Association for the support of unprofitable foreigners who need a well or bath at the mineral springs in Aachen and Burtscheid
The Association for the support impecunious foreign well or bathing in need of the mineral springs of Aachen and Burtscheid was founded by Aachener und Burtscheider medical professionals to foreign patients who prefer a cure were for financial reasons not afford to stay in the thermal baths of Aachen and Burtscheid to enable. At the same time, after 1835, the Prussian military gave the association the task of guaranteeing free rehabilitation for a certain number of military personnel every year .
First beginnings
After the nationalization of the Aachen and Burtscheider baths due to a decree by Napoléon Bonaparte on November 22, 1811, there was a major slump in the spa business. In a cabinet order of April 10, 1818, ownership of the baths and thermal springs was returned to the city of Aachen and Burtscheid . On the initiative of the city physician Eduard Hoepffner, who has been active since 1818, several suggestions were made in the years around 1820 to allow sick people who lacked financial means to take part in the well treatment and to stay in Aachen. The mayor of the city, Wilhelm Daniels, however, rejected the application for financial support from the city in 1821. When the Festschrift was published on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the Elisenbrunnen on November 16, 1822, Hoepffner insisted that the proceeds from the sale of this publication go to “To the best of foreigners, the well-being cure of poor people in need”. In 1823, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia donated ten Friedrichsdor to support the needy.
On June 24, 1823, the institute was founded to support the Brunnen-Curs themselves here for needy sick poor . First of all, it was arranged that donations were collected from the well-off spa guests and that only sick people from outside were supported. However, the institute's board of directors also sent a message to the population of Aachen with a request for financial support so that people in need from Aachen can also have a cure in the baths in the future. The city administration initially had concerns that the collection of donations might put off spa guests. At the same time, it was feared that the needy would not return to their homeland and thus become a burden on the city's poor relief agency. In the first year, ten external sick people were initially supported. In addition to the collections from the spa guests, the institute received funds from municipal authorities (125 thalers), from the residents of Aachen and Burtscheid (100 thalers), from the casino (40 thalers), from a "wealthy foreign benefactor" (550 thalers) and from the municipalities of Eupen and Kettenis . The number of those supported increased in the following years to 27 (1828). At the same time, part of the capital was held back to build a private bathhouse. After Hoepffner's death in 1827, Leopold Zitterland took over the management of the institute. In the next few years, the institute initially faced financial difficulties due to clumsy financial transactions.
Foundation of the association in 1835
On February 7, 1830, the institute received a donation of 5660 thalers from the estimated value of the Bongard monastery in Aachen on the basis of a royal cabinet order. With this financial support, a new statute for the "Association for the support of unprofitable foreigners who need a well or bath at the mineral springs in Aachen and Burtscheid" was passed on July 29, 1834 and put into effect by a royal decree of May 10, 1835. In addition to the doctors Leopold Zitterland, Johann Peter Joseph Monheim , Johann Jacob May and Heinrich Stephan, the founding members also included two pastors and a government representative in accordance with the statutes.
Goals of the association
The association supports unprofitable, foreign people who need a cure in Aachen and Burtscheid due to health restrictions. Costs for medical treatment, medicines, the use of the baths and partly for food and accommodation will be covered by the association after proof of need. Travel expenses were only granted for the return trip. Depending on the financial resources of the association, Aachen and Burtscheid citizens can also be given free use of the pools. With the support of external sick people, the awareness of the Aachen and Burtscheider spa facilities in Germany and abroad is to be increased.
Cooperation with the military administration
The royal donation from 1830 was also linked to the requirement to create a military bathhouse. In the period from June 17, 1830 to June 6, 1834, intensive, sometimes extremely controversial negotiations were held between the association and the directorate of the 8th Army Corps. On November 17, 1835, a contract was signed between the intendant of the 8th Army Corps, Friedrich von Ribbentrop , and the association. In this, the association undertakes to take in 10–12 military personnel annually free of charge for therapeutic purposes. Soldiers and NCOs were granted free medical care, accommodation and food - officers, on the other hand, had to provide their own food.
Bathhouses of the association
In 1835 the association bought the Krebsbad in Burtscheid for 7,900 thalers . The Krebsbad was supplied with thermal water from the Kochbrunnen as well as from its own spring, the Krebsbadquelle, which was newly discovered around 1800. In 1835 it was initially planned to close down the Krebsbad and replace it with a new, divided building. The "poor sick" were to be accommodated in one part of the baths, while the construction of a glamorous inn for general spa operations was planned in the other part. However, these plans did not materialize. In 1884 it was decided to demolish the cancer bath due to the acute danger of collapse and subsidence.
In 1887 the construction of a new building began at the same location. In 1875 the association was able to acquire a neighboring property. The Michaelsbad was built on this property from 1881 to 1882 under the direction of the contractor Carl Rhoen . Part of the necessary financial resources for the new building was donated by the Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor , which also supported the association financially in the following years with numerous donations. In addition, a loan was taken out from the Protestant community in Burtscheid in order to raise the construction sum of 90,000 marks. Both bathhouses had their own thermal springs , but were also supplied with thermal water from the cooking fountain. From 1875 a pump was installed in the Krebsbad to convey the thermal water, in 1903 the spring was artificially deepened and from 1904 thermal water was fed to the wool brewing spring . With the establishment of the Landesbadklinik (1907–1912) and the creation of the spring chambers there, the thermal spring level continued to decline and the pools were increasingly dependent on supplied thermal water. After the First World War until 1925, the baths were confiscated by the Belgian occupation army. After the Belgians left, the Michaelsbad was completely renewed and renovated in 1925. Krebs- and Michaelsbad, like almost all bathhouses in Burtscheider Dammstrasse, were destroyed in bombing raids in 1944 and never rebuilt. At the beginning of the 1950s, the association, together with other Burtscheid citizens' associations, vehemently advocated the reconstruction of the Burtscheid baths in the administration of the city, state and federal government.
Chronicle of the association
- 1835 Granting of corporate rights and approval of the statutes by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. ; Purchase of the cancer bath
- 1846–1852 reports about the dilapidation of the cancer bath; New construction is rejected for financial reasons
- 1853-1859 fierce controversy with the military treasury about the number of military personnel to be admitted (1853: 9 soldiers and 2 officers)
- 1859 police approval for the installation of collecting boxes at public thermal wells in Aachen and Burtscheid
- 1861 The bathing inspector Bernhard Maximilian Lersch suggested the establishment of a military bathing establishment
- 1874 Syphilis sufferers are no longer admitted because there are no separate rooms in the cancer bath
- 1875 Purchase of the property next to the Krebsbad
- 1881–1882 Construction of the Michaelsbad in the vicinity of the Krebsbad by Carl Rhoen ; Inaugurated January 1, 1883
- 1883–1885 complaints about the structural condition of the cancer bath; 1886/87 demolition
- 1887 new building in Krebsbad
- 1896 tax exemption for the cancer bath; 1901 Tax exemption for the Michaelsbad
- 1903–1906 lowering of the thermal water level in the area of the Krebs and Michaelsbad; Construction of a thermal water pipe from the Wollbrühquelle (1904)
- 1908 further lowering of the thermal water level by building the spring chamber of the state bath
- 1918 Rent of the Michaelsbad to the public limited company for spa and bathing operations
- 1919–1925 partial confiscation of the guest rooms by the Belgian occupation army; From 1920 the baths of the Michaelsbad were opened to the public
- 1925–1928 Renovation of the baths, installation of hot water heating
- 1933–1934 Installation of a hot and cold water system in the bathhouses
- 1944 Destruction of the bathhouses by Allied bombing raids
The association supported up to 70 external patients annually (1896). The doctors belonging to the association usually treated the patients free of charge. In the 1930s, an average of 1,000 days, 600–700 thermal baths, 200–300 thermal showers and 200–350 massages were financed by the association. The association was dissolved after the end of the Second World War .
Management of the association or institute
- 1822–1825: Johann Hüsgen , Government Consistorial Councilor , later Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cologne
- 1825–1827: Eduard Heinrich Hoepffner, Government and Medical Councilor
- 1827–1867: Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold Zitterland, Government and Medical Councilor
- 1868–1892: Johann Gerhard Joseph Schervier, Medical Councilor, City Physician
- 1892–1915: Carl Hommelsheim, Medical Council
- 1915–1921: Alfons Klausener , alderman
- 1921–1932: Heinz Rüland
- 1932-: Hermann Gatersleben, chief physician
literature
- Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold Zitterland: Instructions for well guests for the successful use of the mineral springs in Aachen and Burtscheid . JJ Beaufort, 1830.
- Statutes of the association for the support of unprofitable external wells - or those in need of spa treatments at the mineral springs in Aachen and Burtscheid . La Ruelle'sche Accidenzdruckerei , Aachen 1835
- Medical associations in Aachen: Proposal for the establishment of a large bathing establishment in Burtscheid for Prussia's invalid warriors . M. Urlich's son, Aachen 1890
- Emil Muensterberg [Hrsg.]: Bathing facilities and discounts for the poor and poor in German and some Austrian baths. Carl Heymanns Verlag, Berlin 1904
- Huyskens, Albert: Hundred years of association for the support of unprofitable foreigners who need a fountain or bath at the mineral springs in Aachen and Burtscheid - commemorative publication on May 10, 1935 . La Ruelle'sche Accidenzdruckerei, Aachen 1935
Individual evidence
- ↑ Prussian official press. Retrieved July 4, 2009 .
- ↑ Aachener Volkszeitung: Burtscheid's baths are on the ground - Working group for the reconstruction of Burtscheid at the federal, state and city levels, AVZ from September 19, 1950