Klinikum am Weissenhof

Toward the end of the 19th century the four existing public sanatoria for the mentally ill in Württemberg (in Zwiefalten, Winnental, Schussenried and Weißenau) were overcrowded.

Numerous invalids had to be rejected and accommodated in ordinary hospitals or sent back to their hometowns, where they could not be treated properly.

There were no psychiatric institutions in the north of Württemberg, which was particularly problematic for the mentally ill and their relatives of those regions, since they had to travel large distances in order to receive treatment.

The park was located right next to the court buildings and was set up in a pavilion system covering several individual hospital wards.

Within the context of Aktion T4 in Nazi Germany, patients of the Weinsberg institute were transported to the Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre where they were executed.

Furthermore, between the years of 1934 and 1945 96 male and 107 female patients have been forcefully sterilized as part of the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.

Consequently, Jooss only succeeded partially, since the institution still served as an assembly point but its employees did not actively participate in the execution of the transports.

Despite the risk of being killed for a breach of secrecy, Jooss told his closest colleagues about the true purpose of the transports.

In September 1945, director Jooss committed suicide as it became public knowledge that the US-American occupation forces wanted to unseat him.

The new building was constructed to house 50 patients with mental disorders against which a local initiative collected signatures and addressed a petition to the Landtag (the legislative assembly) of Baden-Württemberg.

One of these new day-hospitals had already been established on the clinic's compound in January 2006 and moved from there to Heilbronn, this unit provides general psychiatric treatments and psychotherapy.

Both units are located in the former Privatklinik Dr. Reinhard, a private hospital which was bought by the Klinikum am Weisenhof in March 2006.

On the first of January 2010 the neurology department of the clinic, with its 70 beds and 90 employees, was passed over to the SLK-Kliniken, the hospital of the city of Heilbronn.