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Gertrud Schmidt, November 1930
© StaH

Gertrud Schmidt * 1901

Wulfsdorfer Weg 139 (Wandsbek, Volksdorf)

HIER WOHNTE
GERTRUD SCHMIDT
JG. 1901
SEIT 1921 IN MEHREREN
HEILANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1941
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
ERMORDET 20.10.1941

Gertrud Helene Christine Schmidt, born on 6.2.1901 in Hamburg, 1921 admitted to the State Hospital Friedrichsberg and later to other homes and institutions, died on 20.10.1941 in the State Hospital Eichberg.

Wulfsdorfer Weg 139 (Volksdorf)

Gertrud Helene Christine Schmidt was born in Hamburg on 6 Feb. 1901, the first of six children. Her parents, Karl Martin Wilhelm Schmidt and Helene Christine Tiedemann, had married in July 1900. The marriage was divorced for the first time in August 1914. In February 1917, Karl and Helene Schmidt married a second time, but Gertrud's mother left her husband again after only five months, and the marriage was divorced again on 28 March 1919.

Gertrud Schmidt moved away from home at the latest during her parents' second marriage and worked as a domestic servant. Contact with her father was minimal. In his will of 1934, he assigned only the compulsory share to his children, since he was "not in closer contact" with them.

Gertrud attended the Bismarck School until what is now the 5th grade (today the upper school building of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer and Helene Lange- Gymnsaium). After that she went "into employment", i.e. she worked as a domestic servant. She also attended a trade course, but apparently dropped out. She often changed her employment as a "maid", as it was called at that time, or domestic servant. Sometimes she worked in a household for only a few weeks or months, at the most she stayed for three years. In between, she lived with her mother again and again.

Gertrud Schmidt was first admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital in 1921, when she was found wandering in Othmarschen and brought there by the fire brigade. She stayed there from 11 March 1921 to 11 Jan. 1922. The 20-year-old was admitted with the diagnosis Dementia Paecox - Schizophrenia. The staff described her as quiet and reserved.

From 24 Nov. 1921 she was allowed to visit her mother on leave and immediately afterwards she was discharged in January 1922. In the meantime, her mother had married Karl Sauer on 29 Sept. 1920 and lived with him and a daughter they had together at Rendsburgerstraße 8.

Gertrud Schmidt took a job in a household where she worked for about three years. On 2 Nov. 1925 she was admitted to Friedrichsberg a second time as an inpatient. From then on, with an interruption of 1.5 years in total, she spent her life in institutions until she died.

On 13 April 1927, Gertrud was transferred to the Langenhorn State Hospital. The reports on the course of her illness changed little. At times she took over work in the institution. On 9 Nov. 1927, she was granted leave and lived with her mother for several months, but returned on 16 July 1928. After her readmission, the asylum staff described her as severely confused, apathetic, and neglected. After a little over a year (8/5/1929), her mother took her on leave again, this time Gertrud Schmidt was discharged on 20 Oct. 1929.

Her home address before the next admission in Langenhorn, one year later, on 7. Nov. 1930, was "Mädchenheim Alexanderstraße 21/23" (girls' home of the Inner Mission, which is an initiative for Christian mission within the Protestant Church). To what extent she worked there is not known. During the next few years there was a constant contact with her mother. She picked her up for walks, once also on vacation. The patient file shows ups and downs, Gertrud Schmidt obviously did not feel "well".

On 28 April 1931 Gertrud Schmidt was incapacitated because of "mental weakness”. The expert’s opinion states, among other things: "The family circumstances, however, are so unfavorable that remaining with the mother is not advisable." She would neglect her daughter. Walther George, lawyer from Volksdorf, was appointed as guardian. Gertrud was in direct correspondence with him.

After the National Socialists came to power, the situation of patients in the asylums deteriorated seriously, including that of Gertrud Schmidt. Shortly after the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases" had come into force, she was forcibly sterilized at Eppendorf University Hospital on 16 June 1934. On 28 Aug. 28 1939, she was transferred to the Alsterdorf Asylum for a few days, but was sent back to Langenhorn on 2 Sept. due to lack of space. The notes in the patient's file become shorter and shorter during this time. Often there is only a note "condition unchanged" or "as before".

On 3 March 1941 she was transferred to the Strecknitz Sanatorium in Lübeck. Her mother, who was not informed about this, asked in Langenhorn on 31 March whether Gertrud could come on leave. On 16 April 1941 she received the following reply from the Strecknitz Sanatorium: "The condition of your daughter, Miss Gertrud Schmidt, is satisfactory. Apart from constant pushing away and complete lack of insight into her illness, the patient is not conspicuous. If the current state of her illness does not take a turn for the worse, there is nothing to prevent her from taking a leave of absence."

Helene Schmidt visited her daughter in Lübeck; it is unknown whether the requested leave of absence was granted. There are only little notes in the medical file of the Strecknitz period. Only a few sentences can be found concerning her stay in Lübeck, which lasted almost a year.

On 23 Sept. 1941 the Strecknitz sanatorium was closed. 605 patients left Lübeck station that day. Gertrud Schmidt was one of 263 women and men sent in one transport to Eichberg, where they arrived the next day.

The Eichberg institution had been a intermediate institution for the Hadamar killing center until the T4-action had ended a month before. When the patients from Strecknitz arrived, Eichberg was already hopelessly overcrowded. Not even a quarter of those being transferred survived the first month. One of these was Gertrud Schmidt.

Reports from Eichberg employees indicate that one nurse was responsible for 80-100 patients. Nursing, cleaning or even assisting with meals for bedridden patients was not necessary. Even though the targeted killing of the T4-action had been stopped, 83% of the patients died of starvation, diarrheal diseases and deficiency symptoms or other consequences of neglect due to the decentralized euthanasia in the first year in Eichberg.

Gertrud Helene Schmidt died on 20 Oct. 1941. The death certificate states "cardiac insufficiency with infirmity and splitting insanity" as the cause of death. It can be assumed that she did not die of natural causes.

Still on 8 Oct. 1941 a new guardian had been appointed. We do not know the reasons for this and what his influence on the treatment of Gertrud Schmidt was.

The institution first informed the stepmother Lydia Schmidt by telegram that Gertrud Schmidt had died. Her mother learned of her daughter's death only belatedly and wrote on 23 Oct. "Only today and quite surprisingly and deeply saddened I received your sad news. A short time ago I was still in Strecknitz near Lübeck visiting my daughter [...] Why was my daughter sent to Eichberg [...]? And nothing was communicated to me?"

An illness made it impossible for the mother to come. A month later, however, she asked again in Eichberg how it could have come to the unexpected death of her daughter: "Now I still have no news from your side and it is nevertheless justified that I as a mother learn [...] how my daughter died. In the meantime, I have contacted Lübeck Strecknitz and received the information from there that my daughter left the institution physically healthy and that they cannot give any information about the death of my daughter, since they did not treat her. Now I must ask you very urgently to inform me as soon as possible and openly how it came about that my daughter died there so quickly. Without knowing anything, I am conceivably unhappy about it."

The terse note under the letter read on 17 Nov. 1941: "Your daughter fell asleep from weakness of the heart and circulation with general infirmity. She no longer suffered."

The address of Gertrud Schmidt's mother is given on her death notice as her place of residence: Wulfsdorfer Weg 139 in Volksdorf. It is not clear whether and how often Gertrud visited this apartment. Her mother had lived there with her second husband Karl Sauer and their common daughter since 1941 at the latest (in September 1939 she was still living at Grindelallee 150). Since her mother was the only constant link to her family and Gertrud Schmidt herself never had a permanent residence for a long time, a stumbling stone at this address commemorates Gertrud Helene Schmidt.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: January 2024
© Dorothea Lepper

Quellen: Geburtsurkunde Gertrud Helene Christine Schmidt. StaH 332-5_13613/393/1901. In Ancestry (Stand: 24. Oktober 2020); Hamburger Adressbücher. In: SUB: https://agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/start (Stand: 10. August 2020); Heiratsurkunde der Eltern Helene Tiedemann u. Karl Schmidt (inkl. Scheidungsvermerk). StaH 332-5_8602/173/1900. In Ancestry (Stand: 24. Oktober 2020); Heiratsurkunde (2. Heirat) Helene und Karl Schmidt. StaH 332-5-8718-31-1917; Heiratsurkunde (3. Heirat) Helene Tiedemann (gesch. Schmidt) und Karl Sauer. StaH 332-5-3376-883-1920; Meldekarteien: Meldekartei 332-8-A30; Meldekartei 332-8 A37; Meldekartei 332-8 A39. StaH Hausmeldekartei; Patientenakte Gertrud Helene Schmidt. Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, Abt. 430/1 Nr. 11051; Sterbeurkunde Hilde Berta Schmidt (Schwester von Gertrud Helene Schmidt). StaH 3359782/1253/1920. In Ancestry (Stand: 24. Oktober 2020); Sterbeurkunde Gertrud Helene Christine Schmidt. StA Erbach (Rheingau) Nr. 308. In: Ancestry (Stand: 24. Oktober 2020); Taufbescheinigung Gertud Helene Christine Schmidt. Ev. Kirchenbücher Rheinland, Taufregister Altona. In: Ancestry (Stand: 24. Oktober 2020); Böhme, Klaus und Uwe Lohalm (Hg.): Wege in den Tod. Hamburg 1993; Jenner, Harald und Michael Wunder: Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939 – 1945. Landeszentrale für politische Bildung u.a. (Hg.), 2017; URL: http://www.hamburger-euthanasie-opfer.de/ (Stand: 22.10.2020); Marien-Lunderup, Regina: Die Verlegung in die Lübecker Heilanstalt Strecknitz. In: Böhme, Klaus und Uwe Lohalm (Hg.): Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993, S. 233 – 255; Marien-Lunderup, Regina: Die Anstalten Eichberg und Weilmünster. In: Böhme, Klaus und Uwe Lohalm (Hg.): Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993, S-S. 305 – 319; von Rönn, Peter: Die Entwicklung der Anstalt Langenhorn in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. In: Böhme, Klaus und Uwe Lohalm (Hg.): Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993, S. S. 27 – 61; Wunder, Michael: Die Spätzeit der Euthanasie. In: Böhme, Klaus und Uwe Lohalm (Hg.): Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993, S. 397 – 424; Wille, Ingo: Transport in den Tod, Hamburg/Berlin 2017; Delius, Peter, Das Ende von Strecknitz, Die Lübecker Heilanstalt und ihre Auflösung 1941, Kiel 1988, S. 69 ff.