Heilanstalten Milbitz
THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL IN GERMANY
‘Heilanstalten Milbitz’ is an abandoned hospital site in Gera, Germany. It was used as a district hospital, a military hospital and as a Soviet sanatorium.
In 1894, the Louis Schlutter foundation, built this ‘Landesbezirks Krankenhaus’. Five years later in November 1899, it opened as a provincial district hospital with doctor Clemens Weisker as the first chief. After disputes with the founder and some doctors, Weisker’s contract was terminated after only two years. Founder Louis Schlutter died in 1904, you can still find his name on the building facade.
The hospital closed between 1923 and 1924. In 1927, workers enlarged the site and added several service buildings. In 1930, they expanded the hospital again and renamed it ‘Allgemeine Städtische Krankenhaus’. They doubled the number of beds from 100 to 200. During the Second World War, the hospital served as a military hospital. Allied bombings damaged the hospital at the end of the war. As a result, staff moved patients to other buildings in the city. Later that year, the hospital closed and was converted into a sanatorium for Soviet officers.
Since 1991, after the Soviets left Germany, the buildings became abandoned. I visited ‘Heilanstalten Milbitz’ in 2011.
