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Ursula Westphal als junge Frau, 1921
© Privatbesitz

Ursula Westphal * 1906

Große Theaterstraße 25 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

1943 Euthanasieanstalt Wien-Steinhof
ermordet 05.05.1944

further stumbling stones in Große Theaterstraße 25:
Otto Westphal

Ursula Ortrud Gerda Westphal, b. 6.25.1906 on the East Frisian Island of Spiekeroog, date of death 5.5.1944 in the Wagner von Jauregg Medical and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna
Otto Christian Friedrich Westphal, b. 5.28.1883 in Hamburg, imprisoned on 7.10.1944, died on 4.13.1946 in Hamburg, from the long-term effects of incarceration

Große Theaterstraße 25 (Große Theaterstraße 22)

Ursula Westphal was born in 1906 during her parents‘ vacation on the North Sea island of Speikeroog. She was the second child of Otto Westphal and Friederike, née Bruns. The couple had married on 16 August 1904 in Mühlhausen, Alsace. Their first child was Otto, who later, like his father, became certified as a dentist.

Ursula’s father conducted a practice on the ground floor of a house at Grossen Theaterstrasse 22 in Hamburg, where the family also lived. He had bought the house from his mother Catharina. His father Hans had established a dental practice in the New City at Neustrasse 49 (today, Neustädter Strasse), in the vicinity of Grossneumarkt; he had already died.

Ursula’s mother was born the first of four sisters in Syke, Lower Saxony. Her father, Karl Bruns, moved his family to Hamburg, became a journalist, and worked for the Hamburger Correspondent.

In 1916 and 1919, Ursula’s younger sisters, Ruth and Christa, died from common colds. In 1919, while Christa took ill and eventually died, her mother was expecting her eighth child. Ursula had to help her mother with the house and in the care of her siblings. Aside from this, she attended the St. Johannis Klosterschule, a modern high school for girls.

In 1998, her niece, Roswitha Klau-Westphal, held a symposium on "The History of National Socialist Euthanasia in Vienna,” lecturing about the ordeal of her Aunt Ursula; she described her as a beautiful woman, with a full head of red hair, who had fought like a lioness for her autonomy and her personal freedom. She was critical of the fact that Ursula had constantly to help her mother, while her older brother sat comfortably in a back room with his books and who expected her to serve his needs. She was severely scolded. Her parents, in their need, apparently saw no other possibility for coping with everyday life.

After leaving school with an intermediate degree, Ursula attended professional school and in 1924 studied in an arts and crafts school in Lerchenfeld, today the College of Visual Arts. In 1929, the painter and illustrator, Karl Kluth (b. 1898, d. 1972), one of the leading figures in the "Hamburg Secession,” rented an attic studio in Ursula’s parents’ home. There he painted a picture of her in the nude, lying on a red sofa. Today, this picture hangs in the Hamburg Art Museum and was considered by Nazi standards to be "Degenerate Art.” It contributed to the grounds for the premature closing of the artists’ Twelfth Secession Exhibition in March 1933. Apparently, Ursula was in love with this man and hoped that he would introduce her into his artists’ group. But Kluth was married, and when he obtained a free studio from the city, he moved there and did not bother about her any longer.

Perhaps, Ursula felt free and independent for the first time, when she went to Düsseldorf, to take on a trial position with a graphic arts company. However, the job did not materialize. Thus, she fell into financial need, became homeless, and, because of her erratic behavior, was committed to the Grafenberg Institute. As a result of her family’s efforts, she was transferred to the Friedrichsberg State Mental Hospital in Hamburg-Eilbek; from there she was taken back home by her mother.

Ursula Westphal’s real ordeal began on New Year’s Eve 1932, when she had another nervous breakdown and was committed to the Alsterdorf Institute (today, the Alsterdorf Evangelical Foundation), where she remained for eleven years.

On 16 August 1943, together with 228 other handicapped women and girls, Ursula was sent to the Wagner von Jauregg Medical and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna. The rationale given was that the Institute had been destroyed by an air raid. Family members were not informed of the transfer. When her mother wanted to visit her, Ursula had suddenly vanished.

Michael Wunder, a senior employee of the Alsterdorf Evangelical Institute, said of her: "She [Ursula] was seen at Alsterdorf as always fun-loving, but also as wild and restless, which was probably the reason for her transfer. She weighed approximately 100 pounds when she was selected. A few months later, as revealed in the Vienna records: ‘Lies in bed, anxious, unclean, picks at her underclothes.’ A half year later: "Completely dependent on care, does not speak, always lies under the covers, always quiet.’ Shortly before her death, it was noted: "Does not react when spoken to. Weight 73 pounds."

The killing methods of the Vienna Institute consisted of a swift debilitation through malnourishment, intentional hypothermia, and the administering of medications, such as luminal, which attacked the bronchial tubes. Ursula died on 5 May 1944. The cause of death was given as pneumonia.

Because of the efforts of her mother, Ursula’s urn was interred in the family grave of her grandparents at the Bergedorf Cemetery. There, on 8 May 2001, upon the initiative of Roswitha Klau-Westphal and with the support of the Alsterdorf Evangelical Foundation, as well as the Sophie und Hans Scholl Foundation, a memorial stone was dedicated, remembering the fate of Ursula Westphal. The jar with her brain sample has not been found to this day.

Ursula’s father, Otto Westphal, had, after his training at the RVB Teaching Institute, "German Dentists in Berlin,” spent a few years in Switzerland and Austria as an assistant and technician, before he opened his own practice. He was a confirmed Anthroposophist. Prior to his participation in World War I, in the fall of 1911, he had founded a "Center” within the German section of the "Theosophical Society.” On 12 June 1912, this Center was dedicated under the name of the "Christian-Rosicrucian-Chapter.”

The founder of Anthroposophy was Rudolf Steiner (b. 1861, d. 1925). He developed his theory of knowledge in engagement with Goethe’s writings on the natural sciences, which he published, as well as with other philosophical influences of his era. The Nazis banned the Anthroposophical Society in 1935. Otto Westphal nevertheless continued meeting with like-minded individuals in his home or in specially rented rooms. As the result of an anonymous report concerning "Infringement of the Law against Treachery, "he was placed under surveillance. Two Gestapo agents, disguised as patients, attempted to get invited to the "illegal” meetings.

On 10 July 1944, Otto Westphal was arrested because of forbidden anthroposophical activity and brought to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison. On 12 April 1945, as Allied forces were nearing the city, the prison was evacuated. A part of the prisoners, Otto Westphal among them, were marched to the "Nordmark Worker Education Camp” at Kiel-Hassee. Two days before the liberation of the camp by British troops, the camp commandant freed him because of his age and poor health. He returned to Hamburg, an emaciated skeleton.

The anthroposophist Otto Westphal died on 13 April 1946 from the long-term effects of inhuman incarceration.

Friederike Westphal, a dental technician, continued the "Christian-Rosicrucian-Chapter” of her husband, disguised as a coffee party; she died on 4 December 1958.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Roswitha Klau-Westphal/Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2055 u 2604/1883; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1258 u 137/1946; StaH 351-11 AfW 7676 (Westphal, Frieda); StaH 351-11 AfW 6836 (Westphal, Otto); StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 2/1995, 33722; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakten der Alsterdorfer Anstalten, V214 Ursula Westphal; Roswitha Klau-Westphal, Symposion zur Geschichte der NS-Euthanasie in Wien, gehalten am 30.1.1998; Garbe/Michelsen/Richenberger: Gedenkstätten, S. 15; Wunder/Genkel/Jenner: schiefen Ebene; Kosemund: Spurensuche, S. 40; Bruhns: Kunst, Band 2, S. 235; www.akens.org (Zugriff 16.4.2016); http://www.christian-rosenkreutz-zweig.de/Seiten/Geschichte_f.html (Zugriff 16.4.2016).