Charité Berlin

Originally, the clinic was founded in 1710 to forestall the threat of a plague epidemic. But the plague never came to Berlin and the clinic could be used to treat the poor and illegitimate mothers. The campus with the highly visible high-rise building, which today is very central in Berlin, was still outside the city walls at that time. 

The Charité then transformed into a military hospital for the Prussian army (to train military doctors) and quickly became one of the largest institutions of its kind.

As a "military academy," it provided free medical studies for indigent students, enabling many students to receive an education, some becoming pioneers in medicine (e.g., Rudolf Virchow or Emil von Behring). Due to the excellent reputation of the Charité, between 1828 and 1927 the institutes of the municipal clinic gradually moved into the Charité, and then after the Second World War the Charité became a university clinic altogether. 

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the merger with the Rudolf Virchow Clinic and the Benjamin Franklin University Hospital of the F.U. Berlin, the Charité became the largest university hospital in Europe.