhorn State Hospital.

The basis for the sterilisation was the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases in Offspring" (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses ), with which the National Socialists had created the formal legal basis for the forced "sterilisation” of supposedly ‘
"hereditary patients" and "alcoholics". According to this law, enacted in July 1933, a person could be 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.).

In the following years, Ernst Sebras continued to express his desire to be discharged. From autumn 1938 onwards, he was perceived as a diligent, friendly patient who, however, lacked any insight into his illness.

It was probably his assessment as a "hard-working, friendly patient" that led to his transfer on 2 March 1939 to the Düssin estate in western Mecklenburg. The city of Hamburg had acquired what would later become a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp at the end of 1938 with the intention of establishing a large institution for people with intellectual disabilities there. However, this did not happen. In Düssin, 220 people with intellectual disabilities from Langenhorn were accommodated. Ernst Sebras remained in Düssin until he was returned to Langenhorn on 31 August 1939.

On 20 March 1941, he was transferred as "unhealed" first to the Neustadt State Hospital and Nursing Home in Holstein and from there to the Lüneburg Hospital and Nursing Home on 5 May 1941. Here, too, he demanded his release and submitted numerous incomprehensible petitions as justification.

On 23 November 1941, Ernst Sebras escaped from the Lüneburg institution early in the morning and arrived at his father's house in Hamburg around nine o'clock. According to his father, he was initially affable. However, when he learned that he had to return to the institution, he became very confused and threatened his father.

Ernst Sebras' second stay at the Langenhorn State Hospital lasted until 2 April 1943. On that day, he was transported together with 49 other patients to the Meseritz-Obrawalde state sanatorium in what was then the province of Brandenburg (today Międzyrzecz, Poland).

In 1942, this institution had become part of the decentralised "Euthanasia" programme. Immediately after the patients' arrival, the medical staff decided, based on their physical condition, whether the new arrivals would be killed immediately or whether they would first have to work, for example in the garden or in the sewing workshop. Those who were no longer able to work were given medication that led to their death.

Ernst Sebras died on 25 April 1944; it can be safely assumed that he did not die a natural death.

Stand: February 2026
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg (diverse Jahrgänge); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14090 Geburtsregister Nr. 1103/1903 (Ernst Heinrich Willi Alwin Sebras), 14538 Geburtsregister Nr. 1203/1905 (Karl Simon Heinrich Sebras), 113264 Geburtsregister Nr. 1855/1908 (Anna Berta Sebras), 14821 Geburtsregister (Maire Auguste Erna Elise Sebras), 113976 Geburtsregister Nr. 24/1910 (Heinrich Friedrich Sebras), 2961 Heiratsregister Nr. 839/1901 (Heinrich Friedrich Ernst Sebras/Sophie Marie Anna Dorothea Kleinfeldt), 3224 Sterberegister Nr. 92/1913 (Max Johannes Sebras), 352-8/7 Abl. 1/1995 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn 19802 (Ernst Sebras); 352-11 Gesundheitsämter 5882 Sippentafel Ernst Sebras; 371-19 Behörde für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (Wirtschaftsbehörde) 2001 Erwerb, Verwaltung und Verlust des Gutes Düssin in Mecklenburg. Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin – Hamburg Archiv (Patientenakte Ernst Sebras). Michael Wunder, Die Transporte in die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Meseritz-Obrawalde, in: Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie des Nationalsozialismus, Hrsg. Peter von Rönn und Uwe Lohalm, Hamburg 1993, S. 377 ff., S. 492.