A sign informs about the former "forest recreation" (lost place) that was located in this small forest. When tuberculosis spread rapidly in Bocholt in 1911, a welfare center was set up to treat this respiratory disease. Initially, recovery cures were offered for weak and sick schoolchildren in a special part of the Bocholt hospital. This provided them with a hearty diet, but not the necessary time in the fresh air.
For this reason, a forest recreation center was set up at this location in 1913.🌲 It comprised several buildings.🏠🏠 The initiator and organizer of this facility was the then mayor of the city of Bocholt, Dr. Johannes Alff. This street (between Hemdener Weg and Finkenberg) was named after him. The sick children were cared for by Clemens sisters* and volunteers. From 1914, treatments (rehabilitation) for adults were also offered. At the request of these sisters and for the mental well-being of the patients, a chapel was added around 1920.⛪
When the NSDAP came to power in 1939, the Clemens sisters were no longer wanted and the so-called "brown sisters" of the NSV (National Socialist People's Welfare) took over the care of the facility. The chapel did not fit in ideologically either and was moved to Alte Aaltener Straße 3 in the Hemden district on May 2, 1939. It is still located there today.
Due to the war, the operation of the forest recreation center continued to decline, as did the number of tuberculosis cases. When the hospital was badly damaged in an air raid, the sick and operations were moved to the forest recreation building.🏥
After that, the buildings served as a transit camp for local displaced persons and refugees until 1960, who were allocated housing from there.
In June 1964, Caritas took over the buildings and used them until 1974 as a kindergarten, school and workshop for mentally handicapped children (today located on Horststrasse). After that, the buildings were demolished by the city of Bocholt. Only a small remnant of a wall and a spacious basement bunker from the Second World War still remind us of this sanatorium.
Clemens Sisters*: Catholic women's order, founded in Münster in 1808, were all trained nurses; they had existed in Bocholt since 1844