Sanatorium St. Blasien

The St. Blasien Sanatorium was a lung healing facility in St. Blasien in the Black Forest, which existed from 1881 to 1969 and offered inpatient treatment as well as preventive and curative procedures for tuberculosis.

The lung specialist Paul Haufe, trained in Davos, looked for a suitable location for his own sanatorium in Germany at the end of the 1870s to treat the lung tuberculosis that had become widespread in the 19th century due to urbanization. Before the introduction of antituberculous antibiotics, few treatment options were available. The pulmonologist Hermann Brehmer established the high-altitude therapy for tuberculosis in free mountain air in 1854 in Görbersdorf, Silesia. This therapy was based on the mistaken assumption that residents of high altitudes suffered less frequently from tuberculosis manifestations. This view contradicted the prevailing medical doctrine. Nevertheless, Brehmer achieved considerable success with his concept due to his structured approach and consistent application of medical standards, leading to numerous follow-up institutions both nationally and internationally. Peter Dettweiler expanded the treatment concept at his healing institution founded in 1876 in Falkenstein in the Taunus by implementing absolute rest in the form of long lying cures. The better blood circulation of the lungs while lying down promoted self-healing to some extent. The pneumothorax treatment and lung surgery emerging at the beginning of the 20th century remained the only therapeutically effective developments until the widespread use of antibiotic combinations. Radiation therapy was completely abandoned in the absence of proven effects.

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