Campus
Charité Mitte

The origins of Campus Charité Mitte (CCM) date back to 1710, and since then it has been repeatedly rebuilt, extended, partially destroyed and reconstructed. This landmarked ensemble is one of Germany’s oldest hospital facilities.

Surrounded by key political, academic and cultural institutions, the new CCM is all about linking knowledge and continuing to grow as a centre of excellence for healthcare and medical research. The developments will lay the foundations for the future at this campus in the heart of the city, while also retaining a true sense of the site’s history. Among the first steps towards renewing the campus in the period leading up to 2016 were the comprehensive renovations of the Charité Bettenhaus Mitte building, which contains its inpatient wards, and the construction of a new acute care block to accommodate the operating theatres, intensive care medicine and the main emergency department.

The main Charité site took shape around the plague house built in 1710 to the west of Luisenstrasse in Berlin’s Mitte district, making it one of Germany’s oldest hospital facilities. Over the next 300 years the campus underwent fundamental changes, ranging from major extensions and additions to wartime damage and post-war reconstruction. At the end of the nineteenth century, a general plan for the campus expansion was drawn up and implemented at the instigation of the Prussian Ministerial Director Friedrich Althoff. Building on this success story, the historical inner-city Campus Charité Mitte is being steered into the future as Europe’s most modern university hospital and a visible symbol of the ‘Healthcare City Berlin 2030’ programme. The new urban development at Humboldthafen, close to Berlin’s central railway station, supports the hospital’s long-standing mission to meet the medical needs of a growing population and achieve world-class research success.

The driving force behind ‘Healthcare City Berlin 2030’

Its position in the heart of the city has predestined Campus Charité Mitte (CCM) to play a major role in shaping the ‘Healthcare City Berlin 2030’ programme. Charité envisions the campus as a future hub at the heart of an internal and external network. Its location in immediate proximity to noteworthy institutions such as the Humboldt-Universität and the Museum für Naturkunde, as well as many other partners for research and medicine, facilitates a wide range of options for staying connected. This will also be utilised at Campus Charité Mitte in the form of joint institutions. Furthermore, the historical buildings are to be linked intelligently using innovative architectural techniques.

The design by Silvia Gmür Reto Gmür Architekten, landscape architect Maurus Schifferli and architectural historian Christoph Schläppi envisions a basic structure that organises the site and develops its existing three-way division further: a clinical centre in the east, the historic core, and a ‘research cluster’ in the west. The campus vision responds sensitively to the existing buildings, corrects errors implemented in the past and creates inspiring spaces. The volume and height of the clinical centre provide a successful counterpart to the inpatient ward block. Plans for Luisenstrasse call for standalone buildings rising from the south towards the new clinical centre.

The new squares at the entrances on Invalidenstrasse and Luisenstrasse integrate the campus’s unique buildings and open spaces into the urban landscape. The historical centre has been redeveloped by demolishing post-war buildings and the outdoor structures have been restored, highlighting the historical axes and enhancing the spaces. The designs subtly engage with the historical heritage and carefully transform it into a diverse spatial structure.

First-class medicine on a historical campus

Charité stands equally for cutting-edge research and a human-centred approach. These are brought together in the structural vision for the future of Campus Charité Mitte, which adds new research centres and buildings for patient care. The master plan for developing the campus seeks to achieve a balance between tradition and the future. As the driving force behind the ‘healthcare city’, the idea is that Charité will become even more visible in terms of architecture and urban planning.

Charité Bettenhaus Mitte

The 21-storey Charité Bettenhaus Mitte has been a landmark of the hospital since 1982, and its size ensures that it dominates the urban skyline. With its 520 beds, this high-rise ward block has been regarded as one of the most modern clinical buildings in Europe since renovations were completed in 2016. A new two-storey bridge made of glass and steel crosses Luisenstrasse, linking the Bettenhaus building with the historical campus. In close proximity there is a new acute care block containing operating theatres, intensive care medicine and the central emergency department: Charité Notfallzentrum Mitte – Rudolf-Nissen-Haus features 15 ultra-modern operating theatres, 70 intensive care beds and an emergency admissions department, all ensuring that patients receive state-of-the-art healthcare.

Rahel Hirsch Center

Directly adjacent to Charité’s Bettenhaus Mitte is the Rahel Hirsch Center for Translational Medicine: a combined outpatient, translational and innovation centre of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH@Charité) and the Charité. State-of-the-art laboratories, offices, technology platforms, consulting rooms and treatment spaces have been set up in this building, which previously housed Charité’s operating theatres, intensive care unit and emergency department.