Medical Facility 'T'
The worldwide epidemic of TB was killing off German manpower at the rate of one in three of the population so clearly something had to be done fast. With funding chiefly from the insurance companies of the time, but also with money raised by public donation, a raft of state of the art sanatoria were built all over the country and the site at Teupitz was soon selected for one. Eventually the work of the dedicated TB doctors brought the disease under control and the epidemic passed leading to the progressive depopulation of the numerous sanatoria. With concentration of the ever diminishing number of patients something had to be done with the many buildings which were standing idle for the most part so at this time Teupitz was ear-marked for reutilisation as a psychiatric hospital.
In 1914 war clouds gathered over Europe and many an institution of this size was pressed into service as a military hospital. After the Armistice of 1918 Teupitz reverted to its new purpose and early treatments for many mental conditions were researched in the numerous hospitals. After the Second World War, during which time Teupitz again served as a military hospital, the occupying Russian forces continued to use Teupitz as a mental hospital, and it retained that purpose right up until their final departure from Germany on 1st. September, 1994, some six years or so after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today the site stands abandoned but a modern psychiatric institution was built on the land adjacent to the old walls just beyond the cemetery; and on the area immediately to the rear of the site is a modern high security ward surrounded by tall electric fences, presumably housing criminally insane patients.