Rittberg Hospital
| DRK Federal Association of the former Rittberg Hospital |
|
|---|---|
| place | Berlin-Lichterfelde |
| state | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 25 '48 " N , 13 ° 17' 25" E |
| founding | November 19, 1904 |
| resolution | 1995 |
| Website | |
The Rittberg Hospital was opened on November 19, 1904 as the first homeopathic hospital in Groß- Lichterfelde-West on the initiative of the Berlin Association of Homeopathic Doctors and the wealthy pensioner Carl Ferdinand Wieseke, which still exists today . In the 21st century, the building serves as the administrative headquarters of the Federal Association of the German Red Cross .
Homeopathic Hospital
Description of the building complex
At the beginning of the 20th century the city of Berlin showed no interest in a homeopathic hospital; the magistrate rejected both Wieseke's will and corresponding requests from the Berlin Association. Therefore, the homeopathic hospital was built in Lichterfelde and not in Berlin. The association acquired a property in Groß-Lichterfelde - until 1920 an independent municipality near Berlin. The Wieseke Foundation became the main sponsor for the project. The Berlin Homeopathic Hospital Association served as the client . The architect Theodor Thöns was commissioned to develop the site on Carstennstrasse.
As was common in the late 19th century, Thöns attached great importance to representation. From the outside there was nothing to suggest that it was a hospital. The building is more like a castle: its floor plan is a three-wing complex made of a plastered wall. The main facade of the building is divided into ground floor, two floors and an attic with a mansard roof .
The central area in particular shows some neo-baroque features and decorative elements: the central projectile (tower structure) has three axes and is divided into the ground floor, the bel étage and the mezzanine floor . This is followed by a curved gable and a roof with a Welsche hood with structure. The entrance is framed by flat pilasters and - like the windows on the first floor - crowned by a curved gable. Half columns connect the upper floor and the mezzanine floor.
The building by Thöns also has modern elements: The corner projections of the main house (= stairwell) have decorations between the windows, as they are typical for the Art Nouveau , which at that time more and more corresponded to the taste of the population.
An interesting detail in the entrance area are two reliefs : They show two female figures. On the right side of the door she is holding a staff of Aesculapia . The figure on the left holds a snake in her hands, the symbol of homeopathy . This should clarify the harmonious connection between conventional medicine and homeopathic medicine that the hospital owners are striving for.
The entrance area ( vestibule ) was not used by the hospital after 1945. It was only restored in this representative form by the General Secretariat of the German Red Cross.
Even if the outside of the building is conservative, the concept of the homeopathic hospital was very modern when it opened. When the homeopathic medical and educational institution was officially opened on April 19, 1904, the clinic met the criteria of modern hospital medicine at the time. In the pre- and post-treatment, the focus was on therapy with light, air and dietetics as well as exercise. The sickrooms had no more than four beds.
In 1920 a garden house was set up as a home for homeless children . From 1922 onwards, sick children were also admitted.
In 1927 an extension followed on Murtener Straße on the northeast wing of the main building. It was built in the forms of New Objectivity - functional and straightforward. Its simplicity contrasts with the main building.
The children's clinic, the Keudell House, was designed in 1927–1928 by the architect Otto Bartning and built on the site.
Another extension followed in 1934 with a new surgery department, a maternity ward and a number of doctor's apartments.
Medical institutions
At the beginning of the First World War , a Red Cross military hospital was partially set up in the hospital . Before the end of the war, the clinic had to close for economic reasons. The building then stood empty for some time and was sold in September 1918 to the Countess Rittberg Sisters Association, which later joined the Red Cross associations.
In 1931 the hospital had the following clinics and specialist departments:
- General medicine,
- Interior,
- Surgery,
- Ear, nose, throat and eye diseases,
- Women's Clinic,
- Maternity hospital
in Carstennstrasse and one
- Infant and children's clinic
in Bernerstrasse.
The hospital was closed due to a hospital reform passed in 1995 and stood empty until 1999.
Rittberg Hospital
With the acquisition of the building, the facilities served the sister association as the motherhouse and as the central hospital for the Lichterfelde catchment area with its own training center for nursing. In honor of the founder of the Countess Rittberg Sisters Association Hedwig von Rittberg , the homeopathic hospital was renamed the Rittberg Hospital.
With the DC circuit by the Nazi regime in 1938 was given the possession of the sister club to the overall organization of the German Red Cross and its sister club deprived of the management of the hospital. They only got them back after 1945.
DRK General Secretariat
In the hospital, which has been vacant since 1995, the General Secretariat of the DRK found a suitable administrative building for its move from Bonn to Berlin and in 1999 signed a lease agreement with the Berlin Sisterhood.
The hospital was then rebuilt and expanded according to the plans of the architects Dietsch and Ranter to the current administration building (November 1999 to the end of 2000). The existing old building was supplemented by several new buildings and extensions, including a four-storey, angular new administration building with underground parking, the building for the Union of Sororities of the Red Cross and the conference center.
Numerous functional buildings, especially from the period after 1945, were demolished, for example the former delivery room complex or the children's clinic built by Otto Bartning.
Only the main building and the simple extension from 1927 have been preserved . Both are listed buildings . At the rear there is a new glazed elevator system that creates a connection between the interior and exterior. The reconstruction of the earlier U-shape gives the existing park with its old trees a framework.
Grave complex
There is a grave complex on the grounds of the Rittberg House. It is a community grave from April 1945, in which at least 40 people are buried. As a result of the chaos of war, they could not be buried in the cemetery, which was not unusual in Berlin. There are a number of Berlin hospitals with such war graves . Twelve of the people buried there are victims of war and violence . Therefore, the grave complex, which is protected as a war grave, is permanently dormant .
For example, women are buried who committed suicide for fear of rape by Russian troops advancing since April 22nd. The then chief physician and head of the hospital's obstetrical and gynecological department, Kurt-Otto von Stuckrad, also committed suicide with his wife and two adult daughters.
In addition to these victims of war and violence, citizens from Lichterfelde, who died of natural causes, and hospital patients, including babies from the children's clinic who suffered from malnutrition, are buried in the grave. Some of them had previously come to Berlin from Landsberg an der Warthe . They were probably orphaned refugee children who had been admitted to the children's clinic.
See also
literature
- Statute of the Wieseke Foundation in Berlin 1884 , archive of the Berlin Association of Homeopathic Doctors, Berlin.
- Paul Lüders: Groß-Lichterfelde in the first 25 years , in: Paul Lüders, E. Koch, Petrus Heinrich, Liebling Lichterfelde , Berlin 1893 (new edition 1998).
- Hedwig Countess Rittberg: Memories from three decades of my professional life including the editor's autobiography , Berlin 1896.
- Local and district news , Zehlendorfer Anzeiger, February 19, 1903.
- Seckt: The establishment of the Berlin homeopathic hospital , Homeopathic Rundschau 2 (November 1, 1904) 11, 1–12.
- Elsbeth von Keudell : From the activity of the Countess Rittbergschen sister association Das Rote Kreuz 16 (1908) 5, 119–120.
- Elsbeth von Keudell: The Countess Rittberg Sisters Association of the Red Cross in Berlin The German Red Cross. Origin, development,…, 1910, 69–73.
- 50 years of the Rittberg Hospital , sheets of the DRK 4 (1925) 8, 40–41.
- From the Countess Rittberg Sisters' Association of the Red Cross , magazine for the sisters of the German Red Cross (1929) 6, 45–47.
- Berlin-Lichterfelde. Countess Rittberg sister association of the Red Cross, in: Pictures and articles from the history of the German mother houses of the Red Cross, ed. from the Association of German Mother Houses of the Red Cross, Düsseldorf 1929, 35–39.
- Address by the Superior (1945–63) Honor Guard von Graevenitz on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Rittberg Sisterhood on Sunday, May 21, 1950.
- Rittberg Hospital will be brand new behind the old facade , Berliner Morgenpost, August 10, 1979.
- Ingeborg Noll: The Rittberg Hospital , manuscript no year.
- The "Wieseckeschen Familienhäuser" (1831–1832) , Johann Friedrich Geist , Klaus Kürvers , The Berlin Tenement House 1740–1862. A documentary history of the “von Wülcknitz family houses” in front of the Hamburger Tor, the proletarianization of the north of Berlin and the city in the transition from the residence to the metropolis , Munich 19…, 150–163.
- Heinz Eppenich: History of the German homeopathic hospitals . From the beginning to the end of the First World War, Heidelberg 1995.
- Sigrid Heinze (Ed.): Homeopathy 1796–1996. A medicine and its history , catalog for the exhibition German Hygiene Museum May 17 to October 20, 1996, Dresden 1996.
- Renate Lawrenz: Traditional House , Red Cross (1999) 5, 41–43,
- Manfred Stürzbecher: A location in Lichterfelde. From the Homeopathic Hospital to the Presidium of the German Red Cross , Berliner Ärzteblatt 114 (2001), 499–502.
- Robert Kaltenbrunner: Strictly tailored made-to-measure suit. A building for the German Red Cross in Berlin-Lichterfelde by Dietsch & Ranter , Frankfurter Rundschau, May 15, 2002.
Web links
- Graves of victims of war and tyranny: inventory of individual graves and collective graves (PDF; 176 kB)
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Archive of the German Red Cross
Individual evidence
- ^ Rittberg Hospital . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1931, III.