Donation of the company founder: the Robert Bosch Hospital
On April 28, 1940, Robert Bosch fulfilled a long-held dream. The grand opening ceremony was held for the homeopathic hospital he had sponsored in Stuttgart.
Robert Bosch was already familiar with naturopathic methods through his parental home. The encounter with the zoologist and physician Gustav Jäger at the Technical University of Stuttgart strengthened Robert Bosch's inclination towards natural healing, especially homeopathic methods.
To support these, Robert Bosch founded the “Stuttgarter Homöopathische Krankenhaus GmbH” in 1915, together with homeopathic associations. In total, he donated about three million Marks for the establishment of a hospital, whose construction, however, was prevented by the First World War.
Marking his 75th birthday
Robert Bosch took his 75th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his company in 1936 as an opportunity to found a hospital after the first attempt in 1915 had failed. In the same year, he acquired a suitable plot of land at the Pragsattel in Stuttgart, and construction began as early as May 1937. In April 1940, the first patients from a temporary hospital in Stuttgart's Marienstraße could be transferred to the Robert Bosch Hospital.
At the solemn opening on April 28, 1940, Robert Bosch once again referred to the goals and tasks of the hospital: On the one hand, homeopathic healing methods were to be developed to their full potential there, and on the other hand, the medical management was not to lose sight of other promising healing methods of conventional medicine.
Offering medical services
The hospital had 360 beds divided between two wards devoted to internal medicine, plus one surgical, one gynecological, and one obstetrics ward. On the personal initiative of Robert Bosch, nurses from a religious order in Herrenberg were appointed to care for the patients in the RBK. Over the decades, they shaped the way nursing was done in the RBK, where they were not only responsible for looking after patients, but also for managing the nursing school, taking care of all household matters, including the kitchens, and administrative tasks.
After more than two decades, the lack of space and a desperate need for modernization called for the construction of new premises. In 1965, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, which was by now responsible for the hospital, commissioned the building of a new hospital. After construction work began in 1969, the new Robert Bosch Hospital, situated above the old building, was opened in March 1973.
Opening the new house
In the new hospital, the focus remained on internal medicine. However, there were major changes in other areas. Clinical homeopathy had not achieved the scientifically proven results expected and was now replaced with mainstream medicine. The new RBK quickly went from strength to strength. In 1978, the RBK became a teaching hospital for the University of Tübingen. After the first heart operation at the RBK in 1984, heart surgery was developed into a major specialty of the hospital.
Further milestones in the hospital’s development include the establishment of the clinic for geriatric rehabilitation in 1998, the opening of an emergency center in 2007 and an outpatient operating center in 2008, and the forming of a merger with two other hospitals in 2006.
The Bosch Health Campus was founded in March 2022. It brings together all the institutions and funding activities of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in the field of health.
The hospital today
With around 1.040 beds, RBK is not only one of the biggest hospitals in the region, but also one of the best equipped. Although state-of-the-art technology is indispensable for many successful treatments, the top priority is the patients themselves – just as Robert Bosch would have wanted it. His integrated approach has become an intrinsic part of everyday life at RBK.
Author: Angelika Merkle