Nordach Clinic

The Nordach Clinic, or Nordach Sanatorium, was a clinic for the treatment of advanced tuberculosis. It was established in the late 19th century by Dr. Otto Walther in Nordach in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Some of Dr. Walther's uncustomary treatments included "overfeeding" (patients were given three daily plentiful feedings of milk, cheese, meat, sweets, starches, and fruits), the complete abstinence from any drugs (save morphine for the critically ill), and plentiful rest. The rooms of the clinic (located at 1500 ft. above sea level) had an abundance of open windows to expose patients to the putative positive effects of winds.

The Nordach Clinic was small, housing a maximum of fifty patients, and very expensive. News of the successes of Nordach soon spread and helped give rise to the sanatorium business in nearby Switzerland, a country whose landscape was much more suited to the high altitude and fresh wind regime stressed by Nordach. The Nordach experiment also gave rise to several "mini Nordachs", most notably Nordach-in-Mendip and Nordach-in-Wales.

Nordach thrived as a sanatorium for people with tuberculosis through the early 1930s. However, as a Jew, Otto Walther came under increased scrutiny by the National Socialist (Nazi) Party after it came to power in Germany in 1933 and the clinic was eventually forced to close.

Sources

• Dormandy, Thomas. The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis. New York: New York University Press, 1999.

• Gibson, J.A. The Nordach Treatment. London: 1901.

• De Guerville, A.B. La lutte contre le tuberculose. Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1904 (translated as The Crusade against Phthisis. London: Hugh Rees, 1904; de Guerville recounts the experiences of his own successful treatment at Nordach in 1900).