Free Clinic Heidelberg

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Headquarters of the Free Clinic eV in Heidelberg

The Free Clinic Heidelberg was founded in 1972 and is considered the oldest self-administered alternative project in the German health care system. The Heidelberg- based project continues to exist as a psychosocial counseling center to this day.

history

The establishment of the Heidelberg Free Clinic goes back to the international release movement and the medical and psychosocial aid projects it set up especially for drug addicts and the homeless . The first of the Free Clinics opened in San Francisco in the early 1960s, and the first European release center opened in London in 1967. In December 1970, the first German branch of Release was founded with the Association to Combat the Danger of Drugs , which also offered a contact point in Heidelberg, where volunteer doctors and nursing professionals in the tea house on Heidelberger Brunnengasse every evening between 6 and 8 p.m. Free medical and psychosocial advice was given. At that time, a tough drug scene was just developing in Germany , and special anonymous and free offers of help for this group of people were a novelty. In the beginning, the offers of help included in particular the treatment of skin and sexually transmitted diseases . The helpers were accepted in the drug scene because most of them had also listened to it themselves.

Karl "Chuck" Geck was involved from the very beginning, and he also took over the chairmanship of Release Heidelberg in 1971 and played a key role in expanding Release's medical range . Geck lived in the tea house from the late year 1971 and expanded the medical offer from release to February 1972 into a full-service general medical practice. In March 1972, the establishment of the practice, which deviated completely from the usual medical care model, was welcomed by the Heidelberg Social and Health Office and the State Welfare Association . The Heidelberg social authorities attested the necessity of the facility and referred to a “supra-legal emergency”, assured a non-bureaucratic behavior as possible and agreed to monthly flat-rate benefits.

In July 1972, when the practice had since started and there were between eight and 20 patients per day, Free Clinic became an autonomous association within the Release Center. Later they broke away completely from Release. The employees lived together in a collective, also took care of the medical care of rock festivals and also set up a dentist's practice. The Free Clinic's offer was made public on leaflets within the scene. The leaflets used the language of the scene and described the offer as "medical and dental help, free and cool, with other problems it is possible to find the right connection". A leaflet against communicable skin diseases read as follows: “If someone's fun walking around like a pus-encrusted monument, okay, that's their business. But it's just shitty and uncool to smuggle it under the skin of someone who doesn't feel like it. Therefore come to the Blauen Tinke !!! A happy day to you! "

In January 1973 a support association was founded, in July 1973 Free Clinic joined the German Parity Welfare Association . In the “Self-Understanding Info” of the same month, the Free Clinic described its services as follows: “Our work consists first of all in offering a humanitarian-charitable medical service that is also available to those who otherwise would not be able to do so for objective or subjective reasons , which enables their natural right to adequate medical care. In principle, this service is free and anonymous. "

The founding time of the Free Clinic was rich in public disputes about the financing and conception of the project. In 1972 alone there were 20 panel discussions, six radio and two television reports on the sometimes controversial work of the Free Clinic, whose financial problems in the late 1972 also became the subject of national press coverage. Most of the employees lived in the municipality, which was only financed by the limited funding, and the employees changed frequently. The extraordinarily relaxed interaction between doctors and patients (not all rooms were locked by doors, music was sometimes played in the waiting room while waiting, etc.) gave rise to all kinds of speculation.

After initial conceptual and organizational chaos, the situation consolidated from the spring of 1974. Up until then, the Free Clinic had also succeeded several times in obtaining higher lump-sum payments in negotiations with the service providers, so that at least a modest payment for the 35 people who were already around in 1973 Staff was secured. With the rapidly changing employees, the focus of the work also changed, which developed from medical care for drug addicts and homeless people to psychotherapeutic measures, group self-awareness, etc. also for other sections of the population such as schoolchildren, apprentices and students. The young target group brought an expansion of the range of activities towards general alternative self-administered youth work. Concerts and other cultural events were occasionally held in the so-called ting room of the Free Clinic.

The so-called therapy center, in which drug withdrawal measures have been carried out since 1973, was closed again in the summer of 1974. In 1977 the previous rooms of the Free Clinic were terminated by the City of Heidelberg. At the future location on Rohrbacher Strasse in Heidelberg, the psychosocial offers in particular were continued.

The Free Clinic Heidelberg is considered to be the oldest self-administered project in alternative healthcare in Germany. In addition, the Free Clinic took on the role of a germ cell in its early days, as many of the frequently changing early employees were encouraged to found their own alternative practice models from their Free Clinic time.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Free Clinic is threatened with financial death . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , November 16, 1972
  2. ↑ Free Clinic in acute financial distress . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , November 9, 1972

Coordinates: 49 ° 24 ′ 3 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 28 ″  E