KEEP AND LOCK AWAY

Before there was a institution in Lüneburg, most mentally ill people and people with disabilities were cared for at home.

If this was not possible, sick people were locked away and kept in custody. Mental illnesses and disabilities were regarded as divine punishment, possession or the work of the devil. During this time, people with mental illnesses were often poor and socially marginalised.

It is an excerpt from a hand-drawn and coloured plan. It shows a two-storey half-timbered house in the middle of a small wood. The house has a flat roof. There is a fenced area in front of the house. Another fence can be seen next to the house. The house is labelled "Lazaret". It is an old-fashioned script.

Detail from a plan showing the Breite Wiese military hospital, recognisable as a half-timbered house in the middle of a forest, 1700.

StadtALg K 12 C-55-(k).

Until 1815, sick people in Lüneburg were kept in the Breite Wiese military hospital. This was a former plague and poorhouse on the outskirts of the city. The building was constructed in 1565 and initially only had room for 20 patients.

Entire plan

It is a section of a map. The map is delicately hand-drawn. The course of a river and neighbouring land can be seen from bottom right to top left. Lüneburg's Lüne Monastery, labelled "Lün", can be seen at the top right. The two-storey, four-winged building labelled "Lazarett" can be seen in the centre. It is located in a small wood. The lettering is old-fashioned.

Detail of a plan showing the Breite Wiese military hospital. After 1700, it was expanded into a four-winged building and enlarged in 1714.

StadtALg K 7-G-27-1-(R).

»[…] the sick unfortunates who have been ordered to stay at the Breitenwiese – not as a punishment – but as a charity – are in a bad way. The insane are kept in containers to which access is through the cowshed, the container itself is full of stench, which rises from the uncovered entrance, dark, as it should be bright, as even the weakest mind seeks light. The diet given to all is partly too meagre, partly unhealthy; in that apart from bacon, cheese and potatoes they are given nothing else, still less vegetables and fruit […].«

City Physician Lentien quoted from Marianne Pagel: Gesundheit und Hygiene. On the social history of Lüneburg in the 19th century, Hanover 1992, p. 222.

It is a black and white photo. It has a white border. The photo shows a two-storey half-timbered house with a single-storey side extension. It stands on the banks of the River Ilmenau in Wandrahmpark. Wooden buildings and barges can be recognised in the river. The photographer must have stood on one of the barges to take the picture from the water.

Photo of the Lüneburg Am Wandrahm hospital, 1892, photographer unknown. The handwritten note was added later and is not correct.

ArEGL 162.

From 1816 onwards, patients were placed in the Am Wandrahm hospital in the city for observation. From here, they were transferred to existing institutions in Hildesheim (1827), Göttingen (1866) or Osnabrück (1868) and finally separated. Due to the catastrophic conditions, the hospital was avoided by the physically ill.

It is an excerpt from a newspaper report. It is in one column in Fraktur script. The paper is yellowed. There are two paragraphs.

Extract from the Lüneburgischer Anzeiger of 2 February 1885, p. 3.

StadtALg 8.2 LLA-B, 1885-02.

The report in the Lüneburgischer Anzeiger of 2 February 1885 describes the adverse conditions in which sick people were locked up in the Am Wandrahm hospital. Sick people were not worthy of being treated humanely.

Waren seelisch Erkrankte sehr unruhig oder hielten sich nicht an Recht und Ordnung, wurden sie bis ins 17. Jahrhundert in sogenannte »Dorenkisten« eingesperrt. Sie hingen in Lüneburg am Springintguttor, am Sülztor und am Rothen Tor. Ab dem 17. Jahrhundert wurden Erkrankte auch im Werk- und Zuchthaus verwahrt. Sie erfuhren Zwang und Gewalt.

Es ist eine Karte. Sie ist handgezeichnet. Links oben steht der Titel »Karte von den Grundstücken der Königlichen Strafanstalt zu Lüneburg«. Es ist der Kalkberg eingezeichnet. Oberhalb des Kalkberges sind die Grundrisse eines rechteckigen Gebäudekomplexes. Die Gebäude sind von einer Mauer umgeben. Mittig liegen die Schachtelflügel, Zellenflügel und die Verwaltung. An der Mauer liegen Werkstätten und. Waschsäle. Die jeweiligen Gebäude schließen Höfe ein. Der Zellenflügel liegt inmitten eines Hofes.

Map of the properties of the Royal Penal Institution in Lüneburg, 1878.

StadtALg K 17-C-43.

The Am Benedikt workhouse and penitentiary was used to house offenders or those who posed a danger to themselves. There was a separate area for »compulsive addicts«. The prison cells were not initially segregated by gender and the inmates were shackled.

The modernisation of the prison system also had an impact on the accommodation of mentally ill prisoners. In addition to the separation of the sexes, »work therapy« with workshop and gardening work was introduced. It was the model for a reorientation of institutional psychiatry towards a self-sufficient institution.

Es ist ein handgezeichneter Situationsplan der Lüneburger Strafanstalt. Der Gebäudekomplex der Strafanstalt liegt am Fuß des Kalkbergs. Oberhalb rechts davon ist der Bereich für Beamte mit Wohnhaus und Ländereien zur Beackerung durch Bedienstete. Rechts schließt das Michaeliskloster an die Strafanstalt an. Links liegt ein großzügiger Garten der Anstalt.

Location plan of the prison and pertinent information in Lüneburg, 1896.

StadtALg K 17-C-44-1.

The display case contains a straitjacket and a restraint belt. The straitjacket is sewn from a coarse, light grey linen. It has large metal eyelets in front of the chest and on the extra-long sleeves. The straitjacket is folded. The fastening belt is made of light brown leather. It contains eyelets. Some areas of the belt are padded.

Straitjacket and restraint belt from the Lüneburg Psychiatric Clinic, after 1945.

ArEGL 145 |146.

Straitjackets and restraint belts replaced chains and shackles from the middle of the 19th century. Until the 1970s, there was a belief that particularly restless patients could only be pacified by force and violence. The jacket, euphemistically called a »protective jacket«, is no longer used today.

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