Theodor Steinmeyer

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Theodor Steinmeyer (born December 7, 1897 in Oettingen in Bavaria ; † May 26, 1945 in Mühlhausen / Thuringia ) was a German psychiatrist who was involved in Nazi murders .

Life

Steinmeyer was the son of a manufacturer. After studying medicine at the University of Erlangen , he received his doctorate there in 1924 with the dissertation : On the therapeutic influence of anemia perniciosa, chlorosis, secondary anemia and chronic leukemia as a Dr. med. He then worked as a general practitioner in Nuremberg . He joined the NSDAP in 1929, and from that point on he was also an SA standard doctor.

After completing his specialist training as a psychiatrist, he worked at the Wehnen sanatorium from 1929 and became director of the sanatorium and nursing home in Bremen in 1934. From 1939 he headed the sanatorium and nursing home in Marsberg and youth psychiatry (St. Johannesstift) in Niedermarsberg in personal union. From February 28, 1940 Steinmeyer was active as a T4 expert . In doing so, he processed registration forms from patients from sanatoriums and nursing homes and decided which of the patients should be classified as a "euthanasia case". Steinmeyer was directly involved in the euthanasia crimes.

From March 1941 to March 1943 Steinmeyer was deployed to the T4 central office in Berlin, where he “selected” patients from sanatoriums and nursing homes and, as part of Aktion 14f13, concentration camp prisoners who were unable to work as euthanasia cases for the Nazi killing centers. Together with Friedrich Mennecke - Otto Hebold joined later - he “selected” concentration camp prisoners in Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Within four working days in the concentration camp, the three doctors decided on the murder of 350 to 400 prisoners. While Mennecke stayed in a hotel in Oranienburg , Steinmeyer came every morning by S-Bahn from Berlin to work in the concentration camp. In 1942, Steinmeyer was also the deputy head of the Bernburg Nazi killing center , where invalid concentration camp inmates were also murdered. From the beginning of October 1942 until the end of the war, he was in charge of the Pfafferode state sanatorium and nursing home in Pfafferode near Mühlhausen / Thuringia .

After Steinmeyer by members of the US Army was arrested, he committed suicide on May 26, 1945 suicide in prison Mulhouse.

literature

  • Michael von Cranach , Hans-Ludwig Siemen (ed.): Psychiatry in National Socialism - The Bavarian Hospitals and Nursing Institutions between 1933 and 1945 , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1999; ISBN 3-486-56371-8 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945 Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
  • Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state. The "destruction of life unworthy of life" ; Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1983; ISBN 3-10-039303-1 .
  • Gerda Engelbracht: The deadly shadow of psychiatry. The Bremen Psychiatric Clinic 1933-1945 ; Bremen: Donat Verlag, 1997; ISBN 3-931737-18-7 .
  • Franz-Werner Kersting : Institution doctors between the German Empire and the Federal Republic. The example of Westphalia ; Paderborn: Schöningh Verlag, 1996; ISBN 978-3-506-79589-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 601.
  2. ↑ a b Hans-Ludwig Siemen: "The Bavarian Hospitals and Nursing Institutions during National Socialism", in: Michael von Cranach, Hans-Ludwig Siemen (Ed.): Psychiatry in National Socialism - The Bavarian Hospitals and Nursing Institutions between 1933 and 1945 , Munich 1999, p. 433
  3. ^ Henry Friedlander : The Origins of Nazi Genocide - From Euthanasia to the final Solution . Chapel Hill 1995, ISBN 0-8078-2208-6 , p. 146.
personal data
SURNAME Steinmeyer, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist and euthanasia offender
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Oettingen in Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1945
Place of death Mühlhausen / Thuringia