RAIMOND REITER (1953 – 2011)

Raimond Reiter was born on 6 November 1953. He studied political science in Hanover. He wrote his doctoral thesis on so-called »care centres for foreigners«. These were facilities in which newborns and infants of forced labourers were cared for to death. The topic of infanticide stayed with him. In the 1990s, on behalf of the Historical Commission of Lower Saxony and Bremen, he supported research into the murders of sick people in sanatoriums and nursing homes in Lower Saxony. Thomas Süße and Heinrich Meyer had submitted their doctoral theses on this subject. Raimond Reiter concluded this research with his own academic book and an accompanying travelling exhibition, which was opened at the VHS Hanover in 1998. From 1999, he supported the reappraisal initiative in Lüneburg, in particular the preparation of an anniversary publication to mark the 100th anniversary of the state hospital. He was the author of the exhibition on the history of psychiatry in Lüneburg, which opened in the former bathhouse on 20 November 2004. Until his sudden death on 1 September 2011, he supported Lüneburg’s memorial work professionally, mainly on a voluntary basis. He was unable to realise his wish to habilitate, but remained closely associated with Leibniz Universität Hannover through teaching assignments.