Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the 18th century saw a change in attitude towards people who were impaired in some way, particularly in France. There, for the first time, deaf-mute and blind people from all walks of life were opened the door to education through public instruction, and the path to professional work was paved for them. Gradually, starting in England and France, a sense emerged that mentally impaired people, called lunatics in Germany, were not just to be kept and cared for. Previously, they had been locked up and locked away and often, if they were unruly or dangerous, even put in chains and beaten.
The prerequisite for a rethink was that doctors recognized mental and nervous deviations from the norm as curable. The German word “irre” suggests thinking of a condition, while the French aliéné refers more to a process; the person concerned is alienated (from themselves), prevented from using the reason common to all people. It is now important to restore order to their thoughts and actions. This requires calm and a trusting conversation with a therapist. The demand for the abolition of coercive measures in medical treatment was obvious. This state of knowledge already existed when institutions were founded in German-speaking countries with the aim of curing the mentally ill. Sonnenstein near Pirna, founded in Saxony in 1811, was the first important state institution of its kind in Germany. Siegburg followed in 1825 as the (provincial) institution responsible for the Rhineland, i.e. also for our region, where healing was the primary goal. The founder was Maximilian Jacobi, who shaped an entire generation of psychiatrists there as a teacher.
rom the middle of the 19th century onwards, numerous smaller private institutions were established that consciously wanted to break new ground and create “asylums” in secluded rural areas, where physical and mental peace were to be the most important prerequisites for a healing process. In 1848, Jacobi’s student Albrecht Erlenmeyer founded his private “sanatorium for the mentally and mentally ill” in Bendorf. A few years later, in 1857, his assistant doctor Kaspar Max Brosius set up his own “Asylum for Brain and Nursing Home for Israelite Nervous and Mental Patients”. This was followed in 1870 by the “Dr. Colmantsche Anstalten nur für weibliche Nerven- und Gemüthskranke” in Bendorf.
A veritable therapeutic optimism emerged, which also made it possible to recognize the boundary between curable and incurable mental illness as a fluid one. While the private institutions were initially only open to wealthy patients, poorer patients were soon able to be admitted thanks to state security systems, the support of sponsoring associations and foundations as well as mixed calculations between more complex, more expensive accommodation and less complex, less expensive care.
The private facilities were characterized by a particularly individual, attentive and humane atmosphere and innovative treatment methods. Max C. Brosius was particularly quick and thorough in implementing the experience he had gained in England with non-coercive medical treatment. He propagated it in the translation of John Conolly’s groundbreaking book on the subject and in his preface to it.
The authors of this book provide an insight into the history of the former private institutions for the “mentally ill” in Bendorf and also present the state provincial institutions responsible for the region in Andernach and Bonn.
The statements made by well-known 19th century psychiatrists in a fictitious round table discussion, in which Albrecht Erlenmeyer’s supra-regional importance becomes clear, are fascinating to read.
This publication accompanies the special exhibition “Die Heil- und Pflegeanstalten für Nerven- und Gemütskranke in Bendorf”, which will be presented at the Rheinisches Eisenkunstguss-Museum in Schloss Sayn from February 13 to May 10, 2009.