Old prison (Brandenburg an der Havel)

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Former main building of the prison, seat of the city administration since the 1950s (2014)

The old prison in Brandenburg an der Havel has an eventful history as a poor house , prison , concentration camp and killing facility . Parts of the Brandenburg city administration and the memorial for the victims of the euthanasia murders are housed on the premises and in the buildings . The address used to be Neuendorfer Straße 90, today's address is Nicolaiplatz 28 or 30.

history

Penitentiary

The main entrance of the old prison on Neuendorfer Strasse (1928)

The oldest buildings of the former penitentiary date from 1790. At this point in time, construction of the Royal Poor's and Invalid House began on the grounds of the Saldrian School Garden , behind the Syndikatsgraben , in front of the city gates . 100 “disabled” soldiers with families and 300 impoverished citizens from the Mark Brandenburg should find free shelter there. The area up to the Unterhavel served as a garden for self-sufficiency. From 1810 to 1820 prisoners from the overcrowded prison in Spandau were also housed there. In 1820 it was converted into a Prussian penal institution and the area was surrounded by a high brick wall. In 1896–1898 the main building was extensively expanded and the main building was converted. In 1920 and 1923 prison inmates revolted because of cuts in food rations, and they were bloodily suppressed. At that time the detention center was overcrowded with up to 700 inmates with a planned occupancy of 200-300. Sometimes more than half of the inmates were convicted participants in the workers' uprisings of 1919/1920. Due to catastrophic hygienic conditions, a new prison was built in the Görden district in 1931 and the old prison was initially closed.

Use as a concentration camp 1933–1934

The prison was used from August 1933 to February 1934 as one of the so-called " early concentration camps ". (See also this list )

On May 26, 1933, the Brandenburg police administration proposed the establishment of a concentration camp in the old penitentiary to the Potsdam district president Ernst Fromm , since 150 to 200 people had been imprisoned in the new penitentiary, which had a maximum capacity of 600 prisoners, within a few days and thus overcrowding threatened.

The reverse of a letter from the Brandenburg concentration camp with the
camp commandant stamped
Letter from the camp commandant's office in the Brandenburg concentration camp

In August 1933 the concentration camp was established by the Brandenburg Police School, whose director it was nominally subordinate to. On August 15, was the Oranienburg concentration camp a camp rules and regulations requested service for security personnel. The Brandenburg magistrate approved the construction of the concentration camp on August 16, subject to the proviso that it should be a temporary solution. The guard was entrusted to the SS , whose team was commanded by Hauptsturmführer Fritz Tank. In fact, he was also the commandant of the camp, since the director of the police school gave him a free hand.

On August 24, 1933, the first transport of 90 prisoners arrived in the Brandenburg concentration camp. In the following weeks the occupancy increased to 1000 to 1200 prisoners. As part of the centralization efforts to standardize the concentration camps in Prussia, the Brandenburg concentration camp was recognized as a state concentration camp by Ludwig Grauert's decree of October 14, 1933, alongside the Lichtenburg , Papenburg and Sonnenburg camps.

The living conditions of the prisoners were marked by catastrophic sanitary conditions (which had led to the prison being closed), harassment and mistreatment by the guards. At least three prisoners (the communist city councilor Gertrud Piter and the communists Otto Ganzer and Georg Ziersch ) were tortured to death.

Between 300 and 500 prisoners were released at Christmas 1933, on January 31, 1934 the concentration camp was dissolved and the remaining prisoners were transferred to the Lichtenburg , Papenburg and Oranienburg concentration camps . The last transports left the Brandenburg concentration camp on February 2, 1934.

Dr. T. Neubauer (left); GDR postage stamp 1970

Known inmates

  • Kurt Hiller (1885–1972), writer and publicist
  • Werner Hirsch (1899–1941), communist functionary and secretary to Ernst Thälmann
  • Siegbert Kahn (1909–1976), communist functionary, later director of the German Economic Institute of the GDR
  • Ferdinand Kobitzki (1890–1944), German union leader
  • Hans Litten (1903–1938), lawyer
  • Bruno Lösche (1898–1963), politician (SPD)
  • Erich Mühsam (1878–1934), writer
  • Theodor Neubauer (1890–1945), member of the Reichstag (KPD)
  • Fritz Ohlig (1902–1971), politician and later member of the Bundestag (SPD)
  • Gertrud Piter (1899–1933), the only city councilor of the KPD in the city council assembly of Brandenburg / H.
  • Karl Plättner (1893–1945), German communist and author
  • Magnus Poser (1907–1944), German communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.
  • Georg Wendt (1889–1948), member of the Reichstag (SPD)

Used as an euthanasia center from 1939–1940

Memorial plaque from Franz Andreas Threyne

The Brandenburg killing facility (officially designated as "Landes-Pflegeeanstalt Brandenburg a. H." to disguise its actual function) was set up as the second facility after Grafeneck as a "euthanasia" facility for Action T4 .

As early as January 1940, the killing of people with carbon monoxide was tested in Brandenburg ad Havel. Among the fifteen observers of this "test gassing" were almost the entire management level of the T4 headquarters (including Philipp Bouhler and Karl Brandt ), liaison officers to the Reich Ministry of the Interior , employees of the Forensic Institute , the Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti and Irmfried Eberl , who later became head of the Killing facility.

The scheduled killing began in February. By October 1940, more than 9,000 mentally ill and mentally handicapped people from northern and central Germany were murdered in the gas chamber . The gas chambers were disguised as showers. There were also children and Jewish patients among the victims. A well-known victim is the architect and painter Paul Goesch .

The victims had previously been “pulled together” in sanatoriums and nursing homes. From there, on September 27, 1940, 158 Jews from northern Germany were deported from Wunstorf to Brandenburg. They were supposed to be "transferred" to the " Chełm Asylum " in Cholm near Lublin . This place exists, but the institution was closed in January 1940 after all inmates were murdered by the SS.

The cremation ovens for removing the corpses were initially located on the premises of the institution. They were later moved to a secluded farm near Paterdamm (southeast of the city).

In October 1940 the Brandenburger asylum and its entire staff were relocated to the newly established Bernburg killing center.

Of the asylum barn, which was used as a gas chamber, only the rear wall remains, which today represents the south-western end of the site. In 1963 a bronze plaque designed by Franz Andreas Threyne was inaugurated. It is attached to a wall that now closes off the area from Nicolaiplatz .

Casualty numbers

According to a list made at the end of 1942 and found in 1945, the so-called Hartheim Statistics , a total of 9,772 people were murdered in the Brandenburg killing center in 1940.

1940 Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct total
105 495 477 974 1431 1529 1419 1382 1177 8989

These statistics only include the first phase of the murder of Aktion T4 , which was completed on August 24, 1941 by order of Hitler .

Killing doctors

The T4 organizers Viktor Brack and Werner Heyde ordered that the killing of the sick could only be carried out by the medical staff, since Hitler's letter of authorization of September 1, 1939 only referred to doctors. In the killing centers, doctors usually opened the valves on the gas bottles and then diagnosed death. However, in the course of the action it also happened that, when the doctors were absent or for other reasons, the gas tap was also operated by non-medical staff. All doctors did not use their real names in correspondence with the outside world, but instead used cover names. The following were active as killing doctors in Brandenburg:

Reuse

Some of the buildings were destroyed in World War II (church, hospital building, gatehouse, one third of the main building). The destroyed buildings were demolished in 1954 together with the so-called work and sleeping cell buildings, and barracks for the city administration were built in their place. The city administration is housed in the preserved part of the main building (renovated and rebuilt in 1954/1955 and 1980s). The original facade structure was removed. In the former director's house (one-storey building with a gable roof, south-east towards the Havel, built around 1900) there is now a day-care center and a memorial in the former workshop.

memorial

On August 17, 2012, the memorial for the victims of the euthanasia murders was opened by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation as the last facility after the existing memorial sites in the Bernburg , Grafeneck , Hadamar , Hartheim and Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centers . Since then, a permanent exhibition in the former farm building of the prison has been covering around 120 m 2 and provides information on the preparations, implementation and those involved in the murder of more than 9,000 sick and disabled people between January and October 1940. The people murdered in Brandenburg are also shown using photos and Documents in view. At the former location of the gas chamber, more photos of victims are shown in an open-air exhibition. In the prison building itself, the Brandenburg an der Havel memorials, which are also responsible for the memorial to the history of the former Brandenburg-Görden prison , use rooms as an archive, library and for educational work. In addition to educational offers for youth groups, school classes and trainees, the memorial also offers job-specific study days and including guided tours by and for people with learning difficulties.

literature

KZ, killing center

  • Johannes Tuchel : Concentration Camp. Organizational history and function of the “Inspection of the Concentration Camps” 1934–1938. Boppard, 1991.
  • Volker Bendig: “Of all the hells, perhaps the cruellest.” The concentration camp in Brandenburg an der Havel 1933–1934. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (Hrsg.): Instrumentarium der Macht. Volume 3 of the series Early Concentration Camps 1933–1937. Metropol, Berlin 2003, pp. 103-109.
  • Ernst Klee : "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state. The destruction of life unworthy of life. Fischer-Taschenbuch 4326, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 . (Test gassing, starvation food)
  • Ernst Klee (Ed.): Documents on "Euthanasia". Fischer-Taschenbuch 4327, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 .
  • Astrid Ley: The beginning of the Nazi murder in Brandenburg an der Havel. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , 58, 2010, p. 327.
  • Astrid Ley, Annette Hinz-Wessels (ed.): The euthanasia institution Brandenburg an der Havel. Murders of the sick and the handicapped under National Socialism. Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-085-1 .
    • In English: The “Euthanasia Institution” of Brandenburg an der Havel. Murder of the ill and handicapped during National Socialism. ISBN 978-3-86331-086-8 .
  • Ingo Wille: Transport to death - From Hamburg-Langenhorn to the Brandenburg killing center - Life pictures of 136 Jewish patients , Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-366-1 ( PDF file )

For further references, see the main article: The euthanasia murders during the Nazi era or Aktion T4

Building history

  • Harald Bodenschatz, Carsten Seifert: Urban architecture in Brandenburg an der Havel: from the Middle Ages to the present . Transit, Berlin 1992, DNB  931831695 .

Web links

Commons : Altes Zuchthaus Brandenburg an der Havel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. Astrid Ley / Annette Hinz-Wessels (eds.): The euthanasia institution Brandenburg an der Havel. Murders of the sick and the disabled under National Socialism , Metropol-Verlag Berlin 2012
  2. a b 15 years FH Brandenburg published by Rainer Janisch. University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg, Brandenburg ad Havel 2007
  3. ^ History of the building
  4. Ernst Klee, “Euthanasia” in the Nazi State. The destruction of life unworthy of life ., Fischer-Taschenbuch Nr. 4326, Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 , p. 126.
  5. Volker Bendig: "Of all the hells, perhaps the cruelest" The concentration camp in Brandenburg an der Havel 1933–1934 in: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): Instrumentarium der Macht , Volume 3 of the series Early Concentration Camps 1933–1937 Berlin: Metropol , 2003, p. 68ff
  6. Brandenburger Anzeiger of February 2, 1934. No. 28, 125th year
  7. The often mentioned day January 18 is controversial - see Astrid Ley: The beginning of the Nazi murder of the sick in Brandenburg an der Havel. On the importance of the 'Brandenburg trial killing' for the 'Action T4'. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 58 (2010), pp. 326–327
  8. Astrid Ley: The 'invention' of a murder method, the 'trial gassing' and the murder of the sick in Brandenburg / Havel. In: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New studies on National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-99-2 , pp. 94/95.
  9. Norbert Jachertz: 9,000 victims, 8,000 names . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . tape 109 , no. 46 , 2012, p. A2319 ( aerzteblatt.de [PDF; accessed on September 8, 2015]).
  10. ^ A b Marie-Luise Buchinger: City of Brandenburg an der Havel, Part 2: Outer districts and incorporated places . In: Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation, on behalf of the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg (Ed.): Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany - Monuments in Brandenburg . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms am Rhein 1995, DNB  1025345371 , p. 141 ff .
  11. Ernst Klee (Ed.): Documents on "Euthanasia". Fischer Taschenbuch Nr. 4327, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , Doc. 87, p. 232 / Henry Friedlander: Der Weg zum NS-Genozid. From euthanasia to the final solution. Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 , p. 190, also gives the number 9,772.
  12. Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich , completely revised. New edition Frankfurt / M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 145.
  13. ^ Contributions by several authors in: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New Studies on National Socialist Mass Killings by Poison Gas. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-99-2 , p. 98, p. 105, p. 113, p. 115.
  14. Page of the memorial

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 39 ″  N , 12 ° 33 ′ 2 ″  E