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Eduard Ripperger * 1902

Fettstraße 1 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
EDUARD RIPPERGER
JG. 1902
EINGEWIESEN 1921
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 27.11.1941
HEILANSTALT TIEGENHOF
ERMORDET 21.5.1942

Eduard Arnold Christian Ripperger, born on 26 July 1902 in Altona, "transferred” on 28 July 1941 from the then Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten) to the Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Hamburg-Langenhorn), from there transported on 27 Nov. 1941 to the Tiegenhof "Gau Sanatorium” (Gauheilanstalt Tiegenhof) near Gnesen (today Gniezno in Poland), murdered on 21 May 1942

Fettstrasse 1

Eduard Arnold Christian Ripperger was born on 26 July 1902 in what was then still the independent town of Altona as the son of the worker Louis Ferdinand Rudolph Wilhelm Ripperger (born on 7 Nov. 1872 in Altona) and his wife Dorothea Josephine Caroline, née Zoost (born on 14 June 1870 in Altona). Both parents belonged to the Lutheran denomination.

The Ripperger couple had seven children overall, of whom, apart from Eduard Arnold Christian, only two reached adulthood: Theodor Heinrich Ludwig Karl Ferdinand, born on 15 Oct. 1903; and Otto Bernhard Friedrich Ripperger, born on 31 Oct. 1915.

The Ripperger family lived for many years at Grosse Freiheit 55, house no. 4, today’s entertainment mile in the St. Pauli quarter. Their children were also born at that location. Their mother died at the age of 48 on 18 Oct. 1918. The youngest son, Otto Bernhard Friedrich Ripperger, was not quite three years old at that time. Two years later, on 31 Jan. 1920, Louis Ferdinand Rudolph Wilhelm Ripperger married a second time. His new wife was Caroline Wilhelmine Lucia, née Hagge, divorced name Gosch, born on 18 Feb. 1876.

About the life of Eduard Ripperger, we have only the little information revealed by the admission register of the Alsterdorf Asylum or noted on a file card that was created for the Hamburg Health Passport Archive, which was built up from 1934 onward for the purpose of a "hereditary biological inventory” of the population. According to that, he was first recorded in the Alsterdorf Asylum on 19 Jan. 1920. The cause has not been documented.

A short time later, on 11 June 1920, he was discharged again, probably to stay with his parents, and was readmitted on 14 Sept. 1921. According to the file card note, there was, "especially in the last ten years, a very clear decline noted in every respect. Whereas he used to be employed to lend a helping hand for simple tasks, [...] he no longer has any relationship to his environment. Therefore, he must be regarded as terminally ill.” The note went on to state that he was not capable of any productive work.

In particular, the fact that he could not be used for any productive work must have been decisive for his fate. During the Nazi era, people with physical and/or mental disabilities had a chance to survive only if they were able to earn their own maintenance costs and, if possible, further income through work. As "persons unworthy of life” ("Lebensunwerte”) within the "euthanasia” operation until Aug. 1941, the others faced the threat of death by gassing and later by starvation or by excessive drug doses of, e.g., Phenobarbital (Luminal) or scopolamine.

Eduard Ripperger was one of the 70 persons living in Alsterdorf who were picked up from Alsterdorf on 28 July 1941 by buses of the ‘charitable ambulance organization’ (Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH – ‘GekraT’) and transported to the Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home.” From there, 66 of the Alsterdorf inmates were deported (four died in Langenhorn due to lack of care) to the Tiegenhof "Gau Sanatorium” near Gniezno in occupied Poland. From this transport, only one person survived.

Eduard Ripperger died there on 21 May 1942, according to the death register entry, of "feverish enteritis.”

Eduard Rippberger’s brother Otto Bernhard Friedrich also came under the scrutiny of the Nazi state: He had come into conflict with the law several times in the 1930s because of theft and he was sterilized against his will in 1936 by order of the former "Hereditary Health Court” for "congenital feeblemindedness” ("angeborener Schwachsinn”). From 1940 to 1945, he had "served” with the police. After the war, he fought until 1956 to "restore his former status.” Because of the sterilization, he had carried a psychological "burden” with him all these years. He argued that the reason for sterilization, "feeblemindedness,” had not been credited to him as a mitigating circumstance in the convictions. His application for restitution was rejected because the German Restitution Laws [Bundesentschädigungsgesetz – BEG] only recognizes persecution on racial, political, or ideological grounds.

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

Stand: September 2020
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14360 Elise Therese Marie Christiane Ripperger, 14580 Christiane Dorothea Frieda Ripperger, 13981 Theodor Hinrich Ludwig Karl Ferdinand Ripperger, Altona Nr. 2433/1906 Arnold Johann Gustav Ripperger, Nr. 1816/1915 Altona Otto Bernhard Friedrich Ripperger, Hamburg Nr. 68/1929 Louis Ferdinand Rudolph -Wilhelm Ripperger/Caroline Wilhelmine Lucia geb. Hagge verw. Petzendorfer gesch. Gosch, Altona I Nr. 2169/1902 Eduard Arnold Christian Ripperger; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 40958 Otto Ripperger; Standesamt Gnesen Sterberegistereintrag Eduard Arnold Christian Ripperger.