Oskar Kohnstamm

At the beginning of the 20th century, Oskar Kohnstamm founded a sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus which was intended to appeal to a group of intellectually high-quality patients, and which became internationally known.

His wife, Eva, daughter of Johannes Gad - one of Kohnstamm's Berlin professors, agreed to have occasionally depressive patients as guests in the house, who then got chores assigned in housekeeping, gardening or minding the children.

Among his patients were three young men who would become world-famous: the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the actor Alexander Moissi, and the conductor Otto Klemperer.

The poets Stefan George, Karl Wolfskehl, the archaeologist Botho Graef and the architect Henry van de Velde have been friends of him.

The tale Peter and Anneli's Journey to the Moon, which was written by a former patient Gerdt von Bassewitz, was playing in his sanatorium with his children as the main character.