Hermann Wesse

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Hermann Karl Wilhelm Wesse (born January 22, 1912 in Düsseldorf , † October 20, 1989 in Bad Hersfeld ) was a German psychiatrist who participated in the Nazi murders of the sick in the 1930s and 1940s. During this time he worked at several psychiatric institutions, including the Andernach institution , the Waldniel institution and the Kalmenhof in Idstein . In contrast to most of the other perpetrators of the National Socialist euthanasia crimes, who were largely unscathed unless they were directly sentenced to death and also executed, Wesse had to serve a prison sentence of almost twenty years after the war.

Childhood and studies

Wesse's parents were Eugenie Küntsch and the police candidate Hermann Wesse , who died shortly before the boy's birth. His parents were engaged at the time, but not yet married. He subsequently grew up under the tutelage of his uncle. Wesse was only allowed to use his father's surname with official approval in 1918. From 1918 he attended in Dusseldorf , the elementary school and then 1922 to 1931, the secondary school at Fürstenwall he with High School graduated. In 1931 he began studying medicine at the University of Cologne , which he interrupted between 1932 and 1934. It can be assumed that this interruption was related to financial difficulties. Wesse's post-war statements on this are contradictory. He claimed that he had to interrupt his studies because his father had died. His uncle, who might have been a father figure for him, may have died. However, this can no longer be understood today.

On April 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP , from which he received a financial contribution in 1934 that enabled him to continue his studies. In 1936 Wesse passed his Physikum in Cologne, then continued his studies at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf , where he passed his state examination in 1939 . Wesse was also a member of the SA from 1933 and held the position of political leader at the NSDAP .

Doctor in psychiatric hospitals and involved in the Nazi murders

Bedburg-Hau sanatorium and nursing home

On July 17, 1939, he was hired as a medical intern at the Bedburg-Hau sanatorium . On September 25, 1939, he received his appointment retrospectively to September 1, 1939, the day of the attack on Poland . At the end of 1939 he was given a position as a trainee doctor, considering that many prison doctors had already been drafted into the Wehrmacht .

In Bedburg-Hau he witnessed the largest mass deportation of euthanasia victims of the Nazi euthanasia crimes. A naval hospital was to be set up in the institution. In March 1940, the 2200 or so patients were examined by a group of doctors who had traveled within a week. In the following week, 1742 of these people were transferred, most of them directly for murder in the Grafeneck and Brandenburg killing centers .

Provincial Sanatorium Andernach

In fact, the prison doctors in Bedburg-Hau were no longer needed after the murder, which is why Wesse was transferred to the Provincial Sanatorium Andernach on April 22, 1940 . Wesse, who was already engaged at this point, met his future wife, the assistant doctor Hildegard Irmen . Due to the existing engagement, the love affair with Irmen caused a sensation in the institution. In July 1941, Irmen was transferred from Andernach to the Johannistal asylum , where, after a training period, she took over the men's department in the Waldniel branch. A connection to the relationship with Wesse cannot be seen. It was here that she met the physician Georg Renno , who was in charge of the children's department established in October 1941 , and made friends with him. At that time, Renno had already worked as deputy head of the Hartheim killing center in the killing of 18,000 people.

Wesse visited Irmen here regularly on the weekends. They were engaged in the meantime. The opportunity for both of them to lead a life together again arose in December 1941, shortly before their wedding. Renno proposed Wesse to the Reich Committee as successor with regard to the management of the children's department in Waldniel. The only requirement of the responsible department head for the Rhine province, Walter Creutz, was that Wesse should do training in youth psychiatry. He was sent to Hans Heinze in Brandenburg-Görden in the children's department there and then spent six months at the Rhineland State Clinic for Adolescent Psychiatry in Bonn .

Provincial sanatorium and nursing home Johannistal - Waldniel children's department

He was finally transferred to Waldniel on October 1, 1942. The very next day he signed his first death certificate.

After the closure of the Waldniel children's department , Wesse worked for Werner Catel at the Leipzig University Children's Clinic , a center for child euthanasia, from July 1943 . His wife had also been transferred to Leipzig. His supposed doctorate also falls during this time.

Wesse, who had been provisionally classified as indispensable (uk) due to special employment at the Fuehrer's Chancellery and therefore could not be drafted into the Wehrmacht by letter of February 22, 1942 , had to go to the staff company of medical, replacement and Move in training department II in Bückeburg. From December 19, 1943 to February 22, 1944 he completed basic training with Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 588 in Hanover . He was then transferred back to Staff Company II in Bückeburg and then assigned to the 14th Flak Division in Leipzig. On March 7, 1944, he was released from the Wehrmacht for a UK position.

Then he headed the children's department in Uchtspringe . His wife also worked in Uchtspringe.

Kalmenhof Idstein

The former hospital at Kalmenhof, where the children's department was set up

On May 10, 1944, he succeeded Mathilde Weber as head of the children's department at Idsteiner Kalmenhof . He wrote a letter to Richard von Hegener as early as May 12, 1944, two days after taking up his duties . He asked that children from the Reich Committee be relocated to Idstein, as there were none on site. So he asked his client to send death row inmates to be murdered. (Until September 1944, the respective perpetrator in the Kalmenhof was paid 5.00 RM for the murder of a person, the amount was later halved.) He was told that he should contact Provincial Councilor Fritz Bernotat in this regard . Bernotat instructed Wesse to “be content with what is there” and to draw up reports on the local children. At that time, however, Idstein did not have any children with mental or physical disabilities, but rather so-called "welfare children" who were considered socially conspicuous. An example of Wesse's approach is the case of Ruth Pappenheimer from Frankfurt am Main, who was housed in the Kalmenhof as a "socially unadapted youth". This case played a relevant and decisive role in the later Kalmenhof trial against (among others) Hermann Wesse.

Process, condemnation and clarification of the doctoral degree

When the US Army marched into Idstein on March 28, 1945, the occupying power took over the Kalmenhof. Wesse was initially arrested and transferred several times during his six-month detention. He was then released, presumably against the background that the Americans had no insight into the system of killing the sick at the time. He then moved to his wife in Düsseldorf and was arrested again on September 8, 1946 at the instigation of the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office . On January 30, 1947, Wesse was sentenced to death by the Frankfurt Regional Court in the Kalmenhof trial for murder in 25 cases. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court rejected the appeal on April 16, 1948 and thus confirmed the judgment.

On November 24, 1948, Wesse was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Düsseldorf Regional Court for his crimes in the Waldniel institution. On July 23, 1949, the revision of this procedure at the Cologne Higher Regional Court was rejected, which confirmed this judgment.

Since the death penalty was abolished with the entry into force of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949, the death sentence from the Kalmenhof trial was converted into a life sentence by the Hessian Prime Minister.

Hermann Wesse is shown in contemporary documents as having a doctorate that he would have obtained during his time in Leipzig . In the course of the processes, however, it became apparent that although he had received a topic for a doctorate , he never did the corresponding work. He himself had made contradicting statements on this in 1948 and 1949, but in the end he admitted in a survey for the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor that he had never obtained a doctorate. Correspondingly, the designation of a doctoral degree, as it can be found in the documents of the time and in many cases in the specialist literature today, is incorrect.

Imprisonment

After the conviction in the Kalmenhof trial, he began his prison sentence in the Ziegenhain correctional facility . Due to a tuberculosis illness , he was transferred to the prison hospital in Marburg on November 21, 1947, where he stayed until November 1949. He was then taken to the Kassel-Wehlheiden prison, where he stayed until at least 1953. By March 1955 at the latest, he was again in the Ziegenhain prison.

Hans Stempel , retired church president and a member of the board of silent aid , advocated a pardon for Wesse. Wesse's wife made two requests for clemency, one on November 20, 1952 and a second on May 4, 1953. Both were negative. Overall, the relationship between the two spouses clouded over. This is probably related to the fact that Hildegard's criminal proceedings were discontinued because of her crimes in 1953 and from that point on she sought a future free from past burdens, imprisonment or legal proceedings. After the failure of the second petition for clemency, all contact between the couple broke off. On June 27, 1956, the marriage with Hildegard Wesse, who had two children, was divorced by the Marburg -Lahn district court .

His mother also made two requests for clemency, a cousin another after the mother's death on September 10, 1958. The Prime Ministers of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia reduced Wesse's remaining sentences to 15 and 12 years respectively.

The information on Wesse's release from prison varies in the specialist literature. Andreas Kinast dates his release on January 1, 1965. According to Ernst Klee , Wesse was released from prison on September 5, 1966 because he was unfit for prison. The different data could be related to the two different processes. The remaining sentence was waived in March 1968.

On September 13, 1966, Wesse remarried. On February 1, 1967, he took up a position at the Braun medical and pharmaceutical plant in Melsungen . On June 11, 1971, the couple moved from Ziegenhain to Bad Hersfeld, where they both died. The marriage remained childless.

Motivation to work as a euthanasia doctor

Many people who were jointly responsible for the rest of their lives knew how to conceal their own guilt and to interpret it as silent resistance, and even to point out that they had only participated in order to prevent even worse things from happening. Among other things, Wesse's wife Hildegard belongs to this group of people. In this context there are only a few comments on Hermann Wesse; however, they always describe him as unscrupulous and indicate that he committed his craft of murder without hesitation. Such statements naturally surround the suspicion that they are protective claims to divert attention from one's own guilt.

According to Kinast, Wesse's behavior must not be glossed over or even approved. However, some aspects must be considered in order to evaluate this behavior appropriately and neutrally.

One of these aspects is the general propaganda at the time of National Socialism since the introduction of the law for the prevention of hereditary offspring , as a result of which in many areas of life - from school to films to medical studies - the population was educated at the expense of the mentally ill, "racial hygiene" etc. has been.

In view of his experiences in Bedburg-Hau, Wesse could also be certain that adult psychiatry was a profession without a future, since all patients were killed at some point. In contrast, in child psychiatry it was to be assumed that there is a continuous supply of patients .

But there are certainly also personal considerations in connection with his decision: for example, the physical proximity to his wife, the not inconsiderable additional income and the career opportunities. In addition, it must be taken into account that many doctors of his age were drafted into the Wehrmacht and served directly at the front in field hospitals, but with such a position he was considered to be "uk", indispensable and therefore exempt from the Wehrmacht.

Andreas Kinast assumes in his essay that his wife also had a strong influence on him. She was in contact with Georg Renno. In a 1997 interview with the Austrian journalist Walter Kohl , Renno himself had said about Wesse that he had "tried hard" to persuade Wesse. Ultimately, the fact that Hildegard and Hermann Wesse wanted to move in together was the decisive factor.

So Wesse seems - at least at first by no means unscrupulous - to have gone the path of least resistance, which offered him the most advantages when he became a murderer. In contrast to his wife, Wesse has expressed and shown remorse for his actions in the context of the subsequent legal appraisal and his detention.

“Active will and stressed energy do not seem to be the characteristic properties of Wesse […] Wesse apparently belongs to those people who are used to making their decisions and actions dependent on the stronger will of others. This need to allow oneself to be guided is ultimately psychologically the deepest cause of his criminal act. His volitional lack of independence is apparently due to his upbringing: from an early age until he finished his studies he lived under the strict discipline of an old-school police master who, as uncle and guardian, replaced his father, who died before Wesse was born, also financially. Under this strict regime, Wesse became accustomed to act according to the will of others [...] Subsequently he was under the influence of his bride, who was already employed in the euthanasia program. His recruit training in the military with the total duty of obedience could not help to raise the self-esteem. "

- Written assessment by the director of the special prison hospital in Marburg on August 27, 1948 to the chief public prosecutor at the Frankfurt am Main regional court

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 99.
  2. ^ A b Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 100.
  3. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007; P. 671.
  4. ^ A b Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 103.
  5. ^ Rüter-Ehlermann, nobility. Ruter, Christiaan. (Editor) Justice and Nazi crimes. Collection of German criminal convictions for Nazi homicide crimes 1945–1999. Volume 1. (1968) p. 239 ff.
  6. ↑ Günter Haffke: The role of the Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Institution Andernach in Nazi euthanasia In: "... we were all against the implementation of the euthanasia campaign." On the Nazi "euthanasia" in the Rhineland pp. 106-107 .
  7. ↑ Andreas Kinast: Hermann Wesse - tragedy of a child murderer? In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. Pp. 259-266.
  8. ↑ Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews. Frankfurt am Main 2004; P. 238.
  9. ↑ Andreas Kinast Hermann Wesse - The tragedy of a child murderer? In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 292.
  10. ↑ Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews. Frankfurt am Main 2004; P. 208.
  11. ^ Peter Sander: Administration of the murder of the sick. P. 745.
  12. ↑ Andreas Kinast: Hermann Wesse - tragedy of a child murderer? In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 259.
  13. ↑ Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 104.
  14. ↑ Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. Pp. 104-105.
  15. ↑ Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: "The child is not able to train ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 105.
  16. ^ A b Andreas Kinast: The prison doctors. In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Ed.): “The child is not capable of training…” Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943. P. 106.
  17. ↑ Quoted from: Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews. Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 208.
personal data
SURNAME Wesse, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wesse, Hermann Karl Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist who was involved in the National Socialist murders
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1989
Place of death Bad Hersfeld