Under the motto "One Day - One Place - Three Open Doors", the Adventist retirement home Haus Wittelsbach, in Bad Aibling, celebrated both its 70th anniversary and the completion of five years of renovation and extension work on September 16 and 17. In his greeting, director Dr. Thomas spoke of the "flagship and jewel for the town". A weekend with a festive service, ceremony and open day attracted many visitors to the grounds of the senior citizens' home, which is run by the Advent Welfare Work (social work branch of the Seventh-day Adventist Church).
Numerous guests from all over Germany were invited to spend an entire weekend celebrating the 70th anniversary of the senior citizens' home, Haus Wittelsbach, and the completion of a five-year renovation phase. The church hall of the Adventist congregation, located on the premises, was filled to capacity on Saturday afternoon for the anniversary service. Many other activities took place until late Sunday evening.
History
Haus Wittelsbach, in Bad Aibling, has borne its name for over 150 years. This goes back to a "gentleman's agreement" between the old and the new user, when the building was sold in 1920, says home director Andreas Heuck in his historical review. In 1873, the entrepreneur Josef Pentenrieder had named the completed building "Chur-Haus-Wittelsbach" in honour of the Bavarian royal family. Later, the German Adventist Association for Health Care (DVG) acquired the house. This association had already established two health centres in the north with a sanatorium in Friedensau, near Magdeburg, and a hospital in Berlin. Until 1922, Haus Wittelsbach served as a spa and bathing facility. This was followed by a school for lay missionaries and a training centre for pastors until 1925. After that, until 1941, the focus was once again on the spa and baths. During the war years, until 1945, the house served as a military hospital. From 1945 to 1946, it was in the hands of the American occupying forces. After that, it was confiscated and used as a state refugee camp until 1952.
As there were great shortages during these years, the building was returned to the DVG increasingly neglected and largely unusable. After extensive renovation work in 1952 and 1953, the building was reopened on 3 October with a mixture of old people's home operations and so-called "Kurheim" in the main building. The health resort continued to operate until 1960, when the entire Wittelsbach House became a retirement home in 1961.
Extensive structural changes
"Renovation is a tradition" was how one of the many speakers described the extensive structural changes in the Wittelsbach House. At the beginning of the 1960s, the house no longer met the new legal requirements. Corridors were too narrow, rooms too small, lifts were missing. House C was built and inaugurated in 1965. The original House D, the "old barracks", gave way to a new building in 1966, which has since served as the Adventist church building. In 2018, it was again extensively renovated. In 1969, a new middle building, House M, was added. This gave the house a modern central kitchen, a bright dining hall and a total of 180 places to live. In 1982, House M was extended to include House A. In 1987, House B was added and, in 1992, a new House D was built. The 93-year-old former director of the home, Helmut Haubeil (1984-1994), gave an impressive account of this period. At times, the capacity of the home in those years was 200 places.
At the festive service to mark the completion of the last construction phase, many of those involved in the building process had their say and shared their experiences. Pastor Werner Dullinger, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southern Germany and co-partner of the "AWW Haus Wittelsbach Senioren- und Pflegeheim Co.", reported on the first correspondence regarding the last new construction and conversion process, which had already taken place in November 2013.
The original project volume was of 12 million euros, which increased to around 20 million euros due to the Coronavirus crisis, the Ukraine war, and unforeseen and necessary planning changes. In 2018, the go-ahead was given for the first construction phase.
Architect Thomas Otte from Bielefeld spoke of a "beautiful house" in his report. The first design presentation took place in 2016. The aim was to "create a building ensemble as a coherent unit". During the construction phase, there were naturally many changes and adjustments. However, he particularly praised the spirit of cooperation, which he had greatly appreciated. Today, Haus Wittelsbach houses 36 high-quality flats for assisted living and 118 residential places for inpatient care, as well as staff flats.
"One day - One place - Three doors"
This motto of the celebration weekend reflects the campus concept of the senior citizens' home, Haus Wittelsbach. In addition to the retirement home, a community centre and a children's house have been built in recent years. Volkmar Proschwitz, executive chairman of the Advent-Wohlfahrtswerk e.V. (AWW) and main shareholder of Haus Wittelsbach, therefore, promoted the campus idea and cordially invited visitors to enter the open doors this weekend and take advantage of the numerous offers. These included insights into everyday life at the home with guided tours of the nursing area, information on the subject of nursing and assisted living, a tour of the new premises, and gymnastics for senior citizens. The kitchen of the Wittelsbach House took care of the physical well-being with lunch and a cake buffet.
A rich culinary offer from the kitchen accompanied the entire weekend. With artfully prepared cannapés, vegan dips, light and hearty dishes, there was something for every visitor. Again and again, the kitchen was praised during the festivities. During the entire construction phase, the kitchen "always provided everyone with good and plentiful food".
Values created
In the many words of thanks during this weekend, the spiritual orientation of the retirement home was referred to again and again. Many Bible texts were quoted and the Christian values behind them were emphasised. Pastor Werner Dullinger took this year's annual church motto from the Hagar story ("You are a God who sees me", Genesis 16:13) as an opportunity to point out that God sees and accompanies this home and its people. He thanked God for the guidance and accompaniment and especially for the protection during the long construction phase. No one had come to harm. Other speakers also expressed gratitude to the patient residents who had endured noise and inconvenience for a long time. She had always experienced "happy and satisfied residents", said Frauke Weiß. General contractor Huber encouraged with the words: "Keep this harmonious togetherness and action!"
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