Psychiatry at the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Günzburg 1939–1945: The role of Ludwig Trieb, head of hospital administration during and after World War II

This paper analyses the involvement of Ludwig Trieb, the administrative head of a South German mental hospital, in the work of the headquarter of patient killings during Nazi rule in Germany, especially in the planning department of the “Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft Heil- und Pflegeanstalten” after 1941. The paper is based on archival materials held at the Günzburg and Kaufbeuren mental hospitals (Swabia, Bavaria) and state, regional and judicial archives in Augsburg, Munich, Ludwigsburg and Berlin. Trieb was appointed administrative head of the Günzburg mental hospital (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Günzburg) in 1941. He was considered a very able administrator by the authorities, and in 1940 he was seconded to the staff of the head-quarter of ‘Aktion T4’ at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin. He worked as a member of a planning commission preparing a national register of mental hospitals with a focus on buildings and bed capacities. The planning commission’s work was linked with (a) the use of hospital facilities as required in the war effort, (b) with the aim of planning inpatient mental health care for a post-war German Reich, and it is likely to have been linked (not declared) (c) with the euthanasia programme. Post-war proceedings at an allied denazification tribunal and by the German public prosecution office led to (i) a ruling of Ludwig Trieb having been a ‘fellow traveller’ (Mitläufer), and (ii) failed to lead to court proceedings in post-war Germany. Some sources in the archival materials suggest proximity of Trieb’s work with the Nazi euthanasia programme.