Asylum for the Insane
This abandoned former state insane asylum in the East German state of Brandenburg was established between 1905 and 1908 as a sanatorium and nursing home. The institution offered space for 1,050 patients in the hospital. In addition, the site had a retirement home for another 150 people. There were also administration and kitchen buildings, a machine house with workshops, an agricultural yard and spacious park-like gardens. During World War I, the sanatorium was turned into a military hospital.
An approximately 50 meter high chimney with a viewing platform and a cemetery chapel, were also built on the site of the hospital.
In 1923 the facility was closed. Only one year later the institution was reopened and again operated as a sanatorium for seven years. The "city within the city" was expanded with a slaughterhouse, a ballroom, a water works and a power plant, a gardening center, a cemetery and more than two dozen “reception and observation houses”.
During the time of National Socialism in Germany, people with mental and physical disabilities were housed here in the course of the euthanasia murders. They were then transported to killing centers of "Aktion T4" - a term that became common after 1945 for the systematic murder of more than 70,000 people with mental and physical disabilities ("T4" is the abbreviation for the address of the central office in Berlin at the time: Tiergartenstr. 4).
The institution's buildings had humiliating designations such as “House for destructive women”, “House for restless sick people” or “House for stupid sick people”. In addition to the institution, the district "Wärterdorf" (Guard's Village) was created especially for the employees.
After the end of World War II, the Soviet Army moved into the area of the state clinic from 1945 to 1994 and operated a military hospital for the high command of the Russian armed forces and their relatives. The Clinic was a remote part of the Wünsdorf garrison hospital.
Part of the area is now being reused and has been modernized by a clinic for the mentally ill.
Over the years, the remaining buildings were taken apart by copper thieves and destroyed by vandals. So far, the fire brigade has had to move out to the extensive area various times.
At this time, there are plans to renovate the buildings and build apartments.
Visited: September 29, 2018
Location: Undisclosed, Germany
Status: Abandoned / Security Service
