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Gisela Martens * 1936

Bachstraße 35, Ecke Heinrich-Hertz-Straße (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
GISELA MARTENS
JG. 1936
EINGEWIESEN 1940
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
‚KINDERFACHABTEILUNG‘
ERMORDET 4.9.1943

Gisela Martens, born on 13.12.1936 in Hamburg, admitted to the former ‚Alsterdorf Asylum‘ (‚Alsterdorfer Anstalten’ now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 15.11.1940, ‘transferred” to Vienna to the ‘Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien’ (also known as the ‘Am Steinhof’ institution) on 16.8.1943, died there on 4.9.1943

Bachstraße 35

Gisela Martens was not quite four years old when she was admitted to the former ‚Alsterdorf Asylum‘ (‚Alsterdorfer Anstalten’ now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 15 November 1940. The general practitioner, W. Roggenkämper, gave the following reasons in a few words: ‘Forceps birth, transverse position, very poor, mentally far behind, not walking at almost 4 years old, severe rickets.’

The parents, the labourer Richard Martens, born on 17 December 1904 in Ollndorf, and his wife Hedwig, née Frank, born on 30 June 1903 in Zarrentin, had both come to Hamburg from western Mecklenburg. They married here on 15 October 1930 and found a flat at Bachstraße 35 in Barmbek.

Gisela Martens was born on 13 December 1936 in the Finkenau Women's Clinic. She had an older brother, Günther, born on 19 April 1931, her sister Helga was born on 22 December 1935 and another sibling in November 1940.

During the complicated birth, Gisela Martens suffered from a lack of oxygen, presumably the cause of the problems that occurred later. At the age of six months, she had to be hospitalised due to breathing problems that had occurred since birth and a chronic cough with severe background noises, she was admitted to Barmbek Hospital. It was only after two months that she was allowed to return to her family when she was better. By the time she was one year old, her limitations were recognisable and she required intensive care.

In autumn 1940, Gisela's mother was expecting her fourth child. Her parents feared that she would no longer be able to cope with caring for the girl and would no longer be able to give her two siblings the attention they needed. At the time, Gisela could barely sit up without support and was completely dependent. She did not speak, wet and soiled herself. She was considered permanently incapable of education.

When Gisela was admitted to the ‚Alsterdorf Asylum‘ (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten’) on 15 November 1940, she still couldn't speak, couldn't stand or walk, but could sit on her own. The staff perceived the child as friendly and calm, she had to be fed with porridge and fully cared for.

The previous report was repeated in Gisela Martens' patient file in August 1941. However, in October it was stated that she had improved a lot, played to herself and was happy when someone occupied themselves with her. Now she could also be kept clean for the most part. Apparently nothing changed in the following two years.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in July/August 1943 (‚Operation Gomorrah‘), the ‚Alsterdorf Asylum‘ also suffered bomb damage. The head of the asylum, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took the opportunity, after consultation with the health authorities, to transfer some of the residents who were considered to be hard to work, in need of care or particularly difficult to care for to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 August 1943, a transport of 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the ‚Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home‘ departed for Vienna to the ‚Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna‘. Gisela Martens was among them.

In Vienna, Gisela Martens is said to have been physically weak, very pale and very restless on admission. Four days later, on 20 August, her medical file contained the entry: ‚Decayed, weak‘.

Gisela Martens died on 4 September 1943.
The cause of death was recorded as ‘marasmus with idiocy’ and ‘imbecillitas’.
(‘Marasmus’ is a severe form of malnutrition. ‘Imbezillitas’ and ‘idiocy’ are no longer common terms for a moderate mental disability or a severe form of intellectual disability).

On 31 October 1943, Gisela Martens' mother, who had been evacuated from Hamburg to Schwerin in Mecklenburg because of the air raids, wrote to the Wagner von Jauregg Institution asking for information about her daughter's condition. The reply dated 11 November 1943 read: ‘In response to your letter of 31 May, you are informed that your daughter Gisela was brought here from Hamburg on 17 August in a large ambulance transport and died here of pulmonary tuberculosis on 4 September.
You were informed of her death by telegraph on the same day at the address ‘Hedwig Martens, Hamburg, Bachstr. 35”, which had been noted here. As no funeral arrangements had been made by relatives after one week, the body was buried at Vienna Central Cemetery. The director.’

In the Vienna asylum, the head physician/pathologist Barbara Uiberrak had carried out the post-mortem examination of the corpse and, in particular, examined the brain, which she preserved in formalin. Since 1943, the brains of around half of all dissected corpses were removed for histological examination and some of them were kept in the brain anatomy collection. Until 2002, there were still 700 brains in the Vienna Institute that had been removed during dissections.

Stand: July 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg 1937; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 156 (Gisela Martens). 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 ff. 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., 331 ff.