For a long time, the fate of the magnificent Bauhaus-style lung clinic on the edge of the Harz Mountains seemed sealed. Where once state-of-the-art medicine met architectural idyll, decay reigned after its closure in 1998.
But before the historic sanatorium became a ghost-hunting ruin, a young cooperative dared to make a fresh start. A story about the fight against budget cuts and the vision of alternative living.
The lung clinic on the outskirts of Harzgerode is a listed building with a rich history. After millions of euros in investment, the hospital closed 20 years ago. Now, the grounds are coming back to life.
Wide doors, lange windows
The side wing reveals its former purpose at first glance. Wide doors, large windows, and colored markings transform the renovated suite of rooms in the former specialist hospital for lung and bronchial diseases on the edge of Harzgerode into an area that could easily be occupied by patients again tomorrow.
But those days are over. The story of the children's lung clinic, idyllically situated on a 21-hectare site within a protected landscape area and surrounded by extensive parkland and woodland, came to an end almost a quarter of a century ago.
Traces of the past
At that time, a long tug-of-war to save the only specialist clinic of its kind in East Germany ended almost unnoticed. These buildings bear witness to a history full of traces of the past.
After the health insurance companies terminated all service contracts, citing high costs and politically mandated austerity measures, the lights went out in the Harzgerode Sanatorium, built between 1928 and 1931 according to a design by the Erfurt architect Godehard Schwethelm, in the autumn of 1998.
Although the state parliament in Magdeburg had commissioned the state government to develop a plan to preserve the clinic, a plan supported by a petition signed by 17,000 people, the austerity measures prevailed.
A new operator
A takeover by an investor failed because the health insurance companies and the state insurance institution refused to enter into contracts with the new operator. Furthermore, the Ministry of Social Affairs did not trust the company from Bad Münder (Lower Saxony) to operate the facility without guaranteed occupancy rates.
Nearly 100 employees, who had previously treated children and adolescents with respiratory illnesses, tuberculosis, and congenital metabolic disorders, lost their jobs. Medical equipment and devices, some of which had only recently been acquired, were moved to other clinics.
No pool, but a "reflecting pool"
The state insurance institution, not only one of the gravediggers of the historic facility but also its owner, was now looking for a buyer for the Bauhaus-style building. Tourism, rehabilitation, education – the Harzgerode town council had specifically drafted the zoning plan to allow for all of these possibilities.
But all these dreams were shattered. And when the state announced its intention to convert the historic building into a secure psychiatric hospital, with such high "security measures that escape is impossible," the citizens protested.
The Harzgerode Sanatorium Cooperative paid €800,000 for the acquisition of the lung clinic. Anyone can become a member. Wide south-facing balconies were intended to aid patients' recovery.
Unused in countryside
For years afterward, the building complex stood unused in the open countryside, as the official address states. In 2010, the property was auctioned off for the first time, and an entrepreneur from North Rhine-Westphalia planned to build an equestrian center, a children's hotel, and a camper van park.
However, the plans quickly failed due to safety regulations and historic preservation requirements. These requirements aimed to preserve the fundamental character of the clinic and the outbuildings, which architect Godehard Schwethelm, inspired by the New Objectivity movement and the Bauhaus, had designed with a coherent unity of function and form. The double railings in the stairwell are still a striking feature today: high for adults, low for small patients.
Sunlight on waters surface
The south-facing rooms have balconies facing the sun, as fresh air and light were already considered beneficial for respiratory illnesses in the 1920s. And what looks like a swimming pool below the windows is actually a reflecting pool: sunlight is reflected off the water's surface and onto the balconies.
Over the past 20 years, the only ones who have been truly disappointed are those who snapped up the main building, the nursery, the doctors' residences, the chief physician's villa, and the school building for what seemed like a pittance.
Abandoned by humans
The impressive complex - first offered for €178,000, later sold for €330,000 - was well on its way to becoming yet another abandoned place in the Harz Mountains. Abandoned by humans and facing the certainty of one day becoming a ruin, it was only popular with ruin photographers and fans of the quirky charm of gradually crumbling old buildings.
But a few years ago, a group of young people formed a cooperative and bought the former clinic to create an alternative housing project. Will it succeed? Time will tell.
