Location: Gressenberg 5, 8541 Bad Schwanberg
Dozens of patients were taken from the “Nursing Home for the Mentally Ill of the Reichsgau Styria in Schwanberg” in Schwanberg via the Graz “Am Feldhof Sanatorium and Nursing Home”, today’s Graz II South Hospital, to the Hartheim killing center, where they were murdered. The castle is currently not open to the public. In 2021, the real estate project developer IMMOVATE acquired the castle. The future plans envisage a modern use.
In 1891, Prince Alfred von und zu Liechtenstein sold the castle and a share of the land to the Duchy of Styria for 50,000 guilders. The initial plan was to set up a teachers’ home in the castle. However, the Landschaft decided to house a “Landes-Irren-Siechen-Anstalt” for “200 incurable lunatics” in the castle, which was to be run as a branch of the “Feldhof” in Graz. The castle was converted into a nursing home and opened shortly after its acquisition by the duchy.
In 1934, the nursing home had the following staff: one head nurse, 12 nurses, two farmhands, one cobbler, five nurses, seven kitchen assistants, two housekeepers and ten Sisters of Mercy. The Schwanberg institution had its own administration and was therefore independent of the administration of the “Feldhof”; however, the “Feldhof” had overall medical supervision in Schwanberg. Although there was close cooperation between the two institutions due to this circumstance and several documented individual and collective transfers, the Schwanberg patients were not patients of the “Feldhof”.
On August 1, 1939, the institution, now called the “Nursing Home for the Mentally Ill of the Reich Region of Styria in Schwanberg”, had 222 beds. The institution in Schwanberg and its patients were included in the National Socialists’ state-controlled murder program “T4”. On February 14 or 15, 1941, a transport with patients departed from Schwanberg, followed by a second on February 16 or 17. The two transports comprised at least 144 people and, after a short stay at the “Feldhof”, which acted as a “sort of intermediate camp”, they were taken to Hartheim Castle, where the Schwanberg patients were murdered in a gas chamber using carbon monoxide. After this operation, the Schwanberg “nursing home for the mentally ill” was once again filled with patients: In March 1941, 39 people were brought from the “Feldhof” to Schwanberg, in April 1941, 74 people arrived in two transports and between November 1941 and February 1942, at least 50 more patients arrived, so that the Schwanberg institution was once again close to the level it had been at before the “T4” transports. However, the last seven people from Schwanberg were not transported to Hartheim Castle for extermination until June 9, 1941, together with other patients from the “Feldhof”.
After 1945, the Schwanberg institution continued to operate as the “State Nursing Home for the Mentally Ill Schwanberg”. The nursing home was closed on July 1, 2015 and the castle is currently not open to the public. In 2021, the real estate project developer IMMOVATE acquired the castle. The future plans envisage a modern use.
Literature: Brigitte Kepplinger/Gerhart Marckhgott/Hartmut Reese, Tötungsanstalt Hartheim. (= Oberösterreich in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus; 3). 2Linz 2008. Thomas Oelschläger/Rainer Danzinger/Udo Benzenhöfer, Die Ermordung psychiatrischer Patienten aus der Steiermark in der NS-Zeit. Linz 2015. Gerhard Fischer, Schwanberg, Band 1. Aus Schwanbergs politischer und wirtschaftlicher Vergangenheit. Schwanberg 2015, 397–407. Birgit Poier, „Euthanasie“ in der Steiermark. Nationalsozialistische Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik gegen Behinderte und psychisch Kranke am Beispiel der Grazer Anstalt „Feldhof“. phil. DA. Graz 2000.
Text: Markus Rieger-Roschitz / Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on War Consequences
