I usually avoid buying reproductions…

…but this one is really interesting, not (just) because of the reproduction method or the motif, but also for a handwritten correction.

The reproduction is a photograph of a plan from the planning phase of the then “Göttingen Lunatic Asylum”, dated January 1863, the year in which construction began. The fact that it was photographed indicates that it is at least 25 years old. It shows St. Lukas (Luke’s) Church in the center of the inner courtyard. Here is a present-day view from the same perspective (further views at Wikimedia Commons:

It still stands today, although there are some minor differences to the drawing. However, it is not clear whether there have already been changes to the design or whether these are subsequent modifications.

History

Today hardly known even among university employees, the facility was once part of the university. In 1954, it was separated from the university as the “Niedersächsische Landeskrankenhaus” and then privatized in 2007 as “Asklepios Fachklinikum Göttingen”. The Asklepios Group has published a detailed documentation of the history (in German). More information on the history of the building can be found in the Denkmalatlas Niedersachsen. The hospital also has its own museum/collection, but this is rarely open.

Seelischerkrankte Krankenhaus

The really interesting thing, however, is the change that someone made to the headline with a ballpoint pen: It crossed out “Irrenanstalt” (Lunatic Asylum) and replaced it with “Seelischerkrankte Krankenhaus” (Mental Health Hospital). Whether the handwriting can be considered an indicator of mental health would be pure speculation. But what is certainly the case is that someone felt that the term “lunatic asylum”, which has been out of use for decades, was no longer up to date, perhaps even derogatory, and therefore replaced it. Calling it a hospital for the mentally ill instead of the more neutral “psychiatric” could also be an indicator of the background or time of origin.