Trainees from the MTAL 21-10 course set out to learn more about the historical background of the hospital grounds and the research campus. The occasion was the 115th anniversary of the founding of the hospital complex at Karower Str. 11.
The tour started at the Museum of the History of Science on the Berlin-Buch campus. There, the trainees saw some historical equipment. It was interesting to see that they themselves worked in the teaching laboratory, with the more modern equipment and successors.
They also got to know the campus through pictures and stories from Ms. Krause, the public relations employee. Some of the buildings that used to be residential buildings now house kindergartens, research facilities or scientific institutes.
The tour continued along Lindenberger Weg to the hospital grounds. There, the course focused in particular on how the grounds were structured, at the time when they were the Third Berlin Mental Hospital. All of the buildings from that time have been preserved and are now listed buildings. This gives you a good idea of how the institution was structured. The central laboratory today was the kitchen at the time, House F was the bathhouse and the outbuildings to the left and right of the avenue were the reception houses for the women and men.
The dark past of the campus was also addressed. Between 1939 and 1945, hundreds of mentally and physically disabled people were deported to concentration camps by the Nazis under the code name "T4". Since it is important that this period is not forgotten, there are several places, such as the memorial and the permanent exhibition - "Euthanasia" in National Socialism in nursing and sanatoriums - on the 2nd floor of building E (206), which commemorate and warn of the events.
