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Leontine Kreeker, 1938
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Leontine Kreeker * 1884

Neuer Steinweg 2 a–d vor Haspa (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
LEONTINE KREEKER
JG. 1884
EINGEWIESEN 1943
HEILANSTALT
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 28.5.1945

Leontine Emma Auguste Kreeker, born on 19 Dec. 1884 in Hamburg, admitted on 29 Oct. 1900 to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten), transferred on 16 Aug. 1943 to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a "sanatorium and nursing home,” died on 28 May 1945

Neuer Steinweg 2a-d (Neuer Steinweg 97)

Leontine Kreeker was born as the second youngest daughter to a Hamburg working-class family. At the time their daughter was born, her parents lived in modest circumstances on Schulgang, Hof 8, Bude 5, in the former "Gängeviertel” of Hamburg-Neustadt. Of her five siblings and half-siblings, two sisters and one brother died early. Her mother Anna Dorothea Luise Auguste, née Pirschel (born on 27 Mar. 1846), came from Salkau (today Zalakowo in Poland). She was the second wife of the "fur sorter” Johann Christian Ludwig Kreeker (born on 25 Mar. 1831), who came from Moorgarten, a suburb of Lübeck. In his first marriage, he was married to Caroline Möller, who had died at the age of 40 on 26 Feb. 1879. Leontine’s parents had then married in Hamburg on 20 May 1880.

At the age of 16, on 29 Oct. 1900, Leontine was admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]) at the urging of "general poor relief services” ("Allgemeine Armenanstalt”). An expert certified her "imbecility” (mental disability of medium degree) and suspected the origin of her illness in seizures during the first years of her life. Later than other children, Leontine started to walk, and only at the age of four did she begin to talk. She did not learn to read and write. Whether she went to school at all is not clear from the file. Yet she was independent and although she only counted to ten, she could handle money. Leontine Kreeker was employed in the institution first in the laundry room, later in the "vegetable parlor” with potato peeling; she was regarded as modest, diligent, and helpful. Her interest in music was also mentioned – "likes to dance, radiates with delight.” However, Leontine also suffered from "anxiety,” which made her very restless at night. Even in her last evaluation, it was noted that she slept little and disturbed the other "girls.” Otherwise, she did not attract any undue attention. Her mother Anna died on 8 Feb. 1932 in a public care home; her father Johann had died long before, on 23 Nov. 1905.

Leontine Kreeker spent 43 years of her life in "Alsterdorf” until she arrived at the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt on 16 Aug. 1943, along with a total of 228 girls and women. The standard grounds provided by the senior physician indicated, "Moved to Vienna due to severe damage to the [local Hamburg] institution by air raids.” Although the food was clearly worse there, Leontine Kreeker still lived to see the end of the war in Vienna. She died on 28 May 1945, allegedly of TB.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1906 u 1643/1877; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 53 u 2175/1878; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 67 u 646/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2613 u 509/1880; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2003 u 2133/1881; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2033 u 4548/1882; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 148 u 3881/1883; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2086 u 6024/1884; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2128 u 2992/1886; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2796 u 523/1892; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 552 u 1151/1905; StaH 332-5 -Standesämter 7133 u 129/1932; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakten der Alsterdorfer Anstalten, V 175 Leontine Kreeker; Wunder: Exodus, S. 213–219.