Marsberg fiber optic clinic

LWL-Klinik Marsberg from the air

The LWL-Klinik Marsberg (formerly: Westfälische Klinik Marsberg ) is a facility of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe for psychotherapy , psychiatry and rehabilitation . It goes back to the Marsberg State Hospital founded in 1814 . In 1816 it became the Provincial Insane Asylum in Westphalia . In addition, from 1881, the St. John's monastery for child and adolescent psychiatry was established . This gave birth to the Westphalian child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy. Both facilities merged in 1997 at the administrative level to form the Westphalian Care and Support Center.

Development in the 19th century

The madhouse in Niedermarsberg, former Capuchin monastery. Watercolor by Alfred Yark around 1840

The Capuchin Monastery of Marsberg was founded in Marsberg in 1744 as the last monastery to be founded in the Duchy of Westphalia before secularization .

After the end of the Duchy of Westphalia, the Hesse-Darmstadt administration became aware of the inadequate "care for the insane" in the new part of the country. In the Capuchin monastery, which had been secularized a few years earlier, the Marsberg State Hospital was opened in 1814, initially accommodating 17 patients. The original regulation provided for individual, non-coercive treatment. Work therapy in workshops and agriculture as well as leisure activities were offered to the patients . The facility was one of the first of its kind in Germany, which in addition to supplying it also had healing purposes. The first director was Julius Wilhelm Ruer . Johannes Stoll played an important role at the administrative level .

The facility was taken over by the Prussian administration after 1816 and continued as the first provincial insane asylum in Westphalia. Except for the choir, the monastery church was demolished. The choir served as a chapel for the institution and was demolished in the 1860s. In the 1870s, the remaining monastery buildings were also demolished in favor of new buildings.

In 1835 the facility was renamed "Heilanstalt". In 1859 the first year of the magazine " Der Irrenfreund " appeared, edited by Friedrich Koster, director of the institution. In the following years the number of patients rose sharply. Therefore, in 1839 the building of the former Benedictine monastery in Obermarsberg was leased. Although the facility was already overcrowded by the middle of the century, extensions could not be made until the 1860s. In 1872 a separate institution church was inaugurated.

Main building of the St. Johannes Stift

For the treatment of children and adolescents, the St.-Johannes-Stift was founded in 1881, supported by the forerunner of today's regional association Westphalia-Lippe (LWL). Sisters of the Cooperative of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincenz von Paul from Paderborn took over the care and care of the patients and the housekeeping of the house. About ten years later, 284 patients were housed there. In the years that followed, schools for girls and boys, a farm building, a new main building and other buildings were built.

Interrupted at times by the First World War and the post-war period, further extensions followed in the 1920s.

time of the nationalsocialism

During the Nazi era, Marsberg became a crime scene for the euthanasia program . The St.-Johannes-Stift became a “ children's department ” of the “Reich Committee for the Scientific Recording of Hereditary and Constitutional Severe Ailments.” In the following months, around 50 children and young people were killed there. Due to unrest in the population, the "specialist department" was closed in 1941. The department was moved to the clinic in Aplerbeck .

During the Second World War, the St. Johannes Stift served as a military hospital, and it also had to take in patients from the asylum in Münster, which had been destroyed by bombs.

Post-war era and allegations of abuse

Since 1948 the sanatorium and the St. Johannes Stift have been sponsored by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe. Even after the end of the euthanasia program, there were still considerable deficits in terms of care and education in the children's clinic.

The number of places in the two institutions together was around 1000 in the post-war years. In 1971/72, the partial clinic for adults alone had 1300 patients on the market.

As the WDR reported in its TV magazine Westpol on March 24, 2013, young patients in St. Johannes Stift were apparently victims of violence and sexual abuse . Children were locked in isolation cells for days, immobilized with sedatives and / or beaten with fists or heavy objects. But there was no evidence that could be used in court. At the beginning of the seventies, the then new headmaster found out about the allegations and turned to the then North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Heinz Kühn . The headmaster listed that as a punishment, children were restrained in bed all night or immersed in ice-cold water until they almost drowned. Although the prosecution was investigating, no charges were brought. It is assumed that the home residents were put under massive pressure by carers and therefore withdrew their statements. After the allegations became known, the General Superior offered to talk to those affected, and the hospital's sponsors apologized to the victims at the time.

Psychiatry reform and recent development

In the following decades there was extensive construction work. The reforms in psychiatry have led to profound restructuring since the 1970s. This included that the Vincentian Sisters left the clinics between 1976 and 1980. The number of patients decreased. In contrast, numerous new buildings were erected and departments opened. Since the 1980s, memorials for the victims of euthanasia have been set up in both youth and adult psychiatry. A memorial was erected in 2004 at the institution cemetery on Bredelarer Strasse for the children who were killed. Associated with this is a continuous project for today's patients at the clinic. In this context, artists organize workshops every year. This commitment is supported by the Kunst in der Klinik eV association

On January 1st, 1997 the administrative and economic facilities of the Westphalian Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and the Westphalian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy were merged with the establishment of the Westphalian Care and Support Center. In 1998 a new department for the penal system was set up. The "Bilstein" therapy center is used to treat addicts lawbreakers.

The psychiatric clinics are the largest employer in Marsberg. There are day clinics and outpatient departments in Marsberg, Meschede , Bad Fredeburg , Paderborn and Höxter .

literature

Franz-Werner Kersting , Hans-Walter Schmuhl : Psychiatry and violence experiences of children and adolescents in the St. Johannes-Stift in Marsberg (1945-1980). Everyday life in the institution, individual memories, biographical processing. Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-87023-405-8
Bernd Follmann: Marsberg. Aspects of secularization and their consequences. In: Ingrid Reissland (Hrsg.): From the electoral Cologne crook to the Hessian lion to the Prussian eagle. Secularization and its consequences in the Duchy of Westphalia. 1803-2003. Arnsberg 2003, ISBN 3-930264-46-3 , pp. 151-155.
Christina Vanja : The Marsberg State Hospital. First psychiatric facility in Westphalia. In: Westphalian magazine . 156, 2006, pp. 301-318.
Koster, Tigges: History and statistics of the Westphalian provincial insane asylum Marsberg. With regard to the statistics of other institutions. Berlin 1867 ( digitized ).
Der Irrenfreund: a folk writing about insane and insane institutions, as well as for the maintenance of mental health / ed. by Friedrich Koster and [Carl Max] Brosius. - Neuwied: Heuser, 1859 ff. [Based on the original from the hospital library]