Beelitz
In the late 19th century when tuberculosis ravaged Europe, Berlin built a modern New Town, an entire settlement for its victims of TB. Developments in medicine meant people were surviving for years with the disease though few were cured. Beelitz was far enough outside the city for comfort but still accessible by train. It was divided into quarters large enough to accommodate an entire community of TB sufferers. Wards, long and high, were connected by grand, communal street-like corridors which were built in parallel blocks to funnel the winds between them. Patients were wheeled daily into these glazed pavilions-cum-wind tunnels. The aim was to literally drive air through the patients ailing bodies. One section of the town, the largest, was devoted to children: operating rooms were tiled blue for boys and pink for girls. In East Germany after the Second World War, Beelitz became a military camp and hospital for the Russian army. The anguish that these buildings accommodated and had witnessed was palpable.