The Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Europe's largest university hospital, is located in Berlin (Charitéplatz 1-10117). The campus of Charité has its origins in 1710 in Mitte. In that year, with the spread of the plague in Europe, Frederick I of Prussia built a quarantine hospital. In 1713, with the building of the anatomical theatre, came to life the school of medicine, managed by the Medical-Surgical School. After the plague spared the city, the building was converted as a hospice for destitute old people, a workhouse for beggars, and a maternity home for unmarried mothers. In 1727 it became a military hospital and infirmary for the will of king Frederick William I, who also named it 'Charité'. Thanks to some financial resources and to the Prussian Medical Edict of 1725, the structure was improved. The Charité had some main functions: it was a hospice for the poor (until 1798), a state hospital and, after the foundation of 'Pépinière Institute' (a military academy), the Charité became a center for the education of military physicians. With the birth of the University of Berlin (1810), the Medical-Surgical School was disbanded and a large university center was created near the Charité on Ziegelstrasse. Then these clinics were incorporated in the Charité, until 1927 when the Charité became an University Medical Center. After the demolition of the Charité facilities, between 1896 and 1917 there was the construction of a new uniform red brick building. During the second world war it was seriously damaged and it was rebuilt under the GDR. After the division of Berlin with the construction of the wall, the Charité remained the principal hospital of East Berlin. After 1989, when Berlin was reunified, there were only three hospitals in the whole city: Virchow Hospital, Franklin Hospital and the Charité, until 2003, when the first two where incorporated in the third. This gave birth to the Charité as we know it today.1
A view from the other side of the River Sprea
A frontal vision of the Charité
A map of the structure of the Charité
Buildings in the Charité
Pathology Institute
Buildings in the Charité
Mental and psychiatric institute
Roads inside the Campus
New Hospital
In the Charité there is also the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité and in the building of the University are collocated some historical objects, including the Marey tambour and the Einthoven galvanometer.
- Photos and main text by Raffaella Minelli moc.liamg|79illenim.alleaffar#| and Viviana Mannella ti.liamtoh|koolyviv#| (December 2017)
- Locate the item on this Google Map.
Related items:
- Adolf von Bardeleben bust
- Albrecht von Graefe monument
- Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité
- Einthoven galvanometer
- Friedrich Althoff bust
- Friedrich Kraus bust
- Marey tambour
- Otto Heubner bust
- Paul Langerhans bust
- Rahel Hirsch bust
- Rudolf Virchow bust
- Wilhelm Griesinger bust