Gaustad Hospital ( no, Gaustad sykehus) is a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

in the neighborhood of Gaustad in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Founded in 1855, it is Norway's oldest purpose-built psychiatric hospital. It opened as the nation's first insane asylum designed according to the guidelines in the Insane Act of 1848 (''Sinnssykeloven''). The facility was planned by

Herman Wedel Major Herman Wedel Major (23 February 1814 – 26 September 1854) was a Norwegian psychiatrist. He is regarded as the father of the first Norwegian psychiatric hospital, Gaustad Hospital (''Gaustad sykehus'') and of the Norwegian Mental Health Act ...

, based on the model of foreign institutions, and the building complex was designed by architect Heinrich Ernst Schirmer. During the occupation of Norway in 1940–1945, the hospital's workers, knowing German soldiers would send their patients to concentration camps, devised a plan to save them. For months, they collected urine in buckets. When the day came that the soldiers knocked on the door, they threw the urine on every radiator and heater, creating a tremendous stink. The soldiers left and didn't return, and the patients' lives were saved.

Arnold Juklerød Arnold Juklerød (8 January 1925 in Drangedal, for a long time living in Kragerø – 25 January 1996 at Aker hospital in Oslo) was a Norwegian construction worker who became known for his fight against psychiatry from around 1970 until his death ...

, then a father and construction worker, was forcibly admitted to the Gaustad Hospital in 1971. He was lobotomized and, at times, denied contact with the outside world. (He alleged psychiatric abuse.) The level of care he received from Gaustad's leading psychiatrists became the focus of widespread media attention. The hospital was owned by the State until it was taken over by the City of Oslo in 1985. Since 1996, Gaustad Hospital been part of Aker University Hospital; and since January 2009, Aker University Hospital has been part of Oslo University Hospital, a subsidiary of the Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.

References

External links

Gaustad Hospital website
Hospitals in Oslo Hospitals established in 1855 1855 establishments in Norway Oslo Municipality Psychiatric hospitals in Norway {{Norway-struct-stub