Sanatorium - Dr. Groedel

Isidor Maximilian Groedel was born in Friedberg on May 23, 1850. After attending grammar school in Darmstadt, he studied at the state university in Gieäen and became a member of the Alemannia fraternity. During the 1870/71 war, he did medical service in the auxiliary hospital in his home town of Bad Nauheim. After studying medicine, his career took him to Würzburg as a military doctor and to Vienna for further training before he opened his own practice in Bad Nauheim in 1875. In 1887/1888 he acquired the property at Terrassenstra<e 2. In 1902 his son Theo joined the medical practice as " Groedel II ". In 1904, son Franz completed the practice team as „Groedel III“. In 1908, Isidor Maximilian Groedel had Wilhelm Jost, the leading local architect, build a large, modern sanatorium next to his own exceptionally beautiful villa at Terrassenstrasse 2. In 1912, he was appointed personal physician to Empress Augusta Victoria, who came to Bad Nauheim for a cure in 1912. In 1920, Professor Dr. med. Isidor Groedel was made an honorary citizen of the town of Bad Nauheim. His son Franz Groedel took over the clinic in 1921. His son Theo Groedel was killed in action in France in 1915. In his memory, Isidor Maximilian Groedel established a foundation for social buildings. Groedel's son Franz Groedel had also been in charge of the Department of Rehabilitation at the Hospital zum heiligen Geist in Frankfurt since 1909 and habilitated at the University of Frankfurt in 1920, where he was appointed associate professor in 1926. Supported by a donation from the widow of a former patient, Groedel founded the Kerckhoff Institute in Bad Nauheim in 1931, where he was appointed director for life. Franz Groedel emigrated in 1933: he never returned to Germany from a lecture tour in the USA.