From 'little Sophie' to the centre for your health

Courage and confidence were definitely two of the main factors, when three health care specialists, each of them having his own practice in Hannover, teamed up in the beginning of the fifties, deciding to found their own hospital. So, on July 1st, 1951, the Sophien-Klinik Hannover opened at Dieterichsstraße right in the middle of Hannover. Established as a general practitioner's hospital, the Sophien-Klinik Hannover has remaind true to its original intention and, meanwhile, has grown to be Hannover's largest private hospital.

Today, the Sophien-Klinik GmbH comprises of two sites: the so-called parent house at the Dieterichsstraße and another house in the north-western Hannover district of Vahrenwald. In addition, Outpatient Surgery and the Centre for Outpatient Physical Therapy are also part of the Sophien-Klinik. More than 50 visiting physicians from almost all medical disciplines provide professional health care for approx. 11,000 patients annually (120 beds available). Despite this development, patients as well as family members still use the term 'Sophie' when referring to our hospital, where they feel to be in good hands and where doctors and nursing staff professionally support and accompany the healing process.

Change as an indicator for progress

Of course, hospital life has changed significantly since the fifties. It is not only that the legal regulations have been constantly changing, but also medical progress and new scientific findings with regard to patient care require prerpetually re-aligning the targets for health care providers and nursing staff of the Sophien-Klinik Hannover. However, even today, everything that was the mark of distinction in the clinic's founding years, is still there: competence, innovation, energetic power combined with a view of human nature with the focus on dignity and community.

On occasion of the 50th birthday of the Sophien-Klinik in 2001, this was also emphasized in the notes of congratulation and by the orations held during the commemorative event. Then undefined Lord Mayor Herbert Schmalstieg as well as the Director of the Niedersächsischen Krankenhausgesellschaft (Federation of Hospitals in Lower Saxony), Helmut Fricke, had words of praise only for the Sophien-Klinik Hannover.