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Angela Quast * 1942
Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)
ERMORDET IN DER
"KINDERFACHABTEILUNG"
DER HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
LANGENHORN
ANGELA QUAST
GEB. 30.6.1942
ERMORDET 9.5.1943
further stumbling stones in Langenhorner Chaussee 560:
Gerda Behrmann, Uwe Diekwisch, Peter Evers, Elke Gosch, Claus Grimm, Werner Hammerich, Marianne Harms, Hillene Hellmers, Helga Heuer, Waltraud Imbach, Inge Kersebaum, Hella Körper, Dieter Kullak, Helga Liebschner, Theo Lorenzen, Jutta Müller, Ingrid Neuhaus, Traudel Passburg, Edda Purwin, Erwin Sänger, Hermann Scheel, Gottfried Simon, Monika Ziemer
Angela Quast, born on 30.6.1942 in Dradenau, killed on 9.5.1943 in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home” (Kinderfachabteilung)
Asklepios Clinic North Ochsenzoll,
Henny-Schütz-Allee, memorial house 25, entrance Langenhorner Chaussee 560
Angela Dorothea Quast was born on June 30, 1942 on the Elbe island of Dradenau near Hamburg. She was the first child of Charlotte Ursula, née Böttger, and the farmer Gustav Heinrich Quast. The parents farmed the 28-hectare estate on the island, which was leased from the city state of Hamburg. The home birth went normally.
When Angela was a quarter of a year old, the mother was told at the Finkenwerder baby advice center that the child would certainly not be able to walk and talk. She and a cousin then went to see Dr. Schmidt in Blankenese. He agreed with her assessment, prescribed sedatives to stop the crying and referred her child to the "Langenhorner Anstalt” for observation with a certificate and a diagnosis of "microcephaly” (small head, reduced brain growth). The father and the midwife then took Angela to the "Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home” to Dr. Knigge on October 8, 1942. Her father was a soldier in the Wehrmacht at the time.
After a visit from the mother and maternal grandfather seven days later, Dr. Knigge recorded: "The mother is in complete agreement with any treatment”, and in a note in the addendum: "The father also came to visit and declared his agreement.” In a letter dated January 5, 1943, Dr. Knigge reported to the "Reichsausschuß zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden” in Berlin. In addition to the detailed list of physical findings, he stated: "Psychologically, the child is very excitable. It cries almost the whole day and must therefore be isolated, otherwise it behaves according to its age. The diagnosis is based on the observations: Microcephalitis [pointed head formation, M.L.] due to premature ossification of the brain sutures. Little's symptom complex [like spastic paralysis in polio]. In view of the absolutely unfavorable prognosis, I consider treatment to be necessary. Both parents urgently request such treatment. Dr. Knigge, Senior Consultant.”
On the last day of Angela's life, Dr. Knigge recorded: "9.V.43. Had had a cold for some time. Got bronchopneumonia. Exitus letalis [fatal outcome]. Diagnosis: microcephaly with pointed head formation. Littles syndrome. Optic nerve atrophy [optic nerve atrophy]. Dr. Knigge”
Angela Quast was killed in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”. She died on May 9, 1943 at 12:30 p.m. in House M 10.
In the death certificate, Dr. Knigge gave the cause of death as "microcephaly, idiocy bronchopneumonia”.
Knigge killed with Luminal injections, a sleeping pill. Fever and pneumonia were the result; the children suffered a slow and agonizing death. In most death certificates, as in Angela's case, the words "bronchopneumonia” refer to this killing.
Angela was 10 months and 9 days old.
The mother was informed of her child's death by telephone at 13:00. Four days later, on May 13, 1943, Angela Quast was picked up by funeral director Schröder accompanied by her parents. Knigge is said to have said that Angela had died of pneumonia. According to the records, she was taken from house M 10 to the Altenwärder cemetery (since 1946: Altenwerder) at 14:00. Her funeral took place on the same day at 16:00. Her grave is no longer preserved. (The cemetery surrounding the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Gertrud in Hamburg-Altenwerder has not been used since 2018. As a result of the Hamburg Port Expansion Act of 1961, a large part of Altenwerder, including the church and cemetery, was bought up by the city in the 1970s. The site was washed up and the new Altenwerder container terminal was built around it).
One year after Angela's death, Ursula Quast gave birth to a healthy second daughter.
After the war, on January 15, 1946, in the criminal case against him and others for murder and euthanasia in the "children's ward” of Langenhorn Hospital, Friedrich Knigge gave the following justification in a hearing before the examining magistrate at Hamburg District Court regarding the Angela Quast case: "Both parents agreed to the ‘treatment’ being carried out.”
At the hearing, Dr. Schmidt initially denied that he had arranged the admission to Langenhorn. He was then presented with the certificate with his signature. After testifying in court on January 14, 1948, Angela's mother recalled that Dr. Schmidt had not told her that her child could die in Langenhorn and continued: "When I occasionally came to see Dr. Knigge, I asked him if he could do something to save the child. Dr. Knigge then told me that he would give the child a bone-forming agent or something similar. He didn't say anything about the treatment leading to death.”
The nurse Martha Fischer testified as a witness in court on January 22, 1948: "I do not believe that the parents [did not] believe in the seriousness of Dr. Knigge's question that he wanted to carry out a life-and-death treatment. This was already clear from the fact that Angela's parents had her baptized quickly in the church of the institution. From this I saw that the parents had finished with the child.”
Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr
Quellen: StaH, 213-12 Staatsanwaltschaft, 0013 Bd. 060, Akte 30558, 0017 Bd. 001, Bayer Dr. Wilhelm, u. a. S. 136, S. 162 f., S. 198; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64247 u. 584/1943 Angela Quast; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9943 u. 584/1943 Angela Quast; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1943 Sta 1b Nr. 584 Angela Quast; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01, 64 UA 4 Akte 30558; Standesamt Finkenwärder, Geburtsregister, Nr. 59/1942 Angela Quast.