Johanna Sänger
The medical history exhibition at the Lostau Lung Clinic is much more than just a collection of old equipment. Johanna Sänger has single-handedly built up the exhibition over the years with great personal dedication—without any financial support. She collected historical artifacts, organized the exhibition spaces, and created an impressive collection chronicling the clinic’s history from many individual objects. The focus is not on the devices themselves, but on the stories behind them—and the development of the Lostau Lung Clinic over more than a century. In this interview, she tells us more about it.
What can be seen in the exhibition?
The exhibition centers on historical medical devices from everyday hospital life. However, they tell not so much their own technological history as the history of the pulmonary clinic itself.
The clinic was founded in 1902 as a tuberculosis sanatorium for men. Over the decades, it was expanded several times; the last major construction phase took place around the year 2000.
The exhibits date back to around 1910. On display, for example, are early pneumothorax devices. Many objects are accompanied by explanatory notes and placed in their historical context.
Photo: Johanna Sänger. Photographer: Sarah Kossmann/UMMD
How long has the exhibition been around, and how did it come about?
I began putting together the exhibition in 2010. Back then, I started collecting exhibits and arranging for suitable spaces. The exhibition has existed in its current form since 2015.
How did your volunteer work come about?
I have a very close connection to the pulmonary clinic; I worked there for over 50 years in the medical library. That library no longer exists; its collection is now part of the institution’s history.
When I retired, I began to focus more intensively on the idea of an exhibition. I looked for spaces, collected historical equipment, and began to bring the clinic’s history to life. I received support from craftsmen and custodians, who helped me transport the often heavy exhibits.
Who is the exhibition primarily aimed at?
The exhibition is primarily aimed at nursing students and people with a professional interest in the field. It is deliberately specialized and comprises three exhibition rooms.
Do you have a favorite piece in the exhibition?
I don’t have a single favorite piece—the overall concept is what’s close to my heart.
But I also particularly appreciate the small, curious details that bring the exhibition to life. These include, for example, a letter from a chief physician from the 1950s in which he asks a restaurant owner to serve less beer, as patients were regularly returning to the hospital under the influence of alcohol.
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What are your hopes for the exhibition?
I hope that visitors will get a sense of what life was really like at the sanatorium back then.
Until the late 1950s, the clinic was exclusively a pulmonary sanatorium. Later, the clinical picture changed significantly, in part due to the emergence of cancer. This development continues to shape the history of the institution to this day.
What will happen to the exhibition in the future?
I will soon be stepping down from my volunteer role and retiring for the second time, so to speak. However, the exhibition will remain open. In the future, two clinic staff members will take over the guided tours.
Admission to the exhibition is free; visits are only possible after prior registration at the clinic’s front desk.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Johanna Sänger for the interview and for her extraordinary dedication to keeping the history of the Lostau Lung Clinic alive.