Kortau Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Home

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Former clinic building (current condition)

The Provincial Heil- und Pflege-Anstalt Kortau was a psychiatric hospital in the East Prussian Kortau ( Kortowo ), immediately south of Allenstein (Olsztyn, today incorporated). It was operated from 1886 to 1945 and at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the most modern psychiatric hospitals in what was then the German Empire .

Origins

Kortau was initially planned for 600 patients, the capacity was expanded to 1,400 beds in 1936. The total area was around 253 ha, of which 98 ha were used as arable land and 31 ha as grassland. Of a total of 56 buildings (1912), 24 were used to accommodate the sick. The complex had a church that was used for Protestant and Catholic services, as well as its own cemetery for patients and employees. The original construction costs amounted to approx. 3.17 million marks , after the turn of the century another 1 million marks were invested in extensions. In 1912 there were a total of 937 patients in the sanatorium, 417 male patients were cared for by 75 nurses, 520 female patients by 90 nurses. During the First World War , Kortau was partially used as a hospital , due to the poor supply situation and rampant infectious diseases, the number of patients fell to about half the pre-war occupancy.

The clinic's founding director was Eugen Hallervorden (1886–1891), father of Julius and Margarete Hallervorden , followed by Adolf Stoltenhoff (1891–1917), the father of Heinrich Stoltenhoff . In the 1920s, Kortau was founded by Dr. Friedrich Lullies, then by Dr. Kurt Hauptmann (1883–1945) directed.

Aktion Lange and Aktion T4

After 1933, compulsory sterilizations were carried out in Kortau in accordance with the law for the prevention of hereditary offspring .

Between May 21 and 31, 1940, 301 patients from Kortau were deported to the Soldau concentration camp in the course of “Aktion Lange” and murdered in a group of 1,558 inmates of East Prussian psychiatric institutions. The victims were selected by the clinic doctors based on the patient's ability to work and adapt, as well as the assumed chance of recovery. Patients who had been housed for more than 5 years were considered incurable. Since many of the patients were under legal guardianship and relatives were present, the "Aktion Lange" caused a relative sensation. Inquiries from the responsible local courts and guardianship officers led to the intervention of the President of the Higher Regional Court in Königsberg , Max Draeger , who instructed them to refrain from further inquiries. The official death declarations were made in the course of 1941, both the date of death and the place of death were regularly falsified. The stereotypical indication of the cause of death (“contagious disease”) and the immediate cremation of the victims also led to distrust.

After the Allenberg Provincial Sanatorium was closed , its patients were transferred to Kortau on June 8, 1940. In the course of the T4 campaign , Kortau served as a hub for the transport of East Prussian patients to the killing centers. In July 1941, a total of at least 474 inmates were transported several times, 78 of them directly to the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing center . The others were subsequently murdered according to their killing capacity. Further transports took place in August 1941 (196 patients) and February 1942 (348 patients). In individual cases of “wild euthanasia” the killing took place in Kortau. A total of about 4,000 patients in East Prussian psychiatric institutions, 2/3 of the pre-war occupancy, were killed between 1940 and 1942.

date Number of deported patients target
May 21, 1940 285 Soldau concentration camp
May 22, 1940 1 Soldau concentration camp
May 31, 1940 15th Soldau concentration camp
July 8, 1941 78 Pirna-Sonnenstein killing center
8/9 July 1941 272 Großschweidnitz
8/9 July 1941 112 Zschadraß
8/9 July 1941 at least 12 Arnsdorf
August 15, 1941 196 Uchtspringe
February 14, 1942 350 (348) Altscherbitz

hospital

At the turn of 1939/40, a 75-bed "sports hospital for amputated soldiers" was initially housed as part of the Allenstein garrison hospital in Kortau. From 1941 until the end of the war, Kortau was again used as a military hospital for members of the Wehrmacht and prisoners of war . The hospital had a capacity of 1,350 beds, while the psychiatric clinic was reduced to 520 beds.

Former hospital building, Aleja Warszawska

End of war

On January 19 or 20, 1945, a total of 500 patients were evacuated by railroad, the further fate of this transport is unclear. The evacuees were probably killed by the action of the war. On the night of January 21-22, 1945, Soviet troops of the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps, under the command of Nikolai Oslikowskij Allenstein, captured Allenstein practically without a fight. In Kortau, all of the remaining patients, medical staff and refugees present were killed by members of the Red Army . Numerous buildings were set on fire with the patients there. The clinic director and his wife were found shot, several doctors had apparently hanged themselves in the attic of a residential building (now Aleja Warszawska 107). Ewa Gładkowska, on the other hand, says: "The doctors from Kortowo were hanged in the attic of the building in today's Aleja Warszawska 107."

post war period

After the local population had fled and expelled , the clinic premises remained unused until around 1950. In the summer of 1950, an agricultural school was founded and moved here from Cieszyn and Łódź . In the course of the expansion of the school, the hospital cemetery was closed and 3,625 dead were exhumed. Six mass graves were also found , the largest of which was discovered in 1955 and contained the remains of 227 men, women and children. Another exhumation took place in 1963 with 109 dead. Magdalena Sacha estimates the total number of deaths in January 1945 at around 400.

Today the clinic is part of the University of Warmia-Masuria , and a memorial commemorates the victims of euthanasia. A memorial in Pirna-Sonnenstein has been commemorating the patients murdered there since 2009, 600 named victims came from East Prussian institutions.

Personalities

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Johannes Bresler : German sanatoriums and care institutions for the mentally ill in words and pictures . Carl Marhold Verlagbuchhandlung, Halle (Saale) 1912, p. 176 ff . ( uni-hamburg.de ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Magdalena Sacha: Kortau and Kortowo "purgatory" and campus - the narration of non-memory and non-place in an area ( English , PDF) In: Przegląd Zachodni, II 2017 . Instytut Zachodni . P. 83 ff. December 29, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Boris Böhm, Hagen Markwardt, Ulrich Rottleb: "Will be transferred to a state sanatorium and nursing home in Saxony today" - The murder of East Prussian patients in the National Socialist killing center in Pirna-Sonnenstein in 1941 . Ed .: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. 2015, ISBN 978-3-86583-976-3 , pp. 28 ff., 163 .
  4. ^ Michael Geyer : Psychotherapy in East Germany: History and Stories 1945–1995 . Ed .: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-40177-4 , pp. 55 ( google.de ).
  5. ↑ a b c Ewa Gładkowska: Kortowo (Kortau) - hospital and memorial . German-Polish youth agency.
  6. ↑ a b c d Sascha Topp, Petra Fuchs, Gerrit Hohendorf, Paul Richter, Maike Rotzoll: The Province of East Prussia and the National Socialist "euthanasia": SS - "Aktion Lange" and "Aktion T4" . In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 43 . 2008, pp. 20-55.
  7. ^ Sascha Topp, Christoph Mundt, Wolfgang U. Eckart, Maike Rotzoll, Gerrit Hohendorf, Petra Fuchs, Paul Richter: Sick killings in East Prussia - A comparison of "Aktion Lange" and "Aktion T4" in: The National Socialist "Euthanasia" campaign "T 4" and its victims . Ed .: Ferdinand Schöningh. 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76543-7 , pp. 169 ff .
  8. ^ Kortau - Hospital for the mentally ill . ns-euthanasie.de.
  9. ↑ Boris Böhm a. a .: "Will be transferred today to a state sanatorium and nursing home in Saxony", p. 156
  10. ^ Lew Kopelew: Keeping for all time . 1986, ISBN 3-423-01440-7 , pp. 112 .
  11. ^ Christian Tilitzki : The Albertus University of Königsberg, Volume 1: 1871-1918 . 2012, ISBN 978-3-05-004312-8 , pp. 176, 580 ( google.de ).

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 45 ′ 37 ″  N , 20 ° 27 ′ 30 ″  E