Genesis of the exhibition at the site where the events took place
The genesis of the exhibition
The clinic was founded in 1880 as the “State Insane and Idiot Asylum of the City of Berlin at Dalldorf" and renamed the Wittenauer Sanatoriums in the 1920s. From 1957 onwards, it was called the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik and was the largest psychiatric hospital in West Berlin. Since 2001, the grounds have been the property of Vivantes Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH.
The exhibition is located in Building 10.
The site of the events
In the publication commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik in 1980, the Nazi period was neglected: the management of the psychiatric clinic had claimed that there were no records from the Nazi period existed any more. And indeed, all the doctors’ personnel files and all the administrative files from the period 1933 to 1945 have disappeared without a trace. After the medical crimes of the Nazi period became a public issue in the 1980s, a working group to research the history of the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik carried out extensive research. It was initiated by the medical director at the time, Bernd-Michael Becker. Sabine Damm, Norbert Emmerich, Ursula Grell, Christina Härtel, Marianne Hühn and Martina Krüger were members of this group.
However, in the course of the research work, which included research in the Federal Archives in Berlin, in state archives of the GDR, and various Berlin archives, a wealth of material was found. The exhibition “Totgeschwiegen, 1933 - 1945. Zur Geschichte der Wittenauer Heilstätten" (“Dead Silence, 1933 – 1945. On the History of the Wittenau Sanatoriums”) was achieved with the scholarly advice of Götz Aly. It went on display for the first time in August 1988 and was completely revised in 2008.