Johannishospital (Leipzig)
The Johannishospital was a social institution in the south-eastern suburb of Leipzig that existed from the Middle Ages until the 20th century . It was located one after the other in two building complexes, the old and the new Johannishospital, both of which were located on Hospitalstraße, as the part of today's Prager Straße between Johannisplatz and Ostplatz was called until 1950.
Old Johannis Hospital
location
The Alte Johannishospital was located at the beginning of Hospitalstrasse on the northern side, i.e. behind the Johanniskirche as seen from the city and opposite the confluence of Talstrasse. To the north and east it was surrounded by the old Johannisfriedhof . Today the Grassi Museum stands on the site of the Old Johannis Hospital . ( Map )
history
The first mention goes back to the year 1278, when four acres of land in front of the Grimmaischer Tore were sold to the lepers (lepers) banished from the city due to the risk of infection , who had formed a kind of cooperative. The first building was soon erected here and around 1300 a chapel dedicated to the patron saint of the leper John the Baptist .
From 1391 the hospital was under municipal administration. His existence was secured by the private assets of the sick, donations and foundations as well as income from agriculture on the lands that he now owned.
When leprosy receded between 1500 and 1550, the house turned to accepting mentally and otherwise permanently physically ill people ( infirmary ). Syphilis ("French disease ") played a special role . Therefore, in 1512, the first main building, which was later called the Upper House, was joined by a "French House". Temporarily sick were treated in the so-called lubrication room, in which operations were also carried out. There was also a room for poor people passing through.
The Johannishospital was often destroyed by fires and wars, for example in 1547 in the Schmalkaldic War and in 1631 in the Thirty Years' War . But it was always rebuilt relatively quickly. In 1744 the old upper house was torn down and a new three-story building was erected in its place.
Since the middle of the 16th century, the Johannishospital has also been used as a retirement home for sufficiently wealthy people who bought into the home; it became a so-called beneficiary home . In the 1670s, the Johannishospital agreed with the Georgenhospital, which was rebuilt after the Thirty Years' War, with regard to tasks and inmates, and has now become a pure old age home. In 1676 the last “French” left the Johannishospital. In addition to those who had bought themselves into the retirement home, there were also inmates who were cared for free of charge. In times of need, the latter received a smaller diet. From 1755 onwards, all inmates were treated equally with regard to food.
1,832 of Johannishospital out on the site of the endowment funds of the Leipzig merchant Johann Ludwig Hartz built a pulling children's institution, an institution that was responsible not only for the direct care of orphans for the direction and supervision of drawing mothers who had paid orphans in care.
The 19th century brought the Johannishospital a large increase in assets, so that a new building, the New Johannishospital, could finally be built. After all the occupants of the old hospital had moved to the new building in 1872, the old building was used for various purposes. From 1873 onwards, the collections of the Association for the History of Leipzig were made accessible to the public on a larger scale. In 1890 the second floor was added, which had previously been used by the Museum of Ethnology . In 1909 the collections of the history association were taken over by the city and housed in the newly opened city history museum in the old town hall. In 1928 the old Johannishospital was torn down to make room for the new Grassi Museum . All that remains of the old Johannishospital is a Renaissance seat niche portal, which was installed as a memento next to the museum entrance when the Grassimuseum was rebuilt.
New Johannishospital
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location
The New Johannis Hospital (often also called Johannis pen) was located further out of town on the south side of Hospitalstrasse between the confluences of Richtsweg and Teubnerstrasse, i.e. near Ostplatz. ( → map )
History and description of the building
At the end of the 1860s, an architectural competition for the construction of a new old people's home for the residents of the Johannishospital and others was announced, which Constantin Lipsius won, which earned him the title of Royal Building Councilor in addition to the contract. Construction began on April 10, 1869 and was completed in the spring of 1872. The building was erected on the edge of the Johannistal , the area of which belonged to the hospital. Numerous allotment gardens had to give way when the land, some of which was three meters below street level, was backfilled.
A four-storey three-wing complex was created with a length of 132.5 meters on Hospitalstrasse and a height of 23.2 meters. The main facade was divided into a representative central building 27.8 meters high with a tower structure of 47.8 meters, two intermediate structures and two corner pavilions. The central building contained the central staircase, the general hospital ward and the prayer hall. To the right and left of the building complex there were still separate farm buildings.
The home contained 214 single rooms, 54 double rooms for married couples and 6 rooms for several people, each with a basement and floor space, so that a total capacity of around 380 people could be expected. The rooms were individually oven-heated with a central fresh air supply over the whole building. There was a central water supply and sewage disposal system with settling basins . You could bring your own furniture.
Lunch and dinner were prepared centrally, breakfast food was provided, but the preparation was left to everyone. Heating material was provided. Every innocent Leipzig citizen over 60 years of age who undertook to comply with the dormitory rules and entered into the following financial regulation was entitled to a place: each person had to pay a one-off capital contribution of 200 thalers and at the same time use the Johannishospital to inherit their entire future estate . The latter condition kept rich people away, the former poor, although discounts were granted in special cases. So the main clientele of the home came from craft circles.
The New Johannis Hospital existed until 1943. During the air raid on December 4, 1943 , it was destroyed and removed after the war. The north-western half of the site was included in the construction of the VVB Chemieanlagenbau office complex in the 1960s, which was the city's technical town hall for a few years after the fall of the Wall . The rest of the site is undeveloped.
Around 1900 the Johannishospital in Leipzig- Thonberg had built a “Branch I” as an extension on Riebeckstrasse and until 1912 a “Branch II” next to it on Stötteritzer Strasse between Riebeckstrasse and Kregelstrasse. Both were partially damaged in World War II , after which they were rebuilt and expanded. The latter is now the “Martin Andersen Nexö” municipal nursing home.
literature
- Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . PRO Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 272
- The Johannis Hospital, Leipzig . In: Moritz John Elsas: Outline of a history of prices and wages in Germany - From the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century . Sijthoff, Leiden 1936-49; digitized (PDF; 1.4 MB)
- Cornelius Gurlitt : The Johannesspital. In: Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 18th issue: City of Leipzig (Part II) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1896, p. 385.
- The Johannishospital and the Johannismännchen . In: Claus Uhlrich: The Marienborn and other stories from old Leipzig . PRO Leipzig, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-9807201-8-7 , pp. 12-17
- Friedrich Hofmann : A place of philanthropy and civil honor . In: The Gazebo . Issue 32, 1872, pp. 524-528 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map in LEIPZIG yesterday - today - tomorrow . Ed .: SED district leadership Leipzig, 1946.
Map with all coordinates: 
