Hofheim Asylum

Known alternately as Grossherzogliches hessisches Landeshospital, Hohes Landeshospital and Philippshospital, Hofheim asylum was founded in 1535 by the Archduke of Hessen. At the start of the seventeenth century, approximately 100 people were cared for in the hospital, but numbers fell dramatically during and after the Thirty Years War. A new therapeutic regime was implemented at Hofheim during the first half of the nineteenth century, and in 1860 it became exclusively devoted to the care of the insane. By 1880 it housed 400 patients. Most of its buildings cluster around its sixteenth-century chapel, having been erected at various times. Major extensions took place at around 1850, and in 1875 a satellite agricultural colony was created in the nearby village of Crumstadt. Today the story of the hospital’s past is told at the Museum des Philippshospital at the Walter Picard clinic for psychiatry und psychotherapy in Riedstadt.