{"id":892,"date":"2021-10-31T10:42:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T10:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stolpersteine-goeppingen.de\/?page_id=892"},"modified":"2025-01-14T16:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:06:11","slug":"kuhnle-kurt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stolpersteine-goeppingen.de\/en\/goeppingen\/kuhnle-kurt\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuhnle, Kurt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vordere Karlstr. 12<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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As a student he got hurt, was permanently handicapped , therefore he was gased. A Stolperstein (stumbling stone) reminds us of Kurt Kuhnle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eThat he is not forgotten!\u201c Gerd Kuhnle is moved when he puts roses to the Stolperstein for his uncle Kurt. Nothing reminds us of the little house in which he lived with his parents and sisters and brothers at the end of Vordere Karlsstra\u00dfe in Goeppingen. Today there is a mighty office building. Only a few years ago Gerd Kuhnle learned about the fate of his uncle. \u201eMy father always told us that his three brothers had been killed in the war. Only shortly before his 90th birthday he told us what really had happened\u201c and asked his son to do research in the matter. It became quickly clear to Gerd Kuhnle that his uncle Kurt had a fate that differed from the fates of his younger brothers Erwin and Ernst who were killed in the war as soldiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerd Kuhnle contacted the Goeppingen Stolperstein initiative. Because Kurt Kuhnle had become a victim of the inhumane \u201eAktion T4\u201c, \u201eT4\u201c stood for Tiergartenstra\u00dfe vier (four) in Berlin, the place where the systematic murder of thousands of people was organized. People whose lives in the Nazi version were \u201enot valuable\u201c, which means they were psychically ill or handicapped and therefore depending on the support of the so-called \u201ehealthy body of the nation\u201c. In Goeppingen there were also 293 people concerned as patients of Klinikum Christophsbad. The ones who could privately pay the bill had a chance of survival. The \u201eStaatsz\u00f6glinge (people dependent on state subsidies)\u201c for whom the State of Wuerttemberg paid did not have a chance. They were moved from the private hospitals to public hospitals and from there deported. For example to the Mordanstalt (place of murder) Grafeneck near Muensingen. \u201eI hope he did not have to suffer too long\u201c, Gerd Kuhnle says. Because he knows that the first victims were poisoned by automobile gases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurt Kuhnle who was born in 1910 in Schleiz, Thuringia, first led an inconspicuous life. His parents, Ernst and Helene, n\u00e9e Voelkel, moved at about 1911 together with his older sister Hedwig from Schleiz to Goeppingen. Ernst Kuhnle had difficulties as a plumber, mechanic and metalworker to earn enough money for his altogether seven children. Although he seems to have been a talented workman for he constructed a model locomotive for the Maerklin company. The small house that belonged to the town of Goeppingen at the end of Vordere Karlsstra\u00dfe supplied little comfort for the family. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Family Kuhnle <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the family photo dating approximately in 1924 Kurt is in a prominent position, he alone stands in one row with his parents and in contrast to his younger brother Erwin he wears an \u201eadult\u201c suit. He possibly was the \u201ehopeful\u201c of his family, he seems to have been intelligent and he gained a Freistelle (scholarship) for Gymnasium (grammar school or college). <\/p>\n\n\n

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Diploma of Honor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A diploma of honor of 1922 documents that the then 12-year-old boy had won the victory in triathlon class I in Reichsjugendk\u00e4mpfen (Imperial\/Reichs youth competition) in Goeppingen. But sport should dominate his future life badly: In a sports accident with the \u201eRh\u00f6nrad (Rh\u00f6n wheel, a sports apparatus)\u201c he suffered a serious head injury that lead to epileptic fits. The timing of the accident cannot be traced in the family memory but it seems probable that thus his time in Gymnasium ended. Kurt’s psyche had been damaged, according to the family memory he acted sometimes \u201emaliciously\u201c. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Kurt Kuhnle at the age of 14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From May 6, 1925 till October 20, 1926 Kurt Kuhnle worked in the nearby situated company Gutmann as a weaver. Gerd Kuhnle is able to add from the family memory: \u201e The noise of the looms have made him definitely sick\u201c. Kurt could no longer live at home and was institutionalized on November 24, 1926, shortly after bis 16th birthday, in the Goeppingen private mental home Christophsbad where he lived till June 1940. From there he was brought to the Staatliche Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Weissenau near Ravensburg (State institution to heal and care), then on December 5, 1940 deported to Grafeneck and possibly on Nicholas Day 1940 killed by gas. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Kurt Kuhnle (Source: “Das Christophsbad G\u00f6ppingen”)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Why Gerd Kuhnle’s father Willy, deceased in the meantime, Kurt’s younger brother, has remained silent for such a long time, Gerd Kuhnle cannot say. \u201eMaybe he was ashamed of his brother. But really others have to be ashamed.\u201c Together with his father Gerd Kuhnle had visited the memorial in Grafeneck and now is happy that he could create a memorial for his uncle. He admonishes to be cautious. \u201eResist against the beginnings\u201c, he demands in the face of Nazist attacks on society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stolperstein for Kurt Kuhnle was set exactly 80 years after his murder. One can find it on the pavement\/sidewalk leading to the railroad bridge, slightly above the site where Kurt’s home Vordere Karlsstrasse 12 had stood.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gerd Kuhle at the Stumbling Stone laying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the publication \u201eThe Aktion T 4 and the healing institution Christophsbad in Goeppingen\u201c the town archives have documented \u201eThe annihilation of not valuable life in 1940\/41 (subtitle)\u201c. The publication can be purchased in the town archives and in bookstores (ISBN 978-3-933844-65-1). Further information also in: Daniel Hildwein \/ Thomas St\u00f6ckle: Das Christophsbad G\u00f6ppingen. Eugenics and Nazi “Euthanasia” 1933 to 1945. G\u00f6ppingen 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(08.12.2020 mh\/kmr\/pr)<\/p>\n\n\n

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