
Campus Benjamin
Franklin
Campus Benjamin Franklin (CBF) once revolutionised hospital architecture. Charité is now developing visionary concepts for the Life Science Campus of the future with a focus on maintaining health. The structural transformation underlines the pioneering role of the campus today.
Opened in 1968, Steglitz Hospital was considered a model clinic at the time. According to the motto “Everything under one roof”, it was the first German university hospital to combine healthcare, research and teaching in one building: a role model for the whole of Europe.
Today, CBF is one of the world’s most important hospital buildings in the post-war period. As an overall system, it has been a registered and protected historic monument since 2012. The campus received its current name in 1994. Its namesake is former American President Benjamin Franklin. In doing so, Charité recognises the financial and ideational support of the USA in its creation.

Development of Campus Benjamin Franklin
Campus Charité Mitte
Campus Virchow-Klinikum
Campus Berlin Buch
Campus Benjamin Franklin
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Rahel Hirsch Center for Translational Medicine
BMM
Research Center at Hessische Strasse
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinic
Friedrich Busch Building
Aschheim Zondek Building
IT DC I
BHH
BHH
Diagnostic Center
North entrance
CCO
Alexanderufer
DHZC
BeCAT
Si-M
Infrastructure South
Pharmaceutical Center
Pharmaceutical Center
Biobank
NCT
Eckernförder Platz
Eckernförder Platz
Südschiene 1st construction phase
Südschiene 2nd construction phase
Südschiene 3rd construction phase
Old car park
Old car park
Nordschiene 1st construction phase
Nordschiene 2nd construction phase
Teaching Forum
Southern district
Southern district
Southern district
Southern district
OR level (5th floor)
SPS I (3rd floor – 6th floor)
SPS II (3rd floor – 6th floor)
SPS III (4th and 6th floor)
CCK Süd
HuLa
HuLa
IT DC II
Life Science Campus
Total refurbishment
Fraunhofer Institute of Allergology
New hospital building 1st construction phase
New hospital building 2nd construction phase
Research Institutes for Experimental Medicine
Käthe Beutler Building
Iconic hospital moving forward
Campus Benjamin Franklin has a forward-looking approach in its DNA. Now it is being prepared to provide the medical care of the future. The translation-oriented campus will face the range of challenges posed by a healthcare system of the future with an even more intensive link between research and healthcare.
As a modern life science campus, CBF will focus on maintaining health. Together with the Freie Universität Berlin, its scientific teams are researching which processes in the body ensure that people stay healthy or recover quickly. The scientific focus here is on “early recognition, successful healing, increased resilience”. The clear aim is to find new prevention and therapy approaches and to actively prevent the outbreak.
This innovative approach goes beyond the boundaries of conventional disciplines and requires new concepts of interdisciplinary and inter-organisational cooperation. A life science campus is to be created together with the Freie Universität Berlin and other non-university partners. Special outpatient clinics and research sites are central to this translational project.
Charité is conducting a multi-stage competitive dialogue process in 2021 for the development of the overall urban development concept on the campus. The Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, the Senate Chancellery for Science and Research, the relevant district offices and the state authorities responsible for the preservation of regional monuments are closely involved.

- Current usable area
- 106,300 m²
- Master planning period
- 2021–2050
- Estimated required investment
- EUR 1.33 billion
Setting the standard
Charité wants to develop Campus Benjamin Franklin as a vision for the New Charité and thus, as a university hospital, set an example for the numerous challenges of the future. Conceptual approaches are being developed for this, combining urban planning, open space planning, ecological, architectural and functional qualities in an outstanding manner. Pioneering architectural approaches are intended to reflect Charité’s leading international level of research and therapy. At the same time, there is a constructive conflict with the historical heritage – which is of great importance in terms of archtectural culture.
In addition to the main building, the development of the structural vision for the future must also take into account the two secondary locations, the research facility for experimental medicine and the institute building for hygiene, microbiology and virology. The institute building with its organic forms has recently become an historic monument on the Berlin monument list. The aim is to make it fit for the future by means of gentle refurbishment.
Factors such as functionality, sustainability, preservation of monuments and cost-effectiveness define the conflicting field of challenges for a university hospital of the future. The vision for CBF aims to maintain the international role model character of the time of its opening.