Institute for the insane and the epileptic

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The “mad castle” 1864
Site plan from 1887
View of the insane asylum from the southwest. Architect: Oskar Pichler

The institution for the insane and epileptic in Frankfurt am Main , popularly known as the Irrenschloss , was a municipal psychiatric clinic that was created on the initiative of the psychiatrist and Struwwelpeter author Heinrich Hoffmann (director from 1851 to 1888). This psychiatric institution, which was modern at the time, was built between 1859 and 1864 "out on the outskirts of the city" on the site of Affensteiner Feld in the then almost undeveloped Westend . Under Hoffmann's successor Emil Sioli , Professor Alois Alzheimer discovered Alzheimer's disease (Morbus Alzheimer) here in 1901 .

prehistory

The conditions in the old downtown institution for the insane and epileptic shocked Hoffmann so much that in 1851 he came up with the plan to bring this new building to life. A collection among Frankfurt citizens brought it to an initial capital of 46,000 guilders. Through a will of the Baron von Wiesenhütten in the amount of 100,000 guilders and additional loans, the capital increased to a total of 380,000 guilders. For this purpose, 30 acres of land for buildings, gardens, vegetable growing and field cultivation were purchased on the Frankfurt Affenstein. Four architects took part in the tender for the new building. Oskar Pichler , whose wife had a nervous disease, was commissioned because Pichler had most faithfully adhered to Hoffmann's plans. With him, Hoffmann undertook numerous “ educational trips ” to other institutions in Illenau (Baden), Eichberg (Rheingau), Austria, Holland, Belgium, France and England in 1856 .

construction

Construction could begin in 1859: As the " Hammelwiese am Affenstein " was not yet connected to the municipal water supply at that time, a well was first dug and from this the foundation wall line for the other components was staked out. Hoffmann had a free hand in planning the size of the rooms, the "Tob" cells, bathrooms, workshops and farm buildings. The external architectural style was determined by the republican city administration: They wanted the "German style" (i.e. Gothic ), which the Frankfurt population mockingly acknowledged with the name "Irrenschloss".

Modern water closets were installed inside, and a steam engine pumped the groundwater from the cellar into wooden reservoirs in the attic. The courtyards for the different areas were also new, each differentiated according to gender and clinical picture. Windows without bars and unseparated corridors were almost revolutionary innovations in institutional construction at that time. The institution was completed in 1864. Before the solemn opening of the institution, there were “open days”, Hoffmann lived with his family and his sick under one roof. One of his models for therapeutic work was: “ Above all, it must be the case that the doctor's entry into a department has something of the sunrise about it. "

demolition

Pile of broken glass in 2008

When the building no longer met the technical requirements and the clinics in Köppern and Weilmünster were no longer sufficient, it was demolished in 1928 and the “ Municipal and University Clinic for Mental and Mental Illnesses ”, as it was then called, moved to Niederrad to the foundation university founded in 1914 relocated. A new building for the psychiatric clinic in the Bauhaus style was built here between 1929 and 1931 according to concepts by Karl Kleist under the architects Ernst May and Martin Elsaesser , in which the clinic for psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy of the university clinic is still located today.

The administration building of IG Farbenindustrie AG, the IG-Farben-Haus, was built on the vacated site , which became the headquarters of the US armed forces after 1945 and was handed over to the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main after the Americans withdrew .

In the course of the construction work for the new Westend campus , a tower-like structure was uncovered in May 2008 in the northern part of the border with Affensteiner Weg (today Lübecker Straße), which is referred to as the " ice pit " in the plan by the architect Oskar Pichler . The building was used by the city asylum until it was demolished, as evidenced by the fragments of dishes in the asylum that were hidden inside the tower. The investigation of the preservation of monuments showed that the tower should belong to the late Gothic city fortifications, then it was converted into a windmill and later used as the ice cellar of the insane asylum. The archaeologists at the University of Frankfurt expressly doubt this assessment. Parts of the building were preserved and integrated into the new building for the social and educational library.

literature

  • Dagmar Braum: From madhouse to box hospital. A contribution to the history of psychiatry in Frankfurt am Main. Olms, Hildesheim 1987, ISBN 3-487-07767-1 ( Frankfurt contributions to the history, theory and ethics of medicine. 5).
  • Hans-Markus von Kaenel , Thomas Maurer, Albrecht Schlierer: How what is thought changes what is built. To reinterpret the ice cellar of the former "Institute for the Insane and Epileptic" on the Westend campus of the Goethe University Frankfurt a. M. In: Wulf Raeck , Dirk Steueragel (Ed.): The built and the thought. Form of settlement, architecture and society in prehistoric and ancient cultures. Habelt, Bonn 2012, pp. 167–209 ( Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften . 21). ( online , PDF, 3.2 MB, accessed November 23, 2018).
  • Helmut Siefert: “Today humanity has become preferably nervous.” Heinrich Hoffmann and the Frankfurt “Irrenschloss”. In: Research Frankfurt: Science magazine of the Goethe University. 27, H. 1, 2009, pp. 71-75 ( online , PDF; 387 kB).
  • Christina Vanja : "Architecture for madness". Hoffmann's new "Institute for the Insane and Epileptic" reflected in the history of psychiatry. In: Wolfgang P. Cilleßen, Jan Willem Huntebrinker (ed.): Heinrich Hoffmann - Peter Struwwel. A life in Frankfurt 1809–1894. Book accompanying the exhibition in the Historisches Museum Frankfurt . Imhof, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3865684745 , pp. 243-257 ( Writings of the Historisches Museum. 28).

Web links

Commons : Affenstein (Frankfurt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Eiskeller auf dem Affenstein , entry on the PEG building on the memorial plan of the Goethe University Frankfuft (online), accessed on March 4, 2020
  2. ↑ Hans-Markus von Kaenel , Thomas Maurer, Albrecht Schlierer: How what is thought changes what is built. To reinterpret the ice cellar of the former "Institute for the Insane and Epileptic" on the Westend campus of the Goethe University Frankfurt a. M. , in: Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 21, pp. 167–209. Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 2012. Available online at http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/47415870 ?, Accessed on April 4, 2013

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 43 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 12 ″  E