GERMANY: ZWIEFALTEN

 May 22, 2025  

On our way from Grafeneck to Zwiefalten, we stopped to take a photo of a bar/inn where the Grafeneck staff came to relax, have a drink, or perhaps rent a room if overflow housing was needed. Today, this charming restaurant exhibits no evidence of its past, and I suppose it is a good example of the fact that life must go on.

Zwiefalten is a tranquil village of about 2,300 people in the Swabian region of southern Germany about 70 miles southeast of my mother's hometown of Pforzheim. The skyline is dominated by the twin towers of the Abbey of Our Lady of Zwiefalten, a former Benedictine monastery founded in 1089.

In 1812 part of the property became a lunatic asylum and then later a psychiatric hospital.

Zwiefalten State Hospital and Sanitorium was the last place my grandfather was held before he was transported to Grafeneck. Of the 10,654 people gassed at Grafeneck, more than 1,000 came from Zwiefalten. Once Grafeneck was shut down in December 1940, killings by injection continued at Zwiefalten.

This distance from Zwiefalten to Grafeneck is about 14 miles and takes just under 25 minutes to drive. Perhaps it took the gray transport busses a little longer in 1940, and certainly the patients who were passengers in the bus did not know where they were going.

We began our vist to Zwiefalten at the Württemberg Museum of Psychiatry. Apparently the psychiatric clinic at Zwiefalten is the oldest in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The museum covers a much longer period of psychiatric history than the World War II years, but it was interesting to visit with our grandfather's history in mind.

I thought this chart showing the develop of psychiatric therapy over the years was really interesting. See how many drug names and therapies you recognize.

19th Century:

1854: Opium, Alcohol, Morphine

1857: Bromine Salts

1869: Chloraldurate

1882: Paraldehyde

1903: Barbituates (Veronal)

20th Century

New treatments such as:

1910: Salvarsan 

1917: Malaria Infection Therapy 

1922: Continuous Sleep Therapy 

1924: Systematic Work Therapy 

1934: Cardizol Convulsive Therapy 

1935: Insulin Coma Treatment 

1935: Leucotomy 

1939: Electroconvulsive therapy 

Neuroleptics (Antipsychotics):

1952: Chlopromazine (Megaphen)

1964: Haloperidol

1968: Depot Preparations

1972: Clozapin (Leponex)

1990: New atypical Neuroleptics

Thymoleptics (Antidepressants):

1958: Imipriamine (Tofranil), Amitryptilline (Saroten), Doxepin (Aponal)

1967: Lithium

Tranquilizers:

1955: Meprobamat

1969: Diazepam (Valium), Lorazepam (Tavor)

At the bottom of the chart is this 1801 illustration of "Attempts to apply galvanism to the cure of some diseases." 

Galvanism is the use of electromagnetic current to treat what were then called "nervous disorders." It was the precursor to electroshock therapy.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. It somehow felt invasive to do so. However, before we left we had a little presentation by one of the elderly ladies who were staffing the museum. I can't remember much about it other than that there was a lot of experimentation going on in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of the breakthroughs came later with the development of new drugs.

After leaving the museum we stopped by the Zwiefalten Abbey, a superb example of German baroque architecture. Info at the site states: "For more than seven centuries, the Benedictine monastery, founded in 1089, shaped the town. Monastic life ended with secularization in 1803. Since 1812, the former monastery buildings have housed the oldest psychiatric hospital in Baden Württemberg, today the Center for Psychiatry of Southern Württemberg."

So . . . next to his gorgeous church is where my grandfather spent some of his final days. The contrast between his stark, hopeless life and the gaudy, over-the-top decór of the church is a little disconcerting.

The statue on the right is St. Stephen, carved (chiseled?) in 1753, although this is apparently a 1971 copy. St Stephen is familiar to me. According to the New Testament book of Acts, he was stoned to death, an event witnessed by Saul of Tarsus. He is traditionally honored as the first martyr of Christianity. I looked him up, hoping that considering his placement at the monastery/psychiatric hospital he might also be the patron saint of the mentally ill, but he is not.

I wonder if the psychiatric patients were every allowed to pray in this church? I doubt it, and as far as I know, my grandfather came from a Lutheran background anyway.