Kosmonosy Sanatorium

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kosmonosy Sanatorium ( Psychiatrická léčebna Kosmonosy , abbreviated PL Kosmonosy , from 2013 Psychiatric Hospital Kosmonosy - Psychiatrická nemocnice Kosmonosy , PN Kosmonosy) in Kosmonosy (German: Kosmanos), Czech Republic , is the second oldest psychiatric institution in Bohemia (after the psychiatric institution that no longer exists in the monastery of St. Catherine in Prague, which opened in 1822).

history

The institution was built in a no longer needed monastery. The renovation was suggested and decided in 1866, the first 51 male patients were admitted on April 27, 1869, shortly afterwards there were 282 places, initially only for men. In 1871 there were 394 beds, including 112 for women, and in 1891 969 beds for patients. By around 1912, the number of patient beds rose to 1,139 beds (714 for men and 425 for women), the historic high in the interwar period was 1150 patients in 1924.

Further buildings and extensions followed in 1880, 1895 (two new buildings "A" and "B" with 300 beds each) until 1910 (two buildings "K" and "K1" with 100 beds each) and in the years 1914 to 1918 and 1938 At first the hospital in Kosmonosy was just a branch of the Prague psychiatric institution in the monastery of St. Catherine, it was not until July 1, 1897 that it became independent and from then on had its own administration.

The clinic in the protectorate

During the protectorate period after 1939, the clinic found itself in an ambivalent position. On the one hand, the policy of the Third Reich pursued the goal of liquidating all mentally ill patients. Indeed, there have been reports (based on memories) of fatal vaccinations of patients with bacilli, restricted food rations and outbreaks of cholera as a result of poor hygienic conditions at the end of the war (with a death rate of up to twelve patients per day). On the other hand, on November 1, 1940, the institution passed under new German management and increasingly offered its capacities to the Reichsgau Sudetenland . The institution was to become a collection point for the German mentally ill. As originally planned, selected patients were to be transferred to various extermination camps and murdered in gas chambers. This did not happen, however, as a result of an instruction from the Deputy President of the State Office in Prague, the stock of German patients was replenished through numerous transports (transfers from outside) and patient exchanges with other institutions. The number and proportion of doctors and, above all, nurses, however, remained roughly the same: for 1942, 98 percent of German patients were given but only 17 percent of German staff.

Around July 1940, shortly before the conversion into an institution for German patients only, 400 German patients - that is 36 percent of all inmates - were accommodated in Kosmonosy, after the patient swap in November 1940 it was already 99 percent. In the middle of the war, in September 1942, after another 211 people had arrived from Neuruppin, the number reached 1,329 inmates; in August 1943 it was already 1647 and in April 1944 even 1655 (the highest recorded number). Although there were later also influx of Czech patients, the proportion of German patients never fell below 80 percent.

During the time of the German occupation, 2,474 patients died in the institution. The death rate was thus more than twice as high as in the pre-war period.

The role of some doctors should also be mentioned here. In 1940 MUDr, who was born in Bohemia, took over management of the institution. Klemens Bergl, who - according to later, partly contradicting statements of his Czech colleagues - saved the lives of many Czech prisoners as an appraiser for the District Administrator and the Gestapo ; Something similar is said of the German doctor Theer, who also came from Sternberg in 1940.

After 1945

After the end of the war, there were only around 200 people in the institution in Kosmonosy: German patients were transferred to psychiatric institutions in Germany, which was organized and carried out by the Red Cross. In 1948 there were already around 400 clients there. Most of them were transported in two large waves with a stop at the Dobřany Psychiatric Hospital . For a time there was a shortage of doctors: in 1950 there was only one doctor working in the institution, who was responsible for 1,100 patients at the time.

From the 1970s onwards, the institution's tasks were gradually expanded: psychotherapy was opened, a trust hotline was set up, departments for the healing of neuroses and personality disorders were established and a department for rehabilitation and rehabilitation was opened.

Designations

In its history the institution has had different names:

  • from 1869: Royal Bohemian State Madhouse Branch (Královský český zemský ústav filiální pro choroduché) or Royal Bohemian State Madhouse Branch to Kosmanos
  • from 1897 (as an independent institution): Royal Bohemian State Insane Asylum (Královský zemský ústav pro choromyslné v Kosmonosích)
  • after 1918: Zemský ústav pro choromyslné
  • 1939–1945: State Institute for the Mentally Ill
  • after 1945: Léčebna pro choroby mozku, Státní léčebna psychiatrická Kosmonosy, Okresní odborný ústav - psychiatrická léčebna Kosmonosy, later finally Psychiatrická léčebna Kosmonosy (PLK, Psychiatric Sanatorium Kosmonosy)
  • from July 1, 2013: Psychiatrická nemocnice Kosmonosy (PNK, Psychiatric Hospital Kosmonosy).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Základní mezníky vývoje PN Kosmonosy , website of the institution, online at: plkosmonosy.cz/historie ...
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Milan Novák, Dějiny Psychiatrické nemocnice Kosmonosy , publication of the Anslat, online at: plkosmonosy.cz/grafika / ...
  3. ↑ a b The National Socialist "euthanasia" and its victims in the area of ​​today's Czech Republic 1939-1945. The sanatorium and nursing home in Kosmanos / Kosmonosy , online at: schloss-hartheim.at / ...
  4. ↑ Psychiatrická léčebna , short report of the portal Kosmonosy - kultura, online at: kosmonosy-kultura.eu / ...
  5. ↑ a b c d e Petr Mistoler: Historie Psychiatrické léčebny Kosmonosy , publication of the portal psychiatr.org (Psychiatrie Mladá Boleslav, sro), 2005, online at: docplayer.cz /.../ psychiatr-org ...
  6. ↑ a b c Dita Ulčová: History ošetřovatelství v regionu Mladá Boleslav , Universita Karlova v Praze, Prague 2012, online at: is.cuni.cz / ... , especially chap. 4.2 from page 34
  7. ↑ Michal V. Šimůnek: Planning of the National Socialist "euthanasia" in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the context of the health and population policy of the German occupation authorities (1939-1942) . In: Michal V. Šimůnek, Dietmar Schulze (eds.): The National Socialist "Euthanasia" in the Reichsgau Sudetenland and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1939-1945 . Pavel Mervart Publishing House, Červený Kostelec 2008, ISBN 978-80-86818-76-4 . P. 167, note 189

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 37 "  N , 14 ° 55 ′ 37.2"  E