Vitos Weilmünster
| Vitos Weilmünster | |
|---|---|
| place | Weilmünster |
| state | Hesse |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 25 '25 " N , 8 ° 23' 25" E |
| areas of expertise | Psychiatry and neurology |
| Website | vitos-weilmuenster.de |
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The Weilmünster Clinic is a neurological clinic in Weilmünster (Hesse). Since the restructuring in 2008, it has been operating under the name Vitos Weilmünster non-profit GmbH and belongs to Vitos GmbH , which in turn is a subsidiary of the State Welfare Association of Hesse .
history
Foundation and early years
In 1897, the provincial insane asylum was founded in Weilmünster under the name "Heil- und Pflegeeanstalt". The institution of the Prussian administrative district of Wiesbaden accepted the first patients on October 25, 1897. The clinic, located far outside the metropolitan areas, was designed as a large hospital with more than 1,000 patients. As was common for madhouses at that time, the facility was located outside the town.
While a reform-oriented therapeutic approach was pursued in the Köppern Forest Hospital , a conservative approach was used in Weilmünster, which aimed to isolate the patient from the world of the healthy, to discipline them and to keep them permanently in the institution. See also history of psychiatry .
The First World War led to a massive deterioration in the supply of the population with food. As a result, the mortality among the patients increased significantly.
Tuberculosis home in the Weimar Republic
With the beginning of the Weimar Republic , the clinic was converted into a sanatorium for tuberculosis care for children. The healthy air of the Hintertaunus was seen as beneficial to health. Heinrich Brüning's austerity policy during the global economic crisis led to the closure of the tuberculosis clinic. The facility was used again as a clinic for the mentally ill.
Sick murders in the time of National Socialism
During the National Socialist era , the clinic became the scene of the crimes of National Socialist racial hygiene . Due to the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring , a total of 278 people were forcibly sterilized in Weilmünster from 1934 to 1939 .
In 1940 the clinic was declared a "Zwischenanstalt" Weilmünster as part of the T4 campaign , as was the Kalmenhof in Idstein , the Andernach nursing home and the Schänen facility . In this year alone, 735 patients from Weilmünster and 1,773 patients from other institutions were transferred to the Nazi killing center in Hadamar and murdered there. A total of about 6,000 people who lived as patients in Weilmünster were killed as part of the National Socialist murders .
A number of patients died from malnutrition, neglect of nursing care, but also from targeted drug killings directly in Weilmünster. Between 1940 and 1945 over 3,000 patients died in Weilmünster. See the cemetery section.
After the psychiatric patients had been murdered, space was created for the establishment of an army hospital. Officially planned for 1200 patients, up to 2000 sick soldiers were housed here. The "military hospital" existed until the beginning of 1947.
Nassau Children's Sanatorium
After the military hospital was closed, the clinic complex was used again as a children's home from 1946 under the name “Nassau Children's Sanatorium”. In addition to treating tuberculosis, caring for war orphans was part of the job. With over 1500 inmates, the facility was clearly overcrowded. In addition, mentally ill people were increasingly being cared for.
In 1953, the newly founded State Welfare Association of Hesse took over the sponsorship of the facility and carried out the renovation of the buildings.
Psychiatric hospital
Since 1963 the clinic has been fully used as a psychiatric hospital again. While more than 1,000 patients were initially accommodated in the clinic, the wards were continuously reduced in size and care improved in the 1970s and 1980s. Outpatient care for the mentally ill was also introduced.
From 1988 the neurological department was expanded significantly. In 1996 the clinic took over the care contract from the Taunusklinik Falkenstein and increased the total number of beds in the house to just under 200.
The Klinikum Weilmünster has been operating as a non-profit GmbH company since 1998 .
Walter-Adlhoch-Heim
Since 1989 there has been a curative education facility on the clinic's premises, the "Walter-Adlhoch-Heim" for the care of adults with intellectual disabilities. This home is named after the former hospital chaplain, chaplain Walter Adloch. He had the courage to speak out publicly against the murder of the mentally handicapped in 1943. He was interrogated by the SS and was banned from the house. All of the residential groups in the Walter-Adloch-Heim were taken over by Vitos Teilhabe gGmbH in 2016.
The “Walter-Adloch-Heim” curative education facility looks after and accompanies up to 156 adults with intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities. In addition to the residential offers in Weilmünster, the curative education facility also has outdoor living groups in Friedberg and Löhnberg.
Today's clinic
There are currently three clinics on the site: the psychiatric, neurological and psychosomatic clinic. The neurological clinic has 125 beds, the clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy under the direction of Dieter Schoepf over 37 beds and the clinic for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy over 30 beds. The clinic also operates 15 semi-inpatient beds in the psychiatry department in Weilburg. Every year over 10,000 inpatients and outpatients are treated in the clinic.
chapel
The clinic is built on a slope. At the top of the slope there is a chapel for patients, relatives and staff.
graveyard
Between the establishment of the clinic in 1897 and 1996, the deceased were buried in the forest cemetery near the clinic (unless the relatives wished to be buried elsewhere). In the 1980s, the commemoration of the victims of the murders committed by the National Socialists and the forced sterilization became the subject of numerous events and the content of memorials.
In September 2003 the cemetery was inaugurated as a memorial cemetery for the victims of the Nazi murders . Here are the graves of over 3,100 victims from the years 1937 to 1945. In addition, the graves of patients and employees of the clinic from other times are laid out here. A memorial stone commemorates the Nazi victims .
The military cemetery is located next to the patient cemetery . Compared to other military cemeteries, it is striking that most of the dead died in the last days of the war and many died after the war ended. The reason is that initially only those soldiers were transferred to Weilmünster (i.e. far from the front) whose wounds did not often lead to death. The shortage in the last months of the war and in the immediate post-war period then led to an increased death rate.
Chapel of the Weilmünster Clinic
Military cemetery
Tower of the farm building
See also
literature
- Christina Vanja (Ed.): Sanatorium - Sanatorium - Clinics. 100 years of Weilmünster Hospital. 1897-1997. Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-89203-036-7 ( Historical publication series of the Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen, sources and studies. 4).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weilmünster, sanatorium and nursing home. Topography of National Socialism in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ↑ Source: Information board in the patient cemetery
- ^ Vitos Weilmünster. about us