Bezirkskrankenhaus – Klinik Stadtpark
THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL IN GERMANY
This ‘Bezirkskrankenhaus – Klinik Stadtpark’ in Chemnitz was built in 1897 as a factory for the ‘Presto-Werke Günther & Co‘, a car and motor business. It was abandoned in 1997 and eventually the buildings were reconverted in 2015.
The Presto-Fahrradwerke Günther & Co was founded in Tharandt in 1897 by Georg Günther, as a bicycle factory. Already in the same year this new plant was built in Chemnitz. In 1936 the factory was bought by the ‘Automobilmultis Auto-Union’ who had their headquarters here.
Eventually the buildings gets its hospital use in 1946 by order of the Soviet military command. The Stadtpark Hospital was set up as a hospital with patient rooms and operating theaters. Meanwhile the factory was renamed ‘Bezirkskrankenhaus’ and the first patients were taken in.
During 1946 the buildings could accommodate 800 patients. But new standards increased this number to 300 in the 1980s. In 1997 the buildings are so old, the hospital moved to a new modern site. Also, the building with its original office architecture was only partially suitable as a hospital. After the reunification, the hospital rooms could no longer meet the required standards. The sanitary facilities were also completely inadequate. Nevertheless partial modernizations in the 1990s did not provide the necessary standard.
On 31 March 1997, the Klinik Stadtpark was closed and handed back to the city of Chemnitz. Reuse failed due to lack of interest. In October 2014 the Chemnitzer entrepreneur Lars Faßmann bought the buildings. After the site was cleaned it was reconverted to a factory for car and motor parts again. I visited the ‘Bezirkskrankenhaus – Klinik Stadtpark’ in 2009.
