The Hohenlychen Sanatorium was a complex of sanatoriums in

Lychen Lychen (), also known as ''Flößerstadt'' (raftsman city), is a town in the Uckermark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated southeast of Neustrelitz, and east of Fürstenberg/Havel. This is the town where the thumbtack was created. ...

Uckermark The Uckermark () is a historical region in northeastern Germany, straddles the Uckermark (district), Uckermark District of Brandenburg and the Vorpommern-Greifswald District of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Its traditional capital is Prenzlau. Geogra ...

district (a bit north of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, that was in use from 1902 to 1945. The complex was originally built in 1902 to house tubercular

children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

. By the 1930s the Hohenlychen Sanatorium had become one of the main medical facilities of the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

, where injured or convalescing SS-men were treated.

Third Reich use

Many preeminent SS doctors trained or were stationed at Hohenlychen, the most infamous being SS-

Sturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the SA, SS, and the NSFK. The rank originated from German shock troop units of the First World War ...

Doctor

Karl Gebhardt Karl Franz Gebhardt (23 November 1897 – 2 June 1948) was a German medical doctor and a war criminal during World War II. He served as Medical Superintendent of the Hohenlychen Sanatorium, Consulting Surgeon of the ''Waffen-SS'', Chief Surgeon in ...

, who was sentenced to death for war crimes. In 1935, Gebhardt was appointed Medical Superintendent of Hohenlychen Sanatorium, which he changed from a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients into an orthopedic clinic. At Hohenlychen Sanatorium, Gebhardt started the first sports medicine clinic in Germany and developed sports programs for amputees and other disabled people. Gebhardt was also appointed to the Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen (German College for Physical Education) in 1935, where he became the first professor of sports medicine in Berlin. Hohenlychen Sanatorium became the sports sanatorium for the Third Reich and served as the central hospital for the athletes who participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics. In the final days of the Third Reich, April 1945, Reichsführer-SS

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

left Berlin for Hohenlychen.

After World War II

The German military evacuated Hohenlychen before the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

arrived on April 29, 1945. Some of the buildings were used as barracks, and the other buildings were utilized as a military hospital until August 31, 1993. Hohenlychen is now abandoned except for infrequent visits by photographers and tourists.

After 2005

Michael Neumann, an engineer from Freiberg, bought part of the site - nine buildings on 12 hectares - from the state of Brandenburg in 2009. Neumann then developed a concept for a Parkresidenz Lychen. In his spirit - he died in 2019 - his daughter Anne Neumann continued to operate these plans with her life partner Gregory Kashkin and relatives. There are now 44 barrier-free rental apartments there, almost all of which have already been occupied, as well as ten vacation apartments and a bistro. 40 percent of the listed building fabric has already been renovated. More vacation homes and 15 rental apartments are to be added in the coming year.

In literature

In the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

winning novel,

Les Bienveillantes ''The Kindly Ones'' (french: Les Bienveillantes) is a 2006 historical fiction novel written in French by American-born author Jonathan Littell. The book is narrated by its fictional protagonist Maximilien Aue, a former SS officer of French and G ...

, the Hohenlychen Sanatorium was the location of the protagonist Maximilian Aue's hospitalisation after having been shot in the head at

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

References

Sources

Hans Waltrich. ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der Heilanstalten Hohenlychen (1902 bis 1945).'' Strelitzia, Blankensee Press, 2001.

External links

Hohenlychen Sanatorium and its hidden history of human experiments
Hospital buildings completed in 1902 Tuberculosis sanatoria in Germany Medical and health organisations based in Brandenburg Uckermark (district) {{Nazi-stub