Hospital / Prison Building V

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Plötzensee Prison, Hospital: floor plans of basement, ground floor and 1st and 2nd floors, heating furnaces. From: Atlas zur Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, Jg. 28, 1878

• 1871 – 1873

  Construction

• 08 November 1908

  Inauguration of a synagogue in the east wing for prisoners belonging
  to the Jewish faith.

• Early 1930s

  Transfer of the sick bay to prison building I and conversion of the hospital to accommodate a “lunatic department“.

• before 1935 – 1945

  Transfer of the synagogue back to prison building II and establishment of an observation department for “persons suspected of mental illness“, a lock-up for remand prisoners, a ward for prisoners suffering from sexually transmitted diseases and a central register of the results of forensic biological research.

The hospital had space for 118 beds in large dormitories and several solitary cells, a pharmacy, and rooms for the doctor and guards.
The “law for the prevention of genetically diseased offspring of 01 January 1934” (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses), also known as the “sterilisation law“ obliged prison staff and doctors to make forensic biological assessments and report illnesses to the responsible “Hereditary Health Court” (Erbgesundheitsgericht) in “cases problematic to the racial community”. Many inmates were held in other prison buildings before they were transferred to building V. From the early 1930s on, they were transferred to psychiatric hospitals in and around Berlin, such as Buch, Wittenau and Herzberge. In later years, prisoners were also sent to other institutions. At least four prisoners from Plötzensee are known to have been transferred to National Socialist killing centres in conjunction with the “T4” “euthanasia” programme, and murdered there.

You can find more information on the “euthanasia” programme “T4” here.

Copyright: Berliner Forum für Geschichte und Gegenwart e.V., Cornelia Ganz

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