The Beginnings

In the years following World War II there was a sharp rise in the number of alcohol addicts in Austria. Mental and physical concomitant and secondary diseases were treated in psychiatric, neurological and internal departments.

On 2.11.1953 in his capacity as president of the Austrian Society for Mental Hygiene Univ. Prof. Dr. Hans Hoff sent a letter to the Federal Ministry for Social Affairs in which he stated his intention of founding the association «Verein Trinkerheilstätte».
On 9.12.1953 the first meeting of the proponents committee took place. 

In 1954 a draft of the memorandum of association was sent to the Federal Ministry for Social Affairs and approved.

As late as 1956 the request that the costs for detoxification treatments be borne by the Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions was denied on the following grounds:

«Alcoholism is not a disease, it is a weakness of will which can be influenced and eliminated by suitable educational measures and therefore does not require medical treatment.» 

In the same year, an article by H. Hoff and W. Solms with the title «Die Errichtung einer Trinkerheilstätte» was published in the «Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift». The following quote is taken from it:

«The project of a sanatorium plays a special role in deliberations as to how alcoholics can be treated more effectively than in the past. An institution would have to be created with a legal status that would ensure the patients’ social standing suffered no harm as a result of admission and treatment. For these reasons alone, we advocate the strict geographical and organisational separation of psychiatric clinics and sanatoria and nursing homes. Our preference would indeed be for such institutions to have the most neutral names possible. Of course, the clinic would have to be run by psychiatrists, as addiction to drink is a symptom of mental disorders.
The sanatorium should be a place, and perhaps also, a centre of research.»