The exhibition is located in the former
Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik
Vivantes GmbH
Netzwerk für Gesundheit
Oranienburger Str. 285
13437 Berlin | Building 10
Opening hours
Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Information and registration
Mobile +49-160-623 8103
E-mail mail@totgeschwiegen.org
1880: The Dalldorf Mental Asylum
Therapy before 1933
Until the end of the 18th century, it was common to chain up the mentally ill. After that, large state institutions were established where the sick were treated with methods that sometimes seemed cruel. In the middle of the 19th century, “moral treatment” prevailed. Around 1900, bed treatment and continuous baths appeared. Medicines were barely available. more
The Wittenau graduated system of aid 1927-1928
After the First World War, a network of psychiatric care developed in Berlin. The starting point was the Dalldorf asylum. more
The 1920s in the Wittenau sanatoriums
Forms of therapy (1933 to 1945)
“Eradicating hereditary and racial care”
Conventional therapies were supplemented by shock methods in the 1930s. At the same time, the asylums faced increasingly severe cost-cutting measures.
Health care policy held a key position in the “Third Reich”. Right at the beginning, from 1933 to 1935, decisive laws were passed in rapid succession to form a legal basis.
"Health is mandatory"
T4 Central Office
The administrative centre of the "euthanasia" crimes was located at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin. more
The transports
As of March 1942, more and more patients were “transferred” from Wittenau to Obrawalde. The care staff organised and accompanied the transports to the killing centre. more
Child “euthanasia”
Ernst Wentzler
(1891-1973)
Hans Heinze
(1895-1983)
Werner Catel
(1894-1981)
The killing of disabled children took place outside of the “Aktion T4” campaign. A “Reich Committee” decided on the fate of the children. more
Forced sterilisations
According to the National Socialist view, the “national body” was threatened by “hereditary-biological inferiors”. The Hereditary Health Act allowed the forced sterilisation of these people. By the end of the war, around 360,000 patients had been affected. more
"Extermination” through labour
Foreign forced labourers
Since the start of the war, people from the occupied countries were deported to the territory of the Reich. There, they were conscripted as cheap labour. more
Another strategy of the National Socialist extermination policy was “extermination through labour”. For this purpose, Jewish prisoners and workhouse inmates were registered as of 1942, and mentally ill offenders as of 1943. more
Double stigma
Jewish inmates of institutions were doubly stigmatised during the National Socialist era: as citizens of Jewish origin and as mentally ill patients. more
The end of the war
On 24 April 1945, the Red Army reached the Wittenau Sanatoriums. The soldiers occupied the grounds and released the patients. more