Mastodon
Collection Artists

Agnes Richter

selbst genähtes und mit autobiographischen Texten besticktes Jäckchen von Agnes Richter
Agnes Emma Richter, selbst genähtes und mit autobiographischen Texten besticktes Jäckchen, 1895, Inv.Nr. 743 © Sammlung Prinzhorn, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg

(Zottewitz 1844 – 1918 Hubertusburg asylum)

Agnes Emma Richter grew up with her mother and three siblings after the early death of her father. She worked as a housemaid first in Dresden, and then for eight years in America, where she managed to save a considerable sum of money. In 1888, she returned to Dresden and worked as a seamstress. A single woman, she called the police several times because she felt threatened and feared for her savings. In 1893, on charges of disturbing the peace and trespassing, she was first taken to the Dresden asylum and later transferred to Hubertusburg, where she was soon declared legally incompetent. In her medical file, she is described as looking almost fifty years older, pale and "misshapen" due to scoliosis, and as a danger "to herself and others". What this consisted of is not explained. Furthermore, it is reported that she became increasingly and verbosely angry with the police – whom, in her fear, she had initially called for help, but who then brought her to the asylum – which was interpreted as a state of agitation and an indication of her incurable mental disorder. After twenty-five years of life in institutions, she died in the Hubertusburg asylum.

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