Johanniter-Heilstätte Sorge
The Johanniter-Heilstätte Sorge is a former lung sanatorium on the Ochsenberg between Sorge and Hohegeiß in the Harz Mountains , which was built according to plans by the architects Heino Schmieden and Julius Boethke .
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Use as a lung sanatorium
The construction of the house was made possible in particular by a generous donation from Werner von Seebach from Langensalza in 1895. The funds were to be used to build a hospital in the Erfurt administrative district .
The January chapter of the Order of St. John in 1899 decided to build a lung sanatorium . A modern lung sanatorium for 60 female patients was to be created. The southern slope of the summit plateau of the 562 m high Ochsenberg was chosen as the construction site - lonely in the middle of a dense spruce forest in the triangle between the villages of Sorge, Benneckenstein and Hohegeiß. In particular, the climatic conditions of the place were decisive. During an on-site visit in concern on July 17, 1899, the order inspected the 45 acre property, which was ultimately leased for 50 years. The construction work turned out to be difficult at first because, in addition to clearing work, considerable earthworks were required to create a level construction plane from the rocky mountain slope.
The building was created in a very massive construction. The walls up to the third floor were made of granite. The building was divided into two uniform outbuildings and a central building, which contained a church on its upper floor, which was also indicated by its external construction through the choir and bell tower. The three parts of the building were joined together to form a structural unit by connecting structures with arcade-shaped lounge halls open to the south. The spacious, bright hospital rooms in the outer parts of the building also faced south. These were single, double, triple or four-bed rooms. A winter garden, a library and several lounges and day rooms rounded off the comfortable furnishings.
The inauguration of the new lung sanatorium took place on June 26th, 1902 in the presence of the master master Prince Albrecht of Prussia . In August 1902 the first patients were received in the house. Sobotta was the chief physician, supported by a sisterhood that set up the deaconess motherhouse of the Order of St. John in Halle. As early as 1903, a residential building for the chief doctor and a farm building were built on the site. Also in 1903, the first forest reclining halls were set up, which were necessary for the open-air reclining cure after Brehmer and Dettweiler . In 1905 Sobotta was given an assistant doctor, and in 1906 the new chief doctor Naegelsbach took over the clinic - but only for a short time. In the same year, the sanatorium was connected to the newly established power station in Benneckenstein via an open-air line and the bed capacity was expanded by 12 to 72.
In 1908 Naegelsbach handed over the management of the clinic to the new chief physician Hans Pigger, who carried out this activity until his death in 1940. It was known that under Pigger "strict cures" were taken, which established the good reputation of the sanatorium. Successes were also reflected in numbers: in 1909 the annual report shows that of 249 patients with an average age between 20 and 35 years of age, 161 were “treated successfully” and 72 had “significantly improved”. As in 1908, the sanatorium was fully occupied every day. The treatment consisted of a combination of outdoor reclining cures and exercise cures, for which cure paths had been laid out around the clinic on the slopes of the Ochsenberg. With its gentle means, the pulmonary cure required treatment over several months. Pigger recommended extending the patient's average length of stay of 105 days in order to achieve better therapeutic results. In the structure of the patients, Sorge was somewhat similar to the fashionable houses in 1909 - after all, most of the patients bore the cost of the treatment themselves. The order granted two patients a subsidy of 2 marks per day. The Order supported 35 patients in financing their stay at the spa from a fund for the reduction of spa costs. The so-called “free bed fund” of the institution gave help to seven patients.
As early as 1909, Pigger had the technical equipment brought up to date by purchasing X-ray and pneumothorax machines. As one of the first lung doctors in Germany, he introduced lung collapse therapy in 1909. Extensive further technical and structural changes were implemented by the Order of St. John at his request. During the First World War, the clinic continued to operate unchanged, but further renovations and expansions could only be implemented after the inflationary period . The number of beds was increased to 88. In 1925 the so-called "upper house" was built, which was used as a guest house.
By resolution of the Board of Trustees on May 8, 1926, the site, which had previously been leased for 50 years, was purchased. A plan for the extensive expansion of the sanatorium was approved. The main building was given a large annex on its west side, which offered rooms for 45 additional patients and, for the first time, space for a connected medical department. The treatment rooms in the old building, which had become too small in the meantime, were replaced by modern operating theaters in the new building that was occupied on April 1, 1927. From 1927 onwards the possibility of surgical interventions ( thoracic surgery ) was offered here . A sanatorium for people with light lung disease, the “care house”, as the clinic was sometimes called at the time, had become a modern lung hospital with around 130 beds. Meanwhile, a third assistant doctor was on site - the sisterhood consisted of ten nurses. Furthermore, the focus was on the health resort costs, which one wanted to keep as low as possible, because the order continued to feel obliged to the less well-off. In the 1930s, a single room cost 7 marks, a double room 6 marks, and three and four-bed rooms 5 marks a day. For this purpose, full board was offered according to medical aspects, medical treatment and therapeutic baths "without additives", rubs and much more. In 1930 the “Yellow House” was handed over to its intended purpose, increasing the bed capacity to 165 beds. Another large new building was started in 1937 and was completed in 1938. This again offered rooms for 25 patients and also had living rooms for the senior doctor and a few employees. The capacity of 180 hospital beds that has now been reached remained constant in the decades to come, so that in 1938 the expansion of the sanatorium can be seen as complete by and large. After the sudden death of the senior physician Pigger in June 1940, the new house was dedicated as the "Dr. Pigger House" to the memory of the long-term director of the sanatorium. Volker Grosse from Berlin took the place of Pigger.
During the Second World War and also in the difficult years after that, the sanatorium remained in operation without interruption. While the occupancy figures declined in the war years, in the early 1950s they again reached the dimensions they had known from pre-war times. The last lung operations were carried out in 1951. By 1961, the occupancy dropped from 180 to just 120 patients. The general decline in TB illnesses due to improved hygienic conditions and lower patient referrals by the TB headquarters in Berlin led to the first economic problems in the operation of the sanatorium. It was decided and approved to admit male patients from the beginning of 1962. The measure brought the desired economic success - the house soon reached its maximum occupancy again. In the meantime, the Order of St. John had to cede its properties in the GDR to the Protestant regional church in trust.
In November 1967 the Evangelical Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony was informed by the Magdeburg district government that the sanatorium was to be closed at short notice and could no longer be used for diaconal purposes. The house should have been vacated by December 31, 1967 - a few weeks later. No information was given about future use. The sanatorium operations in their previous form were discontinued on December 31, 1967.
Use as an NVA sanatorium
A main lease had to be concluded between the church and the Wernigerode district , from which the district received the right to freely use the property for 65,000 marks annually. The Wernigerode district in turn signed a sublease agreement with the National People's Army (NVA). The treatment of lung diseases as the original purpose of the house ended in 1967.
From 1968 the former lung sanatorium was used by the National People's Army (NVA) and the border troops of the GDR with 150 spa places. From 1973, Chief Medical Officer Markert headed the house with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Healing, convalescent and prophylactic cures were carried out. Special areas of treatment were spinal diseases as well as heart and circulatory diseases. All ranks from non-commissioned officer to general were found here as patients . The best known spa guest was Army General and Defense Minister of the GDR Heinz Hoffmann in 1972.
As in the times of Pigger, the customs and home regulations were considered strict. There was an absolute ban on smoking and alcohol in the sanatorium; in the event of non-compliance, the immediate discontinuation of the treatment was ordered. From 1986 onwards, in addition to members of the NVA army, citizens of the surrounding communities Sorge, Tanne (Harz) and Benneckenstein were treated in the clinic on the Ochsenberg if their doctors ordered it. Since the sanatorium was only a few hundred meters away from the inner German border running between Hohegeiss (Lower Saxony) and Sorge and was therefore in an absolutely restricted area , the entire area with the buildings of the sanatorium and the extensive park area was surrounded by a security fence. There was a manned gate at the entrance to the sanatorium. Since the patients treated in the clinic in the vicinity had the reputation of not being particularly ill, but indulging in idleness in complete seclusion in the Harz Mountains, the property was often referred to as a "sloth farm" behind the scenes. The name "Wasserburg" was common among the inmates - alluding to the water treatments that were a fundamental part of every cure.
Post-reunification time
With the fall of 1989, the situation changed again fundamentally. Due to the dissolution of the NVA on October 3, 1990, the Bundeswehr had to enter into the sublease agreement with the Wernigerode district, but they showed no interest in using the property. The sublease agreement between the Bundeswehr and the Wernigerode district was therefore terminated on June 30, 1991. For its part, the district of Wernigerode failed to terminate the main rental agreement with the regional church in due time, so that the agreement was valid until December 31, 1991. Until the Federal Property Office transferred the sanatorium back to the Order of St. John in 1992, the then well-preserved buildings stood empty for a while. Five former employees took over the guarding and preparation for the transfer of ownership of the area.
The return of the object to the Order of St. John presented them with great problems. The renewed diaconal use of the property as a sanatorium seemed to be easy to implement at first, as the basic structure of the buildings was all preserved in good condition - which was also thanks to their massive construction. However, upgrading the facility to West German clinic standards would have required a large investment. In addition, due to the age of the facility, high maintenance costs were to be feared every year. In view of many other tasks in connection with the reunification and upcoming investments in other objects that were transferred back in the new federal states, the Order of St.
The establishment of a children's home , an SOS Children's Village or a mothers convalescent home was also considered as subsequent use . None of these goals could be achieved. An interested buyer from the Stuttgart area offered two million DM for the system, which he wanted to reuse for medical purposes. However, the bid was below the expectations of the Order of St. John, who wanted to achieve at least three million DM.
In 2016 was horror - thriller film Eastern Zone filmed here, which also tells a fictional story of this sanatorium.
In 2018, all of the buildings are in a state of very advanced decay, parts of the roof have collapsed and almost all windows have broken, so that the weather is further encouraging decay. The buildings do not contain any furnishings and all water and electrical lines were removed in the course of the gutting. The area has been leased to a couple who breed sled dogs for 30 years and is a popular “Lost Place Adventure Camp” with photographers.
literature
- Volker Grosse: Memorandum for the 50th anniversary of the Johanniter-Heilstätte Sorge near Benneckenstein / Harz 1902–1952. o. O ,. 1952.
- Andreas Jüttemann: The Prussian lung sanatorium. Pabst, Lengerich 2016, ISBN 3-958531-38-5 .
- Our homes and houses need us. The former Johanniter lung sanatorium in Sorge / Harz. In: Ordensblatt des Johanniter-Ordens , January 1992 edition, pp. 2-4.
- Rudolf Zietz: The Johanniter lung sanatorium near Benneckenstein. Until December 1990 a sanatorium for the People's Army. In: Harzer Bergkalender 1992 , p. 136 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 50.9 " N , 10 ° 40 ′ 34.7" E