CHRISTINE SAUERBREY (NÉE BEHRENS) (1889–1941)

Christine Sauerbrey, née Behrens, was born on 24 September 1889 in Gröpelingen, a district of Bremen, as one of eight children. Her parents were master tailor Johann Dietrich Behrens and Adelheit Behrens, née Behnken. In April 1903, at the age of 13, Christine completed elementary school. She followed in her father’s footsteps and trained as a tailor.

At the age of 17, she met her husband Johann Sauerbrey – probably at Weser AG, where he worked as a lathe operator and she did gymnastics. When Christine was 18, they married against their parents‘ wishes. In her eyes, Johann was not of suitable standing and was also active in the left wing of the SPD. Between 1908 and 1912, they had four daughters together. From 1916 onwards, Johann became more radical, and in 1918 he took part in the November Revolution. When the Soviet Republic was brutally crushed, Johann fled to Moscow to avoid arrest.

Because Johann was wanted by the police as an »enemy of the republic,« Christine was interrogated by the police several times and taken into protective custody. At the same time, she had to care for her four daughters on her own.

In 1924, when her daughters were between eleven and sixteen years old and Johann had returned from Moscow a changed man, she was admitted for the first time to St. Jürgens Asylum for the Mentally and Nervously Ill in Ellen near Bremen. There, doctors diagnosed her with »schizophrenia.« The illness broke up the marriage. In January 1929, Christine and Johann divorced.

In May 1931, Christine was transferred to the Lippische Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Lindenhaus (Lindenhaus State Hospital) in Lemgo-Brake. Her patient file states that although Christine was doing well physically at »Lindenhaus«, her underlying illness had not improved, so she was transferred back to the Bremen Psychiatric Clinic in Ellen on 31 October 1933. In November 1938, she was transferred from there to Lüneburg.

Christine Sauerbrey spent less than three years at the Lüneburg State Hospital and Nursing Home. She was transferred to Herborn on 30 April 1941. On 16 June 1941, she was transferred to the Hadamar killing centre and murdered on the same day. The Hadamar State Hospital informed her four daughters that Christine had officially died of typhoid fever on 30 June 1941. The family had the urn containing Christine’s supposed ashes transferred to Bremen. She was buried in the main cemetery, but the grave has since been abandoned.

On October 11, 2013, a Stumbling Stone was laid for Christine Sauerbrey in front of her home at Karl-Bröger-Straße 15 in Bremen, formerly Farger Straße 15. The initiative came from her descendants. Three of Christine’s great-grandchildren also took part in the small memorial service.