Beelitz is a historic town in Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It is chiefly known for its cultivation of white

asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified ...

(''Beelitzer Spargel'').

Geography

Beelitz is situated about 18 km (11 mi) south of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, on the rim of the Zauche glacial sandur plain. The town is surrounded by extended

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

woods of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park. Located on an old trade route from Berlin to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, today the Bundesstraße 2, it also has access to the

Bundesautobahn 9 is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning . Route The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A 10, ...

at the ''Beelitz-Heilstätten'' and ''Beelitz'' junctions. Train service to Potsdam and Berlin via the Berlin-Blankenheim railway line is available at Beelitz Stadt and Beelitz-Heilstätten stations.

History

A 997 deed by

Emperor Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

mentions a settlement with the Slavic name ''Belizi'', though this denotation may also refer to the nearby town of Belzig. Beelitz asv2021-06 img04

The

Saint Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

and

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day De ...

parish church was first mentioned in a 1247 report of a Jewish

host desecration Host desecration is a form of sacrilege in Christian denominations that follow the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It involves the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated host—the bread used in the Eucharistic ...

, and bleeding host miracle, that made Beelitz a medieval

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

site. Since 1370 the host was kept in a small chapel adjacent to the church. The reason for the former name of the Judenberg (renamed Friedensberg after 1945) before the Mühlentor is not confirmed, though tradition indicates it was the site of the burning of Jews. When in 1731 King

Frederick William I of Prussia Frederick William I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the "Soldier King" (german: Soldatenkönig), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Ne ...

billeted a hussar regiment, Beelitz became a garrison town and today is home to a

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

command. The cultivation of asparagus was first documented in 1861. The village of ''Kanin'', a subdivision of Beelitz since 2001, had been an

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charl ...

until 1815 and therefore a notorious smuggling area as well as a destination for

deserters Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ...

from the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

army. Its fieldstone church was erected about 1138 and today is the oldest preserved one within the Brandenburg state. In 1928, the

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" app ...

company erected a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

station in the subdivision of ''Schönefeld'' for the wireless communication with North America. Together with the

Nauen Transmitter Station Nauen Transmitter Station (German: ''Grossfunkstelle Nauen'' or ''Sender Nauen'') in Nauen, Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany, is the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. Germany's first high power ra ...

, it was incorporated by the

Reichspost ''Reichspost'' (; "Imperial Mail") was the name of the postal service of Germany from 1866 to 1945. ''Deutsche Reichspost'' Upon the out break of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the break-up of the German Confederation in the Peace of ...

in 1932. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the station was used by the Deutsche Post of the GDR until it finally went out of service in 1991.

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Beelitz.pdf, Development of the population since 1875 within the current boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population development in Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

; Red Background: Time of communist

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Beelitz.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (german: Volkszählung) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, wa ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

Beelitz-Heilstätten

Beelitz-Heilstätten (), a district of the town, is home to a large hospital complex of about 60 buildings including a

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

plant erected from 1898 according to plans of architect Heino Schmieden. Originally designed as a

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are ofte ...

by the Berlin workers' health insurance corporation, the complex from the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

on was a military hospital of the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the ...

. During October and November 1916,

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

recuperated at Beelitz-Heilstätten after being wounded in the leg at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. In 1945, Beelitz-Heilstätten was occupied by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

forces, and the complex remained a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

military hospital until 1995, well after the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. In December 1990,

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the post ...

was admitted to Beelitz-Heilstätten after being forced to resign as the head of the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

government. Following the Soviet withdrawal, several attempts were made to privatise the complex, but they were not entirely successful. Some sections of the hospital remain in operation as a neurological rehabilitation centre and as a centre for research and care for victims of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. The remainder of the complex, including the surgery, the psychiatric ward and a rifle range, was abandoned in 1994. As of 2007, none of the abandoned hospital buildings or the surrounding area were secured, giving the area the feel of a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

In popular culture

This has made Beelitz-Heilstätten a destination for curious visitors and a film set for films like '' The Pianist'' in 2002, the Rammstein music video "

Mein Herz brennt "Mein Herz brennt" (German for "My heart burns") is a song by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. The song first appeared as the opening track to the band's third studio album, '' Mutter'' (2001), and was used as the opening track for conc ...

", the films ''

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36 ...

'' in 2008, ''

Men & Chicken ''Men & Chicken'' ( da, Mænd og Høns) is a 2015 Danish comedy film directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. It was shown in the Vanguard section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It was one of three films shortlisted by Denmark to be t ...

'' in 2015, '' A Cure for Wellness'' in 2016, and the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

series ''

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

'' in 2022. Beelitz-Heilstätten is a popular location for

urban exploration Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...

, providing a suitably eerie photographic subject for artistic photography. File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_B_II.jpg, Pavilion B II File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_Chirurgie.jpg, Surgery Pavilion File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_Chirurgie_O.jpg, Surgery Pavilion File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Kochkueche.jpg, Kitchen File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Waschkueche.jpg, Washhouse File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_B_IV.jpg, Pavilion B IV File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_B_IV_W.jpg, Pavilion B IV File:Beelitz_Heilstaetten_Pavillon_B_IV_NW.jpg, Pavilion B IV

International relations

Beelitz is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Ratingen,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

since 1990 * Alfter, North Rhine-Westphalia

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the city

Götz Dieter Plage Götz Dieter Plage (14 May 1936 in Beelitz – 3 April 1993 in Sumatra), internationally simply known as Dieter Plage, was a German cinematographer of nature documentaries. Career Dieter Plage was inspired to be a wildlife cameraman by the wor ...

(1936–1993), nature film-maker * Falko Steinke ( de) (born 1985), volleyball player

People connected to the city

* Sally Bein (1881-after June 1, 1942), teacher, head of the Jewish home for deaf children *

Wolfgang Schmidt Wolfgang Schmidt may refer to: * Wolfgang Schmidt (athlete) (born 1954), German track and field athlete * Wolfgang Schmidt (politician) Wolfgang Schmidt (; born ) is a German politician and jurist who has been serving as Federal Minister for ...

(born 1966), serial killer, also known as ''Rosa Riese''

References

External links

History, maps, and photos of the buildings early 2008 (English)Neurologische Rehabilitationsklinik Beelitz-Heilstätten
(in German)

(in German)
The Abandoned Hospital (gallery and history)
(in Polish)
Urban Exploration report of Beelitz-Heilstätten (photo gallery and history)
(in English) {{Authority control Localities in Potsdam-Mittelmark