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Olga Kurtz
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Olga Kurtz * 1905

Bramfelder Straße 106 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
OLGA KURTZ
JG. 1905
EINGEWIESEN 1931
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 24.11.1944

Olga Kurtz, born on 9.3.1905 in Hamburg, was first admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 15.1.1921, transferred to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital on 22.5.1929, transferred back to the Alsterdorf Asylum on 22.1.1931, transported to the Wagner von Jauregg Mental Hospital and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna (also known as the Am Steinhof institution) on 16.8.1943, murdered on 24.11.1944

Bramfelder Straße 106

Marie Agnes Olga Kurtz (known as Olga) was born on 9 March 1905 in Hamburg. Her parents, Arthur Leopold Paul Kurtz, a labourer born on 19 February 1876, and her mother, Eleonore Albertine Marie Kurtz, née Meyer, born on 12 October 1879, both born in Hamburg, were married in Hamburg on 9 January 1902.

The family lived at Bramfelder Straße 106. Olga Kurtz had five siblings, two older and three younger. We know nothing more about them except that one sister died of vomiting and diarrhoea at the age of three months and one brother, Albert Georg Friedrich, born on 22 April 1908, was killed in action as a soldier on 5 September 1941.

Olga Kurtz, a so-called seven-month baby, did not learn to speak until she was three years old and had difficulty walking at the age of five. She attended elementary school until the third grade (the first grade was the highest at that time) and had to repeat two grades. The family must have lived in precarious circumstances.
From 1917 onwards, she suffered from epileptic seizures, which were initially treated at Barmbek Hospital. The doctors suspected that the seizures were caused by weakness due to malnutrition. The physician at the Hamburg General Poorhouse referred the girl to the Alsterdorf Asylum (now the Evangelical Foundation Alsterdorf), where she was admitted on 15 January 1921.

Olga Kurtz initially worked as a diligent assistant in the infirmary. From autumn 1921 onwards, she received several weeks of opium-bromine treatment at the hospital for her epilepsy. The patient file contains no notes on the effectiveness of this treatment. She was then repeatedly admitted to the infirmary for stomach and intestinal catarrh. In 1924, she is said to have worked irregularly, often being defiant and easily influenced. She wanted "the doctor to give her an injection that would make her ‚go away‘”. In the following years, she resumed her housework, but according to her patient file, she "slowly declined", which probably meant that she was deteriorating mentally, and perhaps also physically.

In early 1926, when Olga Kurtz was 20 years old, the Alsterdorf Asylum wrote to her father that his daughter often had seizures and was very depressed. She suffered particularly from the fact that her parents did not care for her and expressed suicidal thoughts. They asked for at least one parent to visit in the hope that this would have a positive influence on the young woman. We do not know whether this request was complied with. In any case, Olga Kurtz's condition continued to deteriorate.

In 1929, Olga Kurtz was described as incompatible, frequently confused and barely able to work. In addition, she had repeatedly expressed that she was tired of life. As a result, the Alsterdorf Asylum declared that the patient was no longer suitable for the institution.

Olga Kurtz was transferred to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital on 22 May 1929. Upon admission, she was "calm and cooperative" and was able to give a coherent account of her life and illness to date. She stated that she had recently been receiving Luminal, a barbiturate. However, the seizures had not become less frequent. Here, too, she stated that she would prefer to be "below the earth". In Friedrichsberg, she often had seizures, about every eight to ten days, with one to two seizures a day. She was now described as "significantly demented, yet quite euphoric".

After various treatment attempts, including a new anti-epileptic drug and different doses of Luminal, the staff observed seizures once a week in early 1931, and the management of the Friedrichsberg State Hospital declared that Olga Kurtz had been harmless and easily manageable for many months. She behaved in a friendly, modest, calm and grateful manner and could be transferred back to the Alsterdorf Asylum, which was also in line with her wishes.

On 9 April 1931, Olga Kurtz was readmitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum. Initially, she seemed friendly, obliging and content. However, after seizures, she was sluggish and moody. According to the entry in her patient file, she had no desire to occupy herself in any way and liked to be waited on. Although she was able to take care of her personal hygiene independently, Olga Kurtz had to be completely dressed. She demanded that her bed and many other things be made for her, because the patients in Alsterdorf were not there to work. Attempts to occupy her with darning and weaving were largely unsuccessful. There were repeated reports of her strong need for sleep, which led to a reduced perception of her surroundings.

In September 1933, her personality is said to have changed: she was lively and alert, but still very tired when she had finished her needlework. In 1934, there were reports of her constantly trying to give instructions and educate younger fellow patients in particular, but also to annoy them.

After the seizures continued to occur, Olga Kurtz was unaware of her surroundings for long periods of time. In the autumn of 1936, she was given the drug Prominal two to three times a day to reduce or alleviate the epileptic seizures. According to the German Medical Weekly (Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift) of 1932, this medication was supposed to be superior to treatment with Luminal and reduce or weaken epileptic seizures. However, Olga Kurtz subsequently experienced two to three severe seizures a day. In contrast to the period before she was given Prominal, she now often wet herself and soiled herself. After trials with another medication, Olga Kurtz was given Luminal again from the end of 1940. There are no entries in the file about further medication.

Eleonore Albertine Marie Kurtz, Olga Kurtz's mother, died on 19 June 1937 at Barmbek General Hospital. However, we do not know whether her daughter was informed of this.

In 1941, it was noted in the patient file that Olga Kurtz's condition had improved. The frequency of her seizures had decreased. However, after a period of tireless diligence, her interest waned and dealing with her became difficult again. In summary, the following was written in early January 1943: "Pat. [ient] is epileptic, independent, clean and tidy in her personal hygiene and belongings. She is employed in the cloakroom doing light housework; her performance is poor and depends on her state of health. She is very pedantic, extremely slow in her movements and actions, easily irritated, but no longer has episodes of agitation. She is good-natured and easy-going."

The last entry in Olga Kurtz's patient file is dated 16 August 1943 and was made by the institution's doctor and SA member Gerhard Kreyenberg: "Transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the institution caused by air raids."


The Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered bomb damage during the heavy 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 the opportunity to get rid of some of the residents who were considered "unproductive, requiring intensive care 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 the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" in Vienna (also known as the "Am Steinhof" institution). Among them was Olga Kurtz, now 35 years old.

On the day of her arrival at the Vienna institution, Olga Kurtz suffered several seizures lasting two to three minutes, accompanied by cramps and convulsions. Upon admission, she had stated that she no longer enjoyed life and that her parents no longer visited her. She was oriented in terms of place and time, but spent most of her time in the day room without occupation, remained isolated and did not answer questions.

In March 1944, the Viennese institutions filled out the "Registration Form I". During the first phase of Euthanasia from 1939 to 1941, they were required to use this form to report important data on the inmates of the institutions to the Euthanasia centre at Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. The information on these registration forms was used as the basis for deciding whether people with mental disabilities or mental illnesses should be killed in one of the six gas chambers. Olga Kurtz was diagnosed with "epilepsy with imbecility" and noted as "unfit" for work. The medical file does not reveal the purpose of this registration form, which was created long after the central control of the killings of the sick. It is unclear whether it was sent to Berlin or whether it had any influence on the further fate of Olga Kurtz.

On 17 June 1944, the Vienna institutions informed Olga Kurtz's father that his daughter was doing well. She was physically unchanged, but had an average of ten seizures per month. Her body weight fluctuated around 47 kg. Although the letter was apparently intended to be reassuring, it contained a warning sign. Olga Kurtz weighed 60 kg when she was transferred to Vienna. She had therefore lost 22% of her body weight within ten months.
On 8 November 1944, Olga Kurtz was transferred to the nursing ward of the Vienna institution, often the last stop for patients before their death. On 22 November, the entry in her file read: "Bedridden, disoriented, in need of care, weak, lost, [...]. Has epileptic seizures."

Olga Kurtz died on 24 November 1944.

The chief physician and pathologist Barbara Uiberrak, who had been working at the Am Steinhof mental hospital in Vienna since 1938, performed the autopsy on the same day. According to the autopsy report, she examined the brain, lungs and heart in particular. The liver, spleen and kidneys were not mentioned. Viennese historian Peter Schwarz found "no description of the (poor) external condition of a corpse" in the autopsy findings of prosector Barbara Uiberrak, which contradicts general practice. Whether organs were removed for pseudoscientific purposes, as in many other cases, is not noted.

Since 1943, the brains of around half of all autopsied corpses at the Vienna institute have been removed for histological examination and some have been stored in the brain anatomy collection. Until 2002, this collection contained 700 brains that had been removed during autopsies.

Stand: February 2026
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1444 Geburtsregister Nr. 504/1905 (Marie Agnes Olga Kurtz), 2988 Heiratsregister Nr. 6/1902 (Arthur Leopold Paul Kurtz/ Eleonore Albertine Marie Meyer), 7198 Sterberegister Nr. 1094/1937 (Eleonore Albertine Marie Kurtz). Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 169 (Olga Kurtz). 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, Innsbruck/Wien 2022.
Zu Prominal: Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift Nr. 58/1932 S. 696-698 Zusammenfassung (https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0028-1122960, Internetzugriff 25.1.1926)