Hermann Jensen

Hermann Johann Hans Jensen (born April 30, 1895 in Schleswig ; † March 16, 1946 in Dresden ) was a German doctor , one of the initiators of the NS Sisterhood , medical director of the Central Biological Hospital , head of the Reich Mother House of the NS Sisterhood in Dresden and Representative for ideological and professional training of the NS sisters during the National Socialist era . In this way he influenced nursing at a crucial point during National Socialism .

Apprenticeship and years in Hanover

Jensen studied medicine in Kiel until 1920 and was hired in 1932 as a surgeon at the Hanover City Hospital as senior physician . He joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) on April 1, 1928 , became a member of the NSDAP before 1933 and also received the Golden Party Badge . In Hanover, Jensen influenced the establishment of a National Socialist sorority at the Hanover Hospital in April 1932 under the direction of Erna Mach . The sisterhood was founded and the first NS nursing school opened under the direction of Jensen and school superior Maria Münchmeyer on October 1, 1933. The NS sisterhood was founded on May 17, 1934, and the areas of education and training from June 1, 1934 Jensen subordinated; the areas of organization, administration and finance were the responsibility of the head of the National Socialist People's Welfare, Erich Hilgenfeldt .

National Socialist area of ​​responsibility in Dresden

On June 1, 1934, Jensen was also appointed chief physician of the surgical clinic and director of the Rudolf Hess hospital in Dresden- Johannstadt . Jensen was commissioned to develop the hospital into a central biological hospital and a model facility for New German Medicine . At the nursing school founded by his predecessor Otto Rostoski and Erna von Abendroth at the hospital, the Reich Mother House of the NS Sisterhood was established under Jensen's direction on July 1, 1934 .

With this, the professional political, ideological and ethical training of the NS sisters was transferred to the National Socialist doctor, who became the representative of the Reichsärzteführer . Jensen's aim was to give the NS Sisterhood as an elite unit of public health in the sense of the National Socialist regime tasks in the education of the people and in the dissemination of National Socialist ideas. In doing so, they should oust denominational sisters from their offices. In order to create this elite, rigid conditions for admission to the NS Sisterhood were created (conditions of admission in June 1934: Proof of Aryan status , impeccable reputation, party membership of the applicant to the NSDAP or party membership of the family before 1933 (SA)), and the subjects of racial hygiene and genetic biology were also introduced as well as knowledge from the New German Medicine such as dietetics , water applications and gymnastics . The change in the training structure was welcomed by both Reichsärzteführer Gerhard Wagner and his successor Leonardo Conti . By 1940, the Nazi sisterhood , known as the Brown Sisters because of their costume, had around 3,500 members; the Protestant Diakoniegemeinschaft under Auguste Mohrmann alone had 50,000 sisters in comparison.

The hospital, which was renamed the Gerhard Wagner Hospital after Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland , was badly damaged in 1945. Jensen handed the clinic over to one of his predecessors after the Wehrmacht surrendered . Jensen, suffering from diabetes mellitus, had to undergo a leg amputation, was imprisoned by the Soviet occupying forces and died in custody in 1946.

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Kathrin Kompisch: Perpetrators: Women under National Socialism. Böhlau Verlag Cologne Weimar, 2008, ISBN 3-412-20188-X
• Hilde Steppe : Nursing in National Socialism. Mabuse-Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-925499-35-0 .
• Horst-Peter Wolff: Jensen, Hermann In: Horst-Peter Wolff (Hrsg.): Biographical lexicon for the history of care. “Who was who in nursing history.” Urban & Fischer, 2001, Volume 2, ISBN 3-437-26670-5 , pp. 110–111.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death book of the Dresden-Cotta registry office No. 1646/1946
2. ↑ Patricia D'Antonio: Nursing History Review. , Volume 12/2004, Official Publication of the American Association for the History of Nursing, Springer Publishing Company, 2003, ISBN 0-8261-1479-2 , p. 128.
3. ↑ Klaus-Dietmar Henke : Deadly medicine in National Socialism: from racial hygiene to mass murder. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2008, ISBN 3-412-23206-8 , p. 127.
4. ↑ Elisabeth Müller-Luckner, Gerhard Besier: Between "national revolution" and military aggression. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2001, ISBN 3-486-56543-5 , p. 117.