Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee is an abandoned Children’s Hospital building also known as zombie hospital located in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1909 as a proposed solution to rising infant mortality rates, the site closed for business less than nine decades later in 1997.
In 2005 the property was sold to an investor and medical cooperative that proposed converting it into a new clinic. Unfortunately, developer didn’t start project and let abandoned building rot. It’s been set on fire 11 times in 2013. The local government won back the rights to the building in 2015, with much fanfare about tearing it down and building apartments. However, five years later the zombies are still prowling around this haunt waiting for new urban explorers to consume.
History of Zombie Hospital Berlin
As part of the program to reduce infant and child mortality, Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee hospital was built between 1909 and 1911 by Carl James Büring in Weißensee.
In 1911, in addition to the main building, the ensemble consisted of the auditorium building, the isolation pavilion, a farm building, a mortuary and a horse stable with wagon remise. The isolation pavilion and chapel are integrated into the park behind it, the farm building housed a model cow facility. Thus, the hospital provided not only medical care, but also space for research and teaching.
On July 8, 1911, after a two-year construction period, the first municipal-run infant and children’s hospital in Prussia was inaugurated with a ceremony in Weißensee, then still Niederbarnim district. The design and construction planning of the clinic on the property on Kniprodeallee, today’s Hansastrasse178/180, was taken over by Carl James Bühring, who has been working as a municipal councillor since 1906.
For therapeutic purposes, the children’s hospital was integrated into a landscaped park – a special feature at the time. Another innovation was the “Milchkuranstalt” in the immediate vicinity. The local food preparation facility and the model cowshed were to ensure the direct care of the newborns and their mothers. The surplus milk was sold to the population. After the Second World War, the children’s hospital continued to be used and was expanded shortly before the end of the GDR in 1987 by the addition of a dormitory.
In 1997, the hospital was closed. After that, the site fell into a sleeping Beauty sleep and is still waiting for a meaningful reuse. For a short time, it looked as if the building complex, which has been a listed building since 1995, could be saved: in 2006, MWZ Bio Resonanz GmbH presented a usage concept for the operation of a modern cancer research center.
This renovation project was not implemented. Instead, the investor let the site fall into disrepair. By court decision, the former infant and children’s hospital was returned to the ownership of the state of Berlin in 2015. However, the internal and external decay of the buildings has not stopped to this day..
