Bethel Foundation

The Bethel Foundation, officially the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel is a diaconal psychiatric hospital in Bethel, formerly a town, today a neighbourhood of Bielefeld, Germany.

The healthcare foundation was established in 1867 as Evangelische Heil- und Pflegeanstalt für Epileptische in Gadderbaum, today a locality of Bielefeld. In 1872 Pastor Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, Senior, a proponent of the inner mission within the then Evangelical State Church in Prussia became its director. He massively strengthened and extended the institution, with more premises also for the poor and at other locations, and renamed it after Bethel in 1874. The name Bethel was also started being used for the neighbourhood, which developed outside the hospital. Later Bodelschwingh's name was compounded to the institution's name. In 1910 Bodelschwingh, Senior, died and the leadership passed on to his son Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, Junior, who led the institution until his death in 1946.

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