Sanatorium

In 1863, Hermann Brehmer opened the Brehmersche Heilanstalt für Lungenkranke in Görbersdorf (Sokołowsko), Silesia (now Poland), for the treatment of tuberculosis. Patients were exposed to plentiful amounts of high altitude, fresh air, and good nutrition. Brehmer’s treatment included walks on mountain trails to a waterfall where patients stood underneath the cold stream of water, taking a ‘forest shower’ or Walddusche. In the sanatorium his patients were given nutritious food and milk, Hungarian wine with dinner, and French cognac at bedtime. Brehmer published his course of treatment in 1857 in Die Chronische Lungenschwindsucht und Tuberkulose der Lunge: Ihre Ursache und ihr Heilung, “The causes and Healing of pulmonary consumption and Tuberculosis of the Lung”.

Tuberculosis sanatoria became common throughout Europe from the late 19th century onward. The rationale for sanatoria being that a regimen of rest and good nutrition offered the best chance that the sufferer's immune system would "wall off" pockets of pulmonary TB infection. Positioned outside of city centres, in mountainous landscapes, seaside resorts, forests and country parks they offered sites of rest, recuperation and recovery. Early successful Sanatoria such as Nordrach in the German Black Forest (1888) and Davos in Grisons Switzerland (1889) were set in large grounds with plentiful gardens and fresh air. Rural locations were chosen as a means to reduce the spread of transmission, housing patients at a safe distance from populated urban centres. Revitalising mountain or forest air was perceived to aid respiratory health. Staying for potentially months or years at a time, patients became suspended from their previous day to day life, acting out routines of recovery against picturesque backdrops of mountain views, pine forests and formal gardens.