Bernhard Johnen

Bernhard Johnen (* March 18, 1831 ; † May 18, 1912 ) was a general practitioner and first medical director of the hospital in Düren at the time, as well as the initiator of a new, modern hospital. He was a secret medical councilor .

Johnen was head of the Maria-Hilf-Hospital, which existed from 1864 to 1909 at the Marienkirche . It was the former Franciscan monastery. Johnen was the first doctor in the history of the Düren hospital to be entrusted with the medical management of a hospital. He lived in the house at Schenkelstrasse 12 .

The hospital originally comprised eight wards with 64 beds. The bed capacity was increased to 104 beds through an extension that went into operation in 1881. The hospital staff at that time consisted of 13 nurses, a nurse, a housekeeper, a gardener and four maids.

In 1866 a cholera epidemic and in 1871 a smallpox epidemic raged in Düren, which Bernhard Johnen took on with scientific care to combat.

The hospital was very progressive, gas lighting was put into operation in 1868, and in 1889 the hospital was connected to the public telephone network.

In 1897 the first X-ray machine was put into operation thanks to a generous donation from the industrialist Leopold Peill .

After a fire on December 17, 1890, in which the roof structure of the old building was destroyed, 120 sick people had to be evacuated, the upper floor could not be used for several months. In the course of the repair work, the hospital received two isolation rooms and a tobacco cell. Despite these measures, the house no longer complied with its regulations.

In 1892, the district president wrote to the Düren city council, pointing out certain deficiencies in the hospital and demanding that they be remedied.

In October 1893, Johnen urgently presented the new construction of the hospital to the magistrate in a memorandum. As early as December of the same year, a piece of land on the new Roonstrasse was bought, but further plans dragged on. After a commission under city architect Faensen, Mayor August Klotz and Bernhard Johnen had investigated the untenable conditions in the old hospital, the city council came to the decision to drop all expansion plans and to plan a new building.

But it was not until September 1, 1904 that the government approved the construction of the hospital.

See also

• Düren Hospital

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• Richartz, Heinrich: The Düren doctor Dr. Bernhard Johnen (1831–1912), in Dürener Geschichtsblätter No. 63, 1974, p. 17