Children's Sanatorium E.

This sanatorium for children has been abandoned since 1991. It was named after a communist resistance fighter.

It is situated in a park-like area with a size of about five hectares.

The first institution that was opened on the premises was in 1875 a boarding school which was turned into a hotel in 1907 and was then sold to the railwaymen's pension fund that turned it into a home for orphaned children in 1927.

Right after World War II, the building complex was used to accomodate and quarantine Polish and Czech refugees.

Since 1949, the east German government used the area to host events for the "Pioniere", the youth organization in the GDR.

In 1958, the complex was incorporeted into the public health system of East Germany and since 1964, the systematic reformation into a children's sanatorium followed.

In the course of the German reuinification, the sanatorium operation was phased out since 1989 and eventually closed down in 1991.

During the following years, plans arose concerning a senior citizens home, but those were never realized.

The former children's sanatorium includes various seperate buildings that are arranged in a ribbon-shape from the Northeast to the Southwest of the area that are connected by neo-classical colonnades.

The central building, an L-shaped, four-floor building exhibits neo-baroque architectural elements as well as elements of the reform architecture.

In the sanatorium, children were treated that displayed symptoms of infections of the upper respiratory tract. The treatment usually was administered over a course of six weeks. The sanatorium also treated children with neurodermatitis.

Over the course of almost 25 years of abandonment, the sanatorium became an opportunity for projecting contriversial personal experiences, borderline experiences and photographic-artistic exploits under the guise of urban exploration. In internet boards some former patients share reports of draconic mehtods of education (violence, humiliation, theft, traumatization) while others have a more positive view of their stay there.

On May 18th, 2019, a fire devastated parts of the sanatorium. When the fire brigade arrived at 6 a.m., the fire had apparently been burning for some time. The entire roof and parts of the buildings have been completely burnt.