Gedenk- und Lernort Heil- und Pflegeanstalt (Memorial and educational site former psychiatric hospital)

As part of the research focus on contemporary legal history, Prof. Dr. Christoph Safferling is leading the creation of a memorial and educational site around the former Erlangen mental hospital / Heil- und Pflegeanstalt.

Between Maximiliansplatz and Schwabachanlage, there is little left to remind us of the former mental hospital (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt) that once stood here. Where parts of the university hospital and the Max Planck Society are located today, the predecessor of the district hospital on the Europakanal stood until 1977. Opened in 1846, the so-called “Kreis-Irrenanstalt” (district mental asylum) was the first Bavarian clinic for the mentally ill and people with intellectual disabilities. Under Nazi rule, the institution, now popularly known as “Hupfla,” was transformed into a place of the most serious crimes. As part of “Aktion T4”, the Nazis’ “euthanasia” program, more than 900 patients were deported from Erlangen to the killing centers in Hartheim near Linz and Pirna-Sonnenstein by mid-1941. After “Aktion T4” was suspended due to growing public attention, the killings continued locally in the institutions from 1942 onwards by means of starvation diets. As a result, at least another 1,000 patients lost their lives in Erlangen alone.

A supervisory board consisting of representatives from FAU, the City of Erlangen, and the University Hospital, headed by Prof. Dr. Safferling and with the involvement of the Free State of Bavaria and the districts of Middle and Upper Franconia, is dedicated to this dark chapter in Erlangen’s history. The aim is to create a memorial and educational site based on the 2020 framework concept commissioned by the city, which will both commemorate the victims and fulfill the need for forward-looking research based on the past.

As the supervisory board executive committee, the Future Lab, in collaboration with the scenography firm chezweitz from Berlin and hoskins architects, Berlin & Glasgow, and counseled by an advisory board of leading experts from across Germany, conducted a feasibility study and presented it on January 9, 2025.

In order to effectively take the next steps toward realizing the project, the Future Lab is now being replaced by the Founding Office, a joint working group of the supervisory board from FAU and the city archives.

The founding office handles the tasks outlined in the feasibility study as well as the legal basis for the planning and implementation of the project. At the same time, it implements mediation services and communication measures. It continues to be supported and advised by the advisory board and chezweitz.

Regular events for the public are held as part of the project.

Anyone interested in learning more about research in Erlangen on Nazi medical crimes and the mental hospital can find information here (only in german)

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