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Theodor Plath * 1913

Eilenau 16 (Hamburg-Nord, Hohenfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
THEODOR PLATH
JG. 1913
EINGEWIESEN 11.8.1916
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
VERLEGT 11.8.1943
HEILANSTALT MAINKOFEN
TOT 12.1.1944

Theodor Plath, born 11 Apr. 1913 in Hamburg, killed 12 Jan. 1944 at Mainkofen "Mental and Nursing Home”

Eilenau 16

Theodor Plath was born into the wealthy Hamburg industrialist Plath Family. His father Theodor C. Plath, born in Hamburg on 21 Nov. 1868, was the son of an optician and himself a trained optician. In 1889 he became co-owner of his father’s company C. Plath, Manufacturer of Nautical Instruments, which he took on as sole owner in 1908. In 1898 he married Minna Eggers from Oevelgönne. They were both members of the Lutheran Church. They had three children, two daughters and their son and heir Johann Christian in 1902. Two years after his birth, Minna Plath died. Four years later, her husband married a second time. On 15 Sept. 1908 he wed Alice Reichardt who was ten years his junior. She had a daughter and a son named Theodor who she called Tetzi. He was baptized at St. Gertrud Church at Mundsberg on 22 Nov. 1913.

Tetzi’s development took a different course than his half-brother Johann Christian. His skull became deformed. He learned to walk at the age of two but never learned to speak. He remained slight in stature. In 1916 at the age of three, he was admitted to the Alsterdorfer Asylum and was one of the few patients whose stay was paid for privately. The cost for room, board and his education was 1,500 Reich Marks a year, with additional costs for the mandatory clothing.

Three-year-old Theodor brought his teddy bears with him to Alsterdorf and settled in quickly. He called the nurse "mommy” and played with the other children without reserve. His breathing was hampered by enlarged tonsils that the senior physician thought should be removed, but that required his father’s consent. His father informed the asylum director on a postcard with his company’s logo – a stylized sailor with a sextant – that he would postpone his decision until after Pentecost [1918, author’s note]. Eventually he gave his permission, and Tetzi’s tonsils were removed.

Even during the inflation period, the company C. Plath made a profit. Theodor C. Plath paid for his son’s fees at times in gold Marks and at other times in paper bills. On 16 Nov. 1923 he transferred 135 gold Marks for his son’s room and board and 77 billion Marks in paper bills for new soles for his shoes, heels and boot laces. However, the demise of the shipping industry in the wake of the worldwide economic crisis took a toll on Theodor C. Plath’s revenue to such an extent that he applied for a reduction in his son’s fees in 1933. The amount was reduced from 2.70 Reich Marks per day to 2.40 Reich Marks.

Apart from Tetzi not speaking, his behavior was otherwise normal in the beginning. Yet that changed as he grew older. On the one hand he remained clingy and affectionate, was nervous and anxious, but he also explored the grounds and other wards by himself, sometimes taking items that did not belong to him which he either collected or threw away. He stayed in the infirmary several times with the flu or other infectious illnesses. As a young man, he was assigned to outside work detail where he remained until he left the asylum. The outside detail worked on the grounds of the then Alsterdorfer Asylum, raking up leaves and sweeping the walkways. Individuals assigned to that group spent much of their time outside in the fresh air, could move more freely than on the ward and workout. Tetzi gradually turned into Theodor. He was good-natured and was exploited by his companions. During his free time he looked at pictures and smoked cigarettes that he received in exchange for his personal possessions. Since he remained in need of institutionalization, there was no need to have him declared legally incompetent. In 1936 Hamburg’s military command certified that he was unfit to serve. When he was unsupervised, he played childish pranks with his companions, including water fights, wrestling on tables and benches, and playing with fire. He routinely returned from work so dirty that he had to be thoroughly "scrubbed”, as the care staff wrote. His appetite also grew and he could never get enough to eat.

Throughout their lives, Alice and Theodor C. Plath stayed in close contact with their son. They visited him during official visitation hours and received permission to take him home for visits on Christmas and his birthday. His only brother Johann Christian died in 1929, the son who was supposed to take over the family business.

In Mar. 1943, Theodor’s suit needed to be altered which would cost 25 Reich Marks. His father instructed the asylum to undertake the alteration and paid for it. In the same letter, he requested permission to visit one day before the regular visitation times: The parents wanted to celebrate their son’s 30th birthday with him on 11 Apr. They received permission, and all three of them met in the entry hall at 2 pm on the afternoon of his birthday.

Theodor Plath was moved three times inside the asylum during the first half of 1943 due to his behavior. His parents Alice and Theodor Plath were bombed out of their home at Eilenau 16 during heavy bombing raids on Hamburg in July/Aug. 1943 and found temporary shelter in Pomerania. Evidently in autumn they were able to return to Hamburg. By that time their son Theodor had already been taken away from the Alsterdorfer Asylum. Since the former Alsterdorfer Asylum was also damaged during air raids on Hamburg, the asylum director had several hundred patients moved to regions safe from air attacks. Theodor Plath was transferred along with 112 other men to Mainkofen "Mental and Nursing Home” near Passau on 11 Aug. 1943. His father made an effort to stay in contact with his son, sending him money for cigarettes. He and his wife postponed a visit until more peaceful times.

Due to the starvation diet decree issued by the Bavarian State Ministry of 30 Nov. 1942, the patients received food low in calories, meat and fat which left them susceptible to severe infectious diseases. About five months after his arrival at Mainkofen, Theodor Plath became gravely ill. He had a fever, a strong cough and lost his energy. Suspected of having tuberculosis, he was transferred from House 7 to House 18 within the institution. He died there on 12 Jan. 1944 at the age of 30, allegedly from pulmonary tuberculosis. He was buried in the cemetery belonging to the institution.

His father contacted the director of the institution as he wanted his son’s body to be cremated and later sent to Hamburg. We were unable to determine whether his request was met. The last piece of correspondence from Mainkofen "Mental and Nursing Home” to him dated 20 Jan. 1944 read: "Your son’s personal effects were used up. He did not leave behind anything of monetary or sentimental value. The institution’s gardeners tend the cemetery and adorn the graves in a simple fashion. Special decorations can be arranged for a grave at a cost of 5 RM per year to be paid to the institution with a note indicating its purpose.

"The funeral fees were charged to the central clearing house for mental and nursing homes in Linz (Donau), post office box 324.”

The remaining balance on Theodor Plath’s cigarette account of 18.09 Reich Marks was transferred to the central clearing house on 18 Jan. 1944.

Epilogue Karen Haubenreisser began searching for traces of her uncle Rolf Haubenreisser at Mainkofen "Mental and Nursing Home” in 2011. At the age of eighteen, he had been moved to Mainkofen on the same transport as Theodor Plath. There was no reminder of him or the other victims of the "Bavarian starvation diet” or other causes of death, apart from a neutral, inconspicuous plaque on the wall of the hospital ward. The cemetery had been cleared and one section had become part of a park. With support from Michael Wunders of the Evangelical Foundation Alsterdorf in the district government, Karen Haubenreisser set up and ran an educational and memorial center which lists the names of the dead, including their dates of birth and death. In late Oct. 2014, the memorial center was opened on the grounds of today’s Mainkofen District Hospital. Engraved on two glass monoliths are the names and vital dates of the victims of the "starvation diet” decree and victims from Mainkofen Mental and Nursing Home who were sent to their deaths at Hartheim.


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: December 2019
© Hildgard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6413 u. 297/1898; 6855 u. 360/1904; 6461 u. 419/1908; Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 459; Jenner, Meldebögen, in: Wunder/Genkel/Jenner (Hrsg.), Ebene; Wunder, Abtransporte, in: Wunder/Genkel/Jenner (Hrsg.), Ebene; ders., Exodus, ebd.; Westerholz, S. Michael, Transmitter, Nov. 2013, AG Radio e.V. – F.S.K.; http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2011/11/15/mainkofen/ - Aufruf 19. Nov. 2013; Ein Ort des Erinnerns an die Opfer der Psychiatrie während der NS-Zeit, auf: www.mainko fen.de/gedenkstaette.html (letzter Zugriff 27.2.2015).