In Memory of Brother Massäus Stemeseder (1891-1940)

In Memory of Brother Massäus Stemeseder
Franciscan brother – victim of the Nazi murder of psychiatric patients

Brother Massäus Stemeseder found his vocation in quiet prayer and devoted service. As a Franciscan brother at the monastery in Solbad Hall, he worked as a cook and gardener. Through his daily labour, he cared for the monastic community and tended the monastery gardens. His life was shaped by faith, compassion, and a deep connection with creation.
From 1931 onwards, Brother Massäus lived with a mental illness and received care at the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital in Hall. Under National Socialist rule, people with mental illnesses and disabilities were increasingly deprived of their rights, excluded from society, and ultimately subjected to systematic murder. Their vulnerability was turned into a death sentence.
On 10 December 1940, Brother Massäus was deported from the institution in Hall as part of the Nazi “euthanasia” killings and transported to the Hartheim killing centre near Linz. There, he was murdered in the gas chamber. His religious community later received only the news of his death.
The fate of Brother Massäus Stemeseder reminds us of the many people whom the National Socialists excluded, deported, and murdered after declaring their lives supposedly “unworthy of life”. Behind every victim was a unique human being with an individual story, an inherent dignity, and a name.
Brother Massäus Stemeseder was not merely one among countless victims. He was a Franciscan brother, a cook, and a gardener. He was a fellow human being and a member of a religious community.
We remember him with sorrow and preserve his name as a lasting warning. His fate calls upon us to defend the inviolable dignity of every human being and to oppose all forms of exclusion, dehumanisation, and persecution.
May he rest in peace.

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