Vienna General Hospital

The Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien) (AKH) is the University clinic of the city of Vienna, Austria. The AKH is the largest hospital of Austria, and at 85-m (279-ft) high is one of the tallest hospital buildings in the world. It is also the site of the Medical University of Vienna.

Old AKH


The origins of Vienna General Hospital go back to Dr. Johann Franckh, who donated properties, in 1686, after the end of the second Viennese-Turkish war, at the corridor Schaffernack for the establishment of a military hospital. However, since money was lacking for the establishment of the buildings, the disabled veterans were quartered, including families, in the Kontumazhof (epidemic hospital), already in existence. In 1693, Emperor Leopold I arranged the establishment of the large hospital. In 1697, the first ward was finished, into which 1042 persons were quartered.

In 1724, 1740 persons were already living there. Extending the complex was made possible by the will of Ferdinand Baron von Thavonat, who donated his possession after his death in 1726 to disabled soldiers. The marriage or widow yard, now Thavonathof, was to be finished. Also, the side yards formed by Zwischentrakte, the patient yard (4.), Restaurant economics (5.) and craftsman center (7.) were established.

During 1752 to 1774, further development occurred for the student yard (3.) and the house supervisor yard (6.). The inhabitants had to wear their own uniforms and received individual copper coins, which could be redeemed with the bakers in the complex, butchers, etc. The dissolution of the neighbouring cemetery came finally in 1834 of the 8th and 9th wards, in addition.

On January 28 1783, Emperor Joseph II had visited the poorhouse. He stated the fact that the enormous plant served less the Notlinderung but often people accommodated, which had arrived there under protection or Schlamperei. Professor Dr. Joseph Quarin, who later became director, used a general hospital plan.

On August 16 1784, the opening took place. The hospital was responsible initially only for the attendance of patients; the remaining tasks of the hospitals were separate. To the hospital were attached a bearing house, a Findelhaus, and a lunatic asylum. The Narrenturm was the first special building for the accommodation of mental patients.

Particularly in the 19th century, Vienna General Hospital was the center of the Viennese Medical School, as one of the centers of medical research. Thus Ignaz Semmelweis made his observations of hygiene, and Karl Landsteiner discovered at the AKH the groups of blood types.

On the site of the old AKH, are since removal, the medical institutes of the Campus of the University of Vienna with numerous mental-scientific institutes as well as several catering trade enterprises and smaller enterprises.

The synagogue
The synagogue in the old AKH Vienna was established in 1903 by the architect Max Fleischer as the "praying pavilion" for patients of Jewish faith. The synagogue was heavily devastated during the Third Reich's Kristallnacht in 1938, and further destroyed when converted after the war, in 1953, into a transformer station. In 2005, the remains of the building was restored to become the Marpe Lanefesch Memorial.

The Narrenturm (Fool's Tower)


In the old AKH stands the first building world-wide for the accommodation of mental patients, established in 1784 under Emperor Joseph II by Isidore Canevale; it is today the seat of the pathological-anatomical federal museum of Vienna. The building consisted of a five-part fortress-like circular building with slot-like windows for 200 to 250 mental patients. In its strict geometrical form and austerity, the building is considered as a high point of the revolution classicism. Each cell had strong lattice doors and rings for chaining unrestrained patients. Ten years later, the tower was already completely outdated due to innovations in the therapy for mental patients. From its round form is derived the usual colloquial designation in Vienna, Gugelhupf, meaning lunatic asylums and/or psychiatric hospitals. The notion that the Fool's Tower is a conversion of the idea of the Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham does not apply, since the cells are not controllable from a central observation post.

Already at the oldest model, the Fool's Tower has at the roofridge a lightning rod or a Blitzfänger. Two of its mounting plates in the inner court still exist. Independently of Benjamin Franklin, who invented the lightning rod in 1753, the minister of Primetice, Prokop Diviš, in 1754, built the first world-wide grounded lead in his garden.

Josef II knew well the attempts of Divis, which specifically concerned an assumed health benefit from currents. Whether the lightning conductors were used, for the treatment of the patients, has not been clarified.

New AKH


With time, the Joseph-era buildings of the general hospital became unwieldy, so in 1957, it was decided to establish a new large central hospital. The building of the new AKH was begun in the summer of 1964. At the beginning, the personnel hostels and the university clinics for child medicine were moved. In 1974, the building of the main house was begun. This consists of an outpatient clinic and OI area (approx. 50 OI halls) and two large, 22-floor high bed towers, which accommodate 2,199 beds.

The AKH is connected with its own underground (train) station (U6 Michelbeuern/AKH) to the public transportation network. The Zentralbau with the bed towers was officially opened in 1994, but already used (partly) since 1991. The total construction costs are equivalent, in 2004 values, to approximately 4.5 billion euro, projected as 1 billion Schilling (72.67 million euro originally). The construction costs are carried together by the city of Vienna and the Austrian federation. The cost explosion and an associated bribery affair with the building of the new AKH led to the AKH scandal, the largest Austrian building scandal. Moreover, the Austrian magazine ECO reported that only 60% of the AKH was used, and was thus planned much too large. The unused (however completely equipped) part stands completely empty.

At present, about 9,000 people are employed at the AKH. Of these, approximately 1,600 physicians and 4,500 allied health and nursing workers attend to patients. Annually, nearly 95,000 people are treated as inpatients, and another half-million attend the hospital's 384 outpatient clinics. Over 11,000 students are registered at the Medical University of Vienna.