Kurt Martin Gerstner was one of many people who were discriminated against in the Nazi state on the grounds of mental illness or disability and murdered in one of the ‘euthanasia centres’.

Sven Gerstner-Nitschke wishes to commemorate his unknown great-uncle with a Stolperstein. He was born in Chemnitz, the son of the wheelwright Ernst Edwin Gerstner and his wife Minna Selma Kaden. He had two other siblings. At the time, his parents lived on the Sonnenberg (Peterstraße 43). Later, they moved to Hilbersdorf (including a time at Hilbersdorfer Straße 66). They brought up their children in the Evangelical Lutheran tradition.

What is known about Kurt Martin Gerstner? He suffered from ‘congenital mental deficiency’, as the condition – which came as a shock to his parents – was termed at the time. Despite his disability, he started school at Easter 1910. However, on 24 May 1912, he was taken out of school. The education authorities advised the parents to apply for admission to the State Educational Institution in the Altendorf district, founded in 1905, which the parents did on 21 September 1912. Kurt was admitted to the institution on 2 December 1913. He was thus one of around 500 children with intellectual disabilities who could be educated there. On 16 March 1915, the management of the Altendorf Educational Institution informed his parents that Kurt was no longer capable of attending school and could only be trained for work.

On 31 March 1916, Kurt was discharged to live at home with his mother. His state of health deteriorated in the period that followed. He suddenly became aggressive, verbally abusing and threatening his parents. Consequently, on 31 May 1921, Kurt was admitted to the Chemnitz Municipal Mental Hospital. On 15 June 1921, an application was made for his admission to the Zschadraß State Sanatorium
and Nursing Home in Zschadraß, which took place on 14 July 1921. The Chemnitz City Social Welfare Office covered the costs of his accommodation, as his parents had no means of support.

Kurt was allowed to receive visitors in Zschadraß. He was also permitted to spend two weeks at home every summer and at Christmas.
The Nazi seizure of power led to a deterioration in the situation of people with disabilities, who were regarded as ‘dead weight’ in the sanatoriums and care homes. As early as 14 July 1933, the National Socialists passed the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Disease in Offspring’, which, from January 1934, permitted the forced sterilisation of people with
conditions defined as ‘hereditary diseases’, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy or ‘congenital mental deficiency’. The management of the institution used the law to blackmail Kurt’s parents into applying for the sterilisation of their son, who was now 31 years old. If they did not agree to this, their son would no longer have the right to visit them. Consequently, the director of the institution, Professor Dr Max Liebers, submitted the relevant application. On 26 May 1934, the Chemnitz Hereditary Health Court ordered the compulsory sterilisation, which took place at the institution on 12 July 1934. Kurt was then allowed to visit his parents in Chemnitz again, for the last time at the turn of the year 1939/40.

According to his medical records, Kurt Gerstner was ‘transferred to a Prussian institution in an unchanged condition’ on 21 June 1940. This meant that on that day he was transferred, as part of a transport (‘Aktion T4’), along with other patients to the extermination centre in Brandenburg/Havel, where he was murdered by gassing on the same day. To conceal the circumstances of his death, the ‘T4’ headquarters in Berlin sent his parents a death certificate containing false information. According to this, Kurt Martin Gerstner died on 9 July 1940 in Hartheim-
Alkoven near Linz, where another extermination centre was located. The urn containing his alleged ashes was sent to Chemnitz and buried on 13 August 1940 at the Central Cemetery on Reichenhainer Straße in the family’s urn plot.

Kurt’s parents outlived their son by a few years. Minna Selma Gerstner died a few weeks before the end of the war, and Ernst Edwin Gerstner in early 1949.