After 1850, Wienbarg lived in Hamburg and Altona, addicted to alcohol, destitute, and forgotten by the public. In 1869, he was committed to a psychiatric clinic in Schleswig where he died on 2 January 1872.Carsten Erich Carstens: Wienbarg, Ludolf Christian, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, pp. 419 f.
