After the statuary health insurance was introduced in 1883 a lot of workers came to Bad Berka to seek a place for rehabilitation. In 1885 the recreational home ‘Schloss Rodberg auf der Harth’ was constructed and opened. Originally there were two buildings: one for treatments and one for sleeping. The founder Petzold worked together with the doctor Ernst Willrich to turn the building into a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1888. They constructed 14 ‘Waldschlafstätten’ which were pavilions outside in the woods where patients could sleep overnight during their treatment. However, 10 years later they were demolished because the new Sophienheilstätte was constructed with big open air halls not far away. 2 years later Schloss Rodberg burned down but was rebuilt immediately.
In 1911 the building which can be seen today was constructed below the original Schloss Rodberg building and served as an additional recreational home with the name Schloss Gutenberg. After the first world war the building was acquired by the LVA Sachsen-Anhalt which accommodated disabled people there. In 1929 the original building above was demolished because it was in a bad shape. Schloss Gutenberg was renamed to Schloss Rodberg and was the only building left on the property. During the second world war it was used as a hospital. After the war it was assigned to the Sophienheilstätte as ‘Heilstätte III’. Later in 1950 it became the center of retraining of the hospital Bad Berka.
In the year 1974 it was turned into a dorm for students of the medical school in Bad Berka. After the school was closed in 1992 the building was empty for a while. It was bought in 1996 and rented to tenants till 2000 when all of them moved out after the building was set under monument protection. Since then it remained unused and became the victim of vandalism. In April 2015 a fire broke out in the building, destroying the main staircase.
Most of the images are from our revisit of this place in April 2022.
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