Stolpersteine ​​in Rottenburg: Commemoration of Maria Hofmeister and her story

Stolpersteine ​​in Rottenburg: Commemoration of Maria Hofmeister and her story

On October 27, 2025, a touching Stolperstein was laid in Rottenburg, which commemorated the tragic fate of Maria Mathilde Hofmeister. The young woman, who was born on December 31, 1924 and came to the Ingerkingen children's asylum in 1929, died on October 1, 1940 at the tender age of 15 in the gas chamber of the Grafeneck killing center. Again Black Forest messenger reported, the laying of the memorial stone was carried out on the initiative of Andreas Kroll, the educational director of the Hailfingen/Tailfingen concentration camp memorial site. The city of Rottenburg gave its approval to this important memorial initiative.

Before the transfer there was a moving word from retired pastor Siegesmund Schwind, who emphasized the Christian duty not to accept atrocities. Those present prayed the “Our Father” for Mary, whose tragic story is linked to the National Socialist regime’s euthanasia policy. On October 2, 1940, Maria Hofmeister's mother received notification of her daughter's transfer to another institution, but the true nature of this transfer, which ultimately resulted in her death, remained obscure. The family only received the official death report on October 17, 1940, while their daughter's ashes were handed over to the Stuttgart municipal cemetery office on November 18 of the same year.

Grafeneck and the dark times of Nazi “euthanasia”

Grafeneck, where Maria was murdered, symbolizes the beginning of the industrial murder of people in the Nazi state. Originally built as a hunting lodge, it was converted into an institution for people with disabilities in 1929 before being converted into a murder facility in 1939. In total, almost 10,000 people were murdered there by December 1940. As the Memorials in Baden-Württemberg clarified, the victims were people from 48 facilities for the disabled and psychiatric clinics from various federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia.

The brutal crimes committed under the guise of “euthanasia” went hand in hand with the Nazi ideologies of racial hygiene and eugenics. Here the value of a life has been reduced to its productivity. All over Baden-Württemberg, caring parents and relatives lament about their loss-filled fates.

A lasting mark

The now laid memorial stone measures 10×10 cm and was designed by the artist Gunter Demnig. There are now twelve stumbling blocks in Rottenburg, each commemorating the victims of the systematic persecution and murder during the Nazi regime. Such memorial stones not only preserve the memory of the deceased, but also the human grief caused by these crimes and the confession that such atrocities must not be forgotten. The laying of this stone is a strong symbol against forgetting and the atrocities of the past.