Erich Steinfurth Children's Sanatorium
The former children's sanatorium Erich Steinfurth (also: Erich-Steinfurth-Heim , Kinderkurheim Erich Steinfurth ) on the Glienberg in the Baltic resort of Zinnowitz on Usedom was a state health care facility in the GDR and named after the communist German resistance fighter Erich Steinfurth (1896-1934). The extensive building complex has been empty since 1991.
Geographical location
The building complex of the former sanatorium is located on a park-like plot of approximately 5 hectares. In the east-west direction it has a length of about 300 meters, in the north-west direction of about 200 meters. The Glienberg, an elongated ridge, rises southeast of the center of Zinnowitz and shows a small-scale development with single-family houses and villas. To neighboring buildings is one of the of the Foundation Railway orphans Hort powered house gulls nest , / father-child cures offered by the parent company.
history
In 1875 the boarding house and hotel Belvedere was opened on the Zinnowitzer Glienberg. In 1907 it was sold to the Arbeiter-Pensionkasse, and another twenty years later, in 1927, the Milde Foundation of the Deutsche Reichsbahn acquired the Hotel Belvedere and the Hotel Kagemann, located at the same location, and redesigned the building into a railway orphanage for orphaned children of railway workers around. The renovation measures were financed from donations and included, among other things, the construction of a new gym. Immediately after the end of the war, the home was requisitioned and used for two years to house and quarantine Czech and Polish refugees (“epidemic hospital”). In 1949 it was given the name Erich-Steinfurth-Heim. Initially, pioneer camps were held on the extensive site , and in 1958 the former railroad orphanage under the name “Erich-Steinfurth” children’s sanatorium becomes a state health care facility in the GDR . From 1964 onwards, the plan was redesigned into a children's sanatorium, which was completed in 1967. In the course of the fall of the Wall in 1989, the sanatorium was wound up, closed in 1991 and sold by the German Railway Union. Plans to convert it into a retirement home or a hotel were not implemented. The building complex is a listed building , but it is empty and left to decay. When it closed, the Erich Steinfurth children's sanatorium employed almost a hundred people: 40 educators, 20 employees from the area of medium-sized medical personnel, two doctors, 15 kitchen staff and ten employees from the house and court staff.
architecture
The former children's sanatorium comprises several self-contained buildings, which are arranged in a ribbon-like manner from northwest to southeast and are connected by neoclassical colonnades . The buildings are covered with hip or mansard roofs . While the view from the valley to the silhouette of the complex looks monumental and is reminiscent of castle architecture, the architectural appearance from the adjacent street is fragmented and strongly structured. The central building section, an L-shaped four-storey building with a courtyard facing the street, shows elements of both neo-baroque (elaborately decorated portal) and reform architecture around the Deutscher Werkbund, such as arched covered loggias . In addition to the main complex, there are at least five outbuildings in the neo-baroque style (mansard roofs) or reform style on the site. Some of the interiors were elaborately designed with wooden wall paneling, parquet and carved railings.
Therapy and procedures
In the Erich Steinfurth children's sanatorium, children with the medical indication of "upper airways disease" (e.g. asthma or pseudo croup ) were treated medically as part of cures lasting several weeks (often six weeks) . Also eczema was treated. There were eight treatment courses per year, each with 210 children; when the house was used as a children's recreation home, 300 children were present on each passage. The sanatorium had sunlamps, brine chambers, therapeutic baths and modern inhalation devices. The children were divided into two main buildings according to age groups, one for girls and one for boys. The shared dormitories had up to eight beds. Each age group had its own lounge with appropriate toys . Everyone met in the large dining room; each group sat at their own table. Meals were prepared in the kitchen in the basement, taking into account “certain weight groups” diet . If the children were staying for a longer period of time, they were given school lessons in major and some minor subjects in the attic. Among other things, special medical breathing techniques were taught in the adjacent sports hall.
literature
- Stephan Lepiorz: The Erich Steinfurth home in the Baltic resort of Zinnowitz on Usedom. Historical Society Zinnowitz (editor), Zinnowitz, 2016.
Web links
- Literature on the Erich Steinfurth children's sanatorium in the state bibliography MV
- The fascination of cure
- Erich Steinfurth Children's Sanatorium
- Youtube-Video: Urban Exploration - Erich Steinfurth Sanatorium (Zinnowitz, Germany)
- Erich Steinfurth Sanatorium (English)
- Erich Steinfurth Sanatorium Zinnowitz
Coordinates: 54 ° 4 '24.7 " N , 13 ° 55' 4.9" E