4 The „Old Hospital“

The „Old Hospital“, so called until today, consists of four building sections: In addition to the main buildings with two storeys and spacious attics, there are single-storey houses connected to the main buildings. The entire complex, a half-timbered construction, is generously planned – measured against the conditions of the time.

In 1854, the French general manager of the mining company Henry Etienne Bernard, Marquis de Sassenay, had the house built for the staff as one of the social facilities for 22,000 ‘Taler’. Shortly after its completion, the house was already occupied by about 100 patients. In addition to the sickrooms, the consulting room and hygienic facilities (bathrooms, etc.), the house was also equipped with a kitchen, a pharmacy and rooms for the Catholic sisters from the Order of St. Charles Borromeo. The director was the miners‘ doctor Dr. Hermann Ruer from Meschede. Financially, the hospital was to be supported by a company health insurance fund. The miners received medical treatment and medication in return for the contributions they paid.

The hospital had to be closed again as early as 1856 because the mining company had fallen on hard times. After the closure, flats were set up in the house for the mine’s employees. Wilhelmine Lübke, wife of the former German Federal President Heinrich Lübke, was born here in 1885 as the daughter of…Keuthen, the magazine manager.