Wilhelm Bayer

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Wilhelm Bayer (born February 8, 1900 in Nimptsch ; † 1972 ) was a German pediatrician who was involved in child euthanasia in the context of the murders of the National Socialists .

Medical studies and internship

After finishing school, Bayer completed a medical degree and later earned a doctorate in medicine . med. After his license to practice medicine in 1924, he worked as an assistant doctor under Adalbert Czerny at the Berlin Charité until 1932 and then worked at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf under Rudolf Degkwitz until March 1934 , during which time he completed his specialist training as a pediatrician. His habilitation attempt failed because Degkwitz criticized the methodology and conclusions of this work.

Bayer had been married to Elisabeth Sieveking since 1934. She was a niece of the medical officer Hermann Sieveking , an active supporter of child euthanasia . The couple had six children. The conservative Hamburg professor of paediatrics Rudolf Degkwitz tried to prevent the murders of the disabled, in which both Bayer and his father-in-law were closely involved.

In the course of the transfer of power to the National Socialists , he joined the NSDAP and SA in 1933, and in 1943 he was promoted to Hauptsturmführer in the SA. He was also a member of the National Socialist Medical Association .

Head of the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital and children's "euthanasia"

After briefly managing the baby home in Hamburg , Bayer took over as chief physician in the Rothenburgsort children's hospital in mid-1934 . From 1936 he worked in the training of Hamburg pediatricians, in 1938 introduced the food allowance for pregnant women, which was widely recognized throughout the Reich, and in 1939 advised the NSV on the construction of children's and baby homes in Hamburg. During the Second World War he was also responsible for the "medical" care of children of the forced laborers in Düneberg and Geesthacht , who were housed in the Rothenburgsort children's hospital.

The T4 expert Ernst Wentzler had recruited the staunch National Socialist Bayer to participate in the National Socialist euthanasia program. He then traveled to Berlin at the beginning of 1940 for a meeting of the “Reich Committee for the Scientific Assessment of Hereditary and Constitutional Serious Ailments” . He then set up a so-called “ children's department ” in the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital, which he headed in personal union. From June 1940 to April 1945, at least 56 so-called "Reich Committee children" were murdered in the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital by fatal drug cocktails. The following doctors took part in the infanticides on Bayer's instructions: Freiin Ortrud von Lamenzan , Ursula Bensel , Emma Lüthje , Ursula Petersen , Ingeborg Wetzel , Gisela Schwabe , Helene Sonnemann , Lotte Albers , Maria Lange de la Camp and Ilse Breitfort. Helene Sonnemann, who was Bayer's deputy for a time and who later worked as the chief pediatrician at the General Hospital in Celle, testified to investigators after the war that the attempt to give fatal injections without the help of a nurse had failed because it was "technically impossible to give a child an injection to make over 5 cc without holding the child. "

post war period

After the end of the war, Bayer was reported to the British military administration by three medical students on May 29, 1945, because they had learned of the clandestine child murders from a nurse at the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital. After this report, investigations were started against Friedrich Knigge , head of the second Hamburg children's department in the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home, as well as other staff from the Hamburg children's departments.

On August 25, 1945 Bayer and Knigge were dismissed from their employment on the instructions of the British military administration by Rudolf Degkwitz, who is now head of the Hamburg health authority. The two doctors objected to this decision without success on November 20, 1945 and later asked for their proceedings to be processed so that they could return to their workplaces as soon as possible.

"As far as the alleged crime against humanity is concerned, I have to reject it because such a crime can only be committed against people and the living beings that were being treated here cannot be called" people "."

- Wilhelm Bayer in a statement from 1945

The neurologist Max Nonne stood up for Bayer and Knigge and noted that their actions in the context of child “euthanasia” were “a permitted, useful act”. Knigge died of polio on December 2, 1947 .

Finally, the preliminary investigations culminated in an indictment from the Hamburg public prosecutor's office to conduct a trial. This indictment was initially for murder or aiding and abetting and was later toned down to manslaughter . On April 19, 1949, the accused were put out of prosecution by the First Criminal Chamber of the Hamburg District Court .

Since Bayer was banned from working during the proceedings, he earned his living as a publishing editor at Nölke Verlag in Hamburg. At the end of June 1949 he was finally fired by the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital, until 1955 Bayer tried unsuccessfully to return to his former management post. From 1952 he returned to his private practice, which he had already led during his management activity at the children's hospital. According to press reports, the Hamburg Medical Association checked again in January 1961 whether Bayer and other doctors accused of child “euthanasia” should have their license to practice revoked. Ultimately, Bayer was able to keep his license to practice medicine because, according to the Hamburg Medical Association, there were “no serious moral misconduct” either.

The multi-part work he wrote The first year of our baby's life: A book for mother with expectation, birth and the like. Care for your child appeared in Hamburg in 1960.

Commemoration of sacrifice

At the former children's hospital in Rothenburgsort, where the Institute for Hygiene and Environment is located today , a plaque has been commemorating the victims of child “euthanasia” since November 1999 with the inscription: “Between 1941 and 1945, more than 50 disabled children were killed in this building . A committee of experts classified them as 'unworthy life' and assigned them to children's departments for killing. The Hamburg health administration was involved. Hamburg medical officers monitored the admission and killing of the children. Doctors from the children's hospital did it. None of those involved was legally prosecuted. ”In 2009, 35 stumbling blocks were laid in the same location for 35 victims of child“ euthanasia ”known by name . Another stumbling block reminds us of the pediatrician of Jewish origin Carl Stamm , who ran the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital until 1933 and who committed suicide before he was deported .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hendrik van den Bussche (Ed.): Medical Science in the 'Third Reich' - Continuity, Adaptation and Opposition at the Hamburg Medical Faculty (Hamburg Contributions to the History of Science Volume 5) Berlin and Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-496-00477-0 , P. 115.
  2. ↑ a b c Marc Burlon: The "euthanasia" on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg 2010, p. 63f.
  3. ↑ Götz Aly : The burdened. "Euthanasia" 1939-1945. A history of society . Frankfurt 2013, p. 140 ff.
  4. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 33
  5. ↑ Thomas Beddies (Ed.) On behalf of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine eV (DGKJ): In memory of children. The paediatricians and the crimes against children during the Nazi era ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.8 MB), Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-036957-5 , p. 90 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dgkj.de
  6. ↑ Marc Burlon: The "euthanasia" on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg 2010, p. 199
  7. ↑ Marc Burlon: The “euthanasia” on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg, 2010, p. 234
  8. ↑ Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 33
  9. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 439
  10. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 319
  11. ↑ a b Marc Burlon: The "euthanasia" on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg, 2010, p. 190
  12. ↑ Marc Burlon: The "euthanasia" on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg 2010, p. 231
  13. ↑ Marc Burlon: The "euthanasia" on children during National Socialism in the two Hamburg children's departments , dissertation, Hamburg 2010, p. 234f.
  14. ↑ Memory of more than 50 murdered children. Plaque at the former children's hospital in Rothenburgsort reminds of euthanasia . In: Die Welt online from November 10, 1999
  15. ^ Martin Mohr: Stumbling blocks against forgetting. Senator Dietrich Wersich and Bishop Maria Jepsen unveiled 35 memorial plaques in front of the Institute for Hygiene and Environment . ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from October 9, 2009 on www.hamburg.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hamburg.de
  16. ^ Stumbling blocks in Hamburg
personal data
SURNAME Bayer, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pediatrician and euthanasia offender
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Nimptsch
DATE OF DEATH 1972