Crinis, Maximinus de |
| PSYCHIATRIST, NAZI (AUSTRIA) |
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BORN 29 May 1889, Ehrenhausen, Steiermark (near Graz) - DIED 2 May 1945, Berlin: Stahnsdorf BIRTH NAME Crinis, Maximinus Friedrich Alexander CAUSE OF DEATH suicide by poisoning with cyanide GRAVE LOCATION Stahnsdorf, Brandenburg: Südwestkirchhof, Bahnhofstrasse (Block Epiphanien, Kriegsgräberstätte, Reihe 37, Platz 5) |
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Maximinus de Crinis was the son of a medical doctor. He studied medicin in Graz and Innsbruck and was promoted in Graz. In 1916 he married the actress Lili Anna Szikora. He was engaged as a senior physician, before he became an associate professor in 1924 and a full professor in 1927 in Graz. In 1931 he joined the NSDAP and he also joined the SS. His political activities resulted in his arrest in 1934 and on 25 July 1934 he fled to Germany. He worked in Cologne before he became the director of the Neorological department of the Charité Hospital in Berlin. There he was a main protagonist of the T4 Euthanasia Program, that resulted in systematic murder of 70,000 disabled and mentally unstable people between 1939 and 1941 by gassing. In 1945 he saw film fragments of Hitler that led him to the conclusion that Hitler had Parkinson's disease. He informed Himmler of this and this was possibly one of the reasons that Himmler tried to start piece negotiations without Hitler's knowledge. De Crinis visited his clinic, that was moved to Berlin-Buch, for the last time on 21 April 1945. After that he waited in his villa at the Wannsee for the arrival of the Red Army. On 1 May 1945 he tried to drive to the west with his wife. After this attempt failed they killed themselves. They were buried at the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf. In 1995 his remains were moved to a field for war victims, but after protests his gravestone was removed. |
| Images |
 The grave of Max de Crinis at the Südwestfriedhof, Stahnsdorf, Berlin. Picture by Androom (13 Nov 2004) |
