German House (Agra)

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Aerial photograph 1948, in the back the church of Agra

The German House was a sanatorium in the former Swiss municipality of Agra , Canton Ticino .

history

20th century

Dining room around 1930

The lung sanatorium for tuberculosis patients was opened in 1913 by the Deutsche Heilstätte Foundation as a branch of the Davos High Mountain Clinic .

The clinic building is considered to be the main work of the Swiss architect Edwin Wipf (1877–1966), who later also built Centovalli railway stations in Ticino .

The clinic reached its peak in the 1930s, when celebrities such as Sven Stolpe , Erich Kästner , Bertolt Brecht and his girlfriend Margarete Steffin were guests. Stolpe processed his own stay in the novel In the waiting room of death (orig. I Dödens Väntrum ). Some of Kästner's descriptions can be found in the anthology Letters to the Double Treasures (published until 1955 under the title Letters from Ticino ).

Abandoned sanatorium "Deutsches Haus Agra" in May 2007

The decline of the house was initiated by the chief physician Hanns Alexander , who hoisted the swastika flag on the sanatorium and founded a local NSDAP group in Agra. He had Hitler pictures hung up and refused to admit Jews to the sanatorium. It caused polarization among patients, employees and the local population - however, the Swiss authorities did not intervene and left him inactive. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, the clinic fell into disrepute due to Alexander's activities and - also due to medical advances - could no longer follow up on previous successes. The final closure took place in 1969.

21st century

Resort Collina d'Oro (2016)

In 2004, the Ticino entrepreneur Silvio Tarchini bought the 400,000 square meter property for 7 million francs and decided to convert it into a wellness hotel. After years of approval process, Tarchini received approval from the municipality and canton in September 2009 to be able to carry out the renovation while preserving the historical building fabric. However, it soon became apparent that the safety of the construction workers was not guaranteed due to the dilapidated structure of the old clinic.

Finally, the former spa hotel was renovated, part of it was reconstructed and reopened in 2012. The park was also redesigned. The "German House" now shines under a new name, Resort Collina d'Oro, in a new, if more contemporary, splendor.

literature

  • Fischer-Hotz, Margot: Schatzalp Davos and Deutsches Haus Agra - the story of a late love for the magic mountains. Edition Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 2005, ISBN 3-8301-0869-9 .
  • Deutsche Heilstätte Davos and Agra: Anniversary publication. Self-published, Davos 1951.
  • Stolpe, Sven: In the waiting room of death (Orig .: I Dödens Väntrum) . Schweizer Druck- und Verlagshaus, Zürich undated (Stolpe works through his own stay in Agra in 1927/28).
  • Glarner, Hans Ulrich: Dance of Death in the best prospect ; in: Hächler, Beat (Ed.): The rattle of the Zoccoli. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2000.
  • Fuselli, Enrico; Bucher, Lucio; Costantini, Paola: Agra 1914–1918 - Il respiro del sanatorio. Edizioni Fondazione culturale Collina d'Oro / Giampiero Casagrande editore, 2009
  • Hans Peter Mathis: Wipf, Edwin. In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 569

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German House
  2. ↑ Press article about the new resort ( Memento from July 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 45 ° 57 ′ 47 "  N , 8 ° 54 ′ 30"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred thirteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-three  /  91231