The former Naval hospital in Flensburg-Mürwik is a "lost place" in more ways than one: after many years of vacancy, the complex resembles a ghost town, and on top of that, the last owner filed for insolvency in 2020. The ensemble, which is listed as a cultural monument, is now up for sale again. Hopefully with a happier outcome than before. After all, since the closure of the military hospital, which was last part of the municipal hospitals as "Klinik Ost" Flensburg's it had not exactly experienced rosy times. Vandalism and theft were the order of the day until the former clinic was sold to a Danish investor in 2007. However, his plans to build a hotel and a retirement home on the site did not materialise, nor did his successor's grandiose housing projects. Both have now vacated the site. Whether this is for the better remains to be seen. The site requires careful redevelopment that does justice to its history and architectural significance.
The Flensburg Naval hospital was built around the same time as the Flensburg-Mürwik naval school. Built before the First World War according to plans by architects Heino Schmieden and Julius Boethke in the Prussian brick Gothic style, the complex comprised an isolation ward, a mortuary and a shed in addition to a main building, an administration building and a service building. A chief physician's villa was added later. Initially, 100 beds were available for the care of marines, but after 1918 the Imperial Navy also allowed the treatment of family members, soldiers of the Imperial Army and officers of the police. During the Second World War, the complex was one of the navy's military hospitals. Several high-ranking Nazi officials stayed here at the end of the war, including Hitler's chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946), the SS Reich doctor Karl Gebhardt (1897-1948), the head of the concentration camp inspectorate Richard Glücks (1889-1945) and the "Leitende Arzt KL", SS Standartenführer Enno Lolling (1888-1945). While Glücks and Lolling were in Flensburg Rosenberg was sentenced to death by the Allies in the main Nuremberg war crimes trial and Gebhardt in the so-called Doctors' Trial.
After 1945, the military hospital temporarily served as refugee accommodation until 1947, when it became part of the Flensburg became a hospital. Following its closure in 1989, there were plans to use the buildings as an extension to the naval school and accommodation for officer cadets, but the project was abandoned for cost reasons. As a result, the complex remained largely empty. Then the two investors came up with their plans. The site has been up for sale again since July 2021. Perhaps an interested party will now be found who is more interested in preserving a cultural monument than making a short-term profit. The Flensburg Naval hospital it would be desirable.
Photo and text: von Klewitz
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German
I am happy to refer you to further literature:
Beuckers. Klaus Gereon (ed.): The naval hospital in the Kieler Wik. A pavilion complex and its building typological models. Kiel 2020.
An art-historical categorisation of the Wiker Lazaretto and its building history up to and including the new construction in the 21st century.
The book is a complete documentation of the former naval hospital, which was and is of remarkable urban significance for the city of Kiel, but is also of architectural-historical relevance far beyond the region on the fjord.