Kalmenhof

On May 1, the Hallgarten couple signed the purchase agreement for the Kalmenhof estate. The official opening followed on October 7, 1888, with 12 to 18 children under the direction of teacher Johann Jacob Schwenk. The manor house, the core of the institution, was in disrepair and required renovation for its new purpose. The non-profit association was established independently of state or church authorities, making Kalmenhof an interdenominational, reform-oriented institution. Until the 1930s, up to 20% of residents were Jewish and received appropriate education and care.

Expansion

The initial capacity of Kalmenhof, primarily occupied by children, quickly proved insufficient. The first expansion, the girls' house (also called Birkenhaus), designed and built by Konrad Steinbrinck, was inaugurated in June 1891 and was nearly fully occupied by late 1892. The boys' house, Tannenhaus, begun in 1893, was completed in September 1894. The Stockheimer Hof thereafter primarily served as the director's residence.

Initially, residents were only introduced to vocational preparatory manual work. In 1894, a trained brushmaker was hired for specialized vocational training, and a special school was established in 1889. Ten years after its founding, Kalmenhof housed 114 residents. Three years later, a pension house for residents from wealthier families was inaugurated, followed by the old-age home In der Ritzbach near Idstein's train station in June 1905, located about 800 meters from the main site for non-educable adult residents. A gymnasium was built in 1907.

The year 1908 was challenging, as both Ehlers and Hallgarten died in quick succession. Hallgarten's son, Fritz Hallgarten, took over as treasurer, and Adolf Varrentrapp succeeded Ehlers as board chairman.

In 1910, Max Kirmsse joined as a special education teacher and worked at Kalmenhof until 1922, later lending his name to the Max-Kirmsse-Schule in Idstein. In 1911, Idstein's first Red Cross sanitary unit was formed, primarily consisting of Kalmenhof staff.

Expansion concluded temporarily in 1913 with the inauguration of the women's old-age home and the central operational building. By then, Kalmenhof had seven workshops where nine master craftsmen trained 41 residents.

Financially, the association relied on state care payments, self-produced goods, and donations.

World War I

During World War I, Kalmenhof lost ten staff members to conscription. The staffing shortage was exacerbated by the arrest of two South African-born employees, considered enemy nationals due to their British citizenship. They were later naturalized as Germans after proving early relocation to Germany, but were then conscripted, leaving the institution understaffed. Restructuring was necessary to maintain school and training operations, with increased hiring of female staff and the use of apprentice residents as assistant caregivers.

The supply situation was problematic during the war years. While Kalmenhof's income stagnated, food costs doubled, leading to malnutrition among residents. By late 1917, 52 residents had been conscripted, ten of whom received the Iron Cross, five were killed, and many were wounded.

Inflation and reconstruction

Due to the economic situation and hyperinflation, Kalmenhof's financial situation was dire. A fire in February 1922 severely damaged the boys' house, pushing the association to the brink of ruin as financial backers lost their resources. Unable to manage privately, the board joined the Association of Frankfurt and Surrounding Hospitals in 1921. With support from Idstein's residents, the boys' house was rebuilt. Director Schwenk died in 1922, succeeded by Emil Spornhauer.

With resident numbers dropping to 250–300 in 1923, the institution, renamed Heilerziehungsanstalt Calmenhof zu Idstein im Taunus, hit its lowest point. Economic stabilization improved its financial situation. Kalmenhof significantly shaped Idstein's life, as noted by the commander of the British 1st Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles, stationed in Idstein for ten months in 1926: "The chief local industry was, apparently, breeding lunatics and keeping asylums for them."

In 1927, under the medical direction of Fritz Klein, a new 26-bed hospital began operations as a medical observation station and short-term patient accommodation. In 1926, a building complex from a bankrupt neighboring leather factory was purchased and converted into an apprentice home, becoming the main building. This increased capacity by 200 places by 1929. Architect Ludwig Minner oversaw this conversion and the 1930 renovation of the nearby laundry building.

In 1930, Kalmenhof acquired the nearby Hofgut Gassenbach from the city of Frankfurt, enhancing its economic base with 700 hectares of farmland.

Takeover and use as a lazaret

On April 4, 1933, shortly after the Nazi seizure of power, Director Spornhauer was forcibly removed by an SS unit, according to eyewitnesses. The NSDAP Hesse-Nassau-South appointed Ernst Müller as interim director. The administrative board resisted the Nazi takeover, resigning collectively on August 1, 1933. Regional councilor Fritz Bernotat, responsible for institutional affairs at the Wiesbaden District Association, assumed chairmanship of the board, marking the Gleichschaltung and loss of Kalmenhof's independent status.

This leadership change brought a shift in resident treatment. Pedagogical goals were abandoned in favor of cost-efficient mass accommodation. Operating costs were reduced to maximize occupancy, dropping apprentice numbers from 270 in 1933 to 37 by 1937, while total residents increased from 630 to nearly 1,000.

The principle of interdenominationalism was also abandoned. In 1932, about 150 Jewish residents were supported by a Jewish teacher, assistant, and cook, but by 1936, this support ceased, and Jewish resident numbers dropped to around 60.

With the start of World War II, a 500-bed Wehrmacht lazaret was established at Kalmenhof in 1939. Kalmenhof was required to provide accommodations, laundry, and provisions. To make space, many residents were transferred to other institutions, reducing occupancy to 350. In 1940, the lazaret closed, and a 600-man Wehrmacht signal unit was stationed there, also supported by Kalmenhof. In 1941, a lazaret was re-established, initially with 300 beds, expanding to 1,300 by the war's end. The Wehrmacht used all buildings except the external old-age home, and the 350 residents were tasked with maintaining the facility, leaving little room for pedagogical work. Due to chaotic conditions, Müller resigned in 1941, volunteering for service "in the East." Wilhelm Großmann, previously an office manager and accountant, took over.

Forced sterilizations, intermediate facility, and killings

Documenting Nazi euthanasia murders at Kalmenhof is challenging due to the destruction of records at the war's end. Estimates suggest between 600 and 1,000 deaths. The first killings began in late 1939.

From 1934, at least 216 residents underwent forced sterilization under the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. From August 1, 1938, to December 1939, Hans Bodo Gorgaß was the chief physician, later responsible for thousands of deaths elsewhere and described as a "butcher" by peers involved in the extermination program. On June 28, 1939, Mathilde Weber joined as an assistant physician, taking over medical leadership after Gorgaß's departure until May 10, 1944, when she left due to tuberculosis. Hermann Wesse, previously at Bedburg-Hau, Andernach, Waldniel, and Uchtspringe, succeeded her until the war's end, with Weber briefly substituting in December 1944 and January 1945.

Kalmenhof as an intermediate facility

Under Aktion T4, several care facilities were converted into killing centers where "useless eaters" were mass-murdered, including by gassing. Kalmenhof served as an intermediate facility for the Hadamar Euthanasia Centre, alongside Andernach, Eichberg, Scheuern, and Weilmünster. Hadamar began killings in January 1941. Intermediate facilities temporarily housed victims destined for Hadamar to ensure only those immediately killable were delivered. Transfers occurred daily via Gekrat buses, except on weekends. Victims were housed on straw beds in the gymnasium or later in the old-age home's basement, including political prisoners, communists, and anarchists labeled as mentally ill or life unworthy of life.

From 1940, selection forms were distributed at Kalmenhof, sent to the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Hereditary and Congenital Severe Disorders, which decided life or death. Based on these forms, 232 regular residents were transported to Hadamar in five shipments and gassed shortly after arrival. The longest-serving resident had lived at Kalmenhof for 40 years. The number of victims passing through Kalmenhof en route to Hadamar is untraceable, though records from other institutions note specific transports, such as 136 people from Gütersloh on July 9, 1941, or multiple transports from Kloster Haina. Großmann described it as "a constant coming and going of transfers."

On August 24, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered the cessation of Aktion T4's "adult euthanasia" in the six killing centers due to public protests, but children's euthanasia continued, as did decentralized killings of disabled adults. The murders shifted fully to Kalmenhof, with significant bureaucratic efforts to give the appearance of legality.

Killings of "life unworthy of life" at Kalmenhof

With the halt of Hadamar transports, a children's ward was established on the second and third floors of Kalmenhof's hospital. Killings were primarily by poisoning with medication or deliberate starvation. Victims included children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities, epilepsy, "mongoloids," "idiots," "imbeciles," and those deemed work-shy or asocial by Nazi standards. Most victims died within days of arriving, while regular residents, useful for Kalmenhof's operations, lazaret, and Hofgut Gassenbach, were less frequently targeted. The Reich Committee in Berlin formally authorized killings based on local doctors' assessments of utility and educability. Doctors could delay killings for authorized children, holding final decision-making power, contrary to their later claims of being mere order-takers. Staff received a bonus of 5.00 RM, later 2.50 RM, per "death."

As the municipal cemetery could not accommodate Kalmenhof's numerous deaths, victims were buried at the Jewish cemetery, purchased in 1942, from February to October 1942. When it became insufficient, a cemetery was registered on farmland near the hospital, away from the town center. Burials were conducted discreetly, often as simple interments using a reusable folding coffin. Multiple bodies were often buried in a single grave, marked only by numbered metal crosses without names.

Protestant pastor Boecker, based in Idstein from 1932 to 1947, noted in the church register: "... death now reigns at Kalmenhof."

Notably, no deaths occurred during Weber's multi-week illness-related absence or her six-week training trip to Heidelberg, where she visited psychiatrist Carl Schneider, a key figure in Nazi medical crimes. Toward the end of her tenure, Weber requested no further transports due to her illness. When Wesse resumed, he explicitly requested "Reich Committee children" for killing, to which Bernotat replied he should "make do with what is there." These were no longer children with disabilities but defiant or behaviorally challenging youths, whose killings Wesse then ordered.

Fritz Geisthardt noted that Kalmenhof killings occurred without "bureaucratic effort" in "wild euthanasia," but this applied to a minority of cases, mainly at the war's start and end. Victims included children who repeatedly attempted escape, subjects of human experimentation with electroshocks or hormones by Wesse, and accomplices aware of the children's ward operations. Ludwig Heinrich Lohne, a gravedigger at Kalmenhof, survived the war's end by assaulting Wesse, fleeing, and hiding in Idstein until the U.S. Army's arrival.

Resistance

There was resistance to the crimes. Caregiver Loni Franz (1905–1987), employed at the old-age home, was particularly notable. She tried to keep children away from the hospital, often unsuccessfully, but saved some by sending them to their parents or hiding them with acquaintances in Idstein. She also arranged transfers to facilities without children's wards, such as Philipp-Hospital Riedstadt or Scheuern, and alleviated suffering from lack of food, clothing, and warmth.

In her honor, a new building, the Loni-Franz-Haus, was named after her in 2009, and a street in Idstein bears her name.

The Kalmenhof Trial

After the war, legal proceedings addressed Nazi-era crimes. In 1945, deputy director Wilhelm Großmann, physician Hermann Wesse, and nurses Änne Wrona and Maria Müller were arrested by U.S. authorities on suspicion of intentional murder. The case was transferred to German jurisdiction in March 1946. In September 1946, the Idstein Local Court issued arrest warrants for these individuals and former physician Mathilde Weber.

Following trials at the Frankfurt Regional Court and appeals at the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, the following verdicts were issued:

Wilhelm Großmann: Four years and six months imprisonment; he did not serve due to a pardon supported by the Idstein magistrate.

Hermann Wesse: Initially sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1949 by the Düsseldorf Regional Court after the abolition of the death penalty in Germany. His conviction was supported by detailed witness testimonies regarding the deaths of "physically and mentally healthy" Ruth Pappenheimer (with a Jewish father), 15-year-old Karl-Heinz Zey from Langendernbach, 14-year-old Georg Rettig, and 23-year-old Margarethe Schmidt. His sentence was lifted in 1968, making him the only involved physician to serve a lengthy term.

Mathilde Weber: Three years and six months in prison; initially sentenced to death, her sentence was reduced following a petition and Idstein magistrate support. After serving two-thirds, the remainder was pardoned. She lived near Kalmenhof until 1994.

Nurse Änne Wrona (head nurse 1944–1945): Acquitted.

Nurse Maria Müller: Escaped prosecution and was never found, though she confessed to murders during U.S. military interrogations.

Fritz Bernotat, chairman of the Kalmenhof association, died in 1951 under a false name near Fulda, remaining unprosecuted.

Head teacher Link, a Kalmenhof educator, poisoned his wife and committed suicide after the U.S. Army's arrival.

Lazaret and refugee camp

With the U.S. Army's arrival in Idstein on March 28, 1945, the occupation authorities took over Kalmenhof. The lazaret continued treating wounded soldiers until its closure in 1946. Kalmenhof housed evacuees from air war-damaged cities like Darmstadt and Frankfurt, and from December 1945, expellees from former eastern territories. Space was limited, and food and fuel shortages were severe, particularly during the Hunger Winter of 1946/47, when residents burned furniture to avoid freezing. Emil Spornhauer resumed leadership in 1945, briefly preceded by Max Kirmsse as interim director. In 1946, with an occupancy of about 800, approximately 1,100 admissions and discharges were recorded.

Post-war period to 1970

In 1945, the Jewish cemetery was returned to the Jewish property administration. In 1948, the association for the care institution dissolved, and the Wiesbaden District Association took over. Ernst Ilge succeeded Spornhauer as director in 1949. By 1953, occupancy exceeded 1,000 residents, including Harry von de Gass (1942–2005), who lived at Kalmenhof from 1951 and became a local character in Idstein.

The Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen (LWV) was founded in 1953 and became Kalmenhof's operator. In 1954, a new special school building marked the beginning of separating the school from Kalmenhof, culminating in the establishment of the Max-Kirmsse-Schule in 1971. Kalmenhof reached its peak occupancy of 1,100 in 1954. From 1957 to 1971, new constructions and expansions accommodated the growing number of residents and differentiated learning groups by disability type. The Landhaus at Hofgut Gassenbach was built in 1966.

Abuse

During the 1950s and 1960s, severe abuse cases occurred under director Ernst Ilge, who maintained a dictatorial leadership style, and Alfred Göschl, employed from March 1963. Documented abuses included corruption, sexual abuse, and harsh punishments like withholding pocket money or food, beatings, canings, restraints, and confinement.