The Benjamin Franklin Hospital in Berlin is being threatened with the loss of its university status. The new Berlin state government, the senate, has announced that the hospital will have to give up its research and medical school and centre its activities on patient care.
By closing down the university facilities, the new Social Democrat and Socialist government hopes to save about €100m (£63m; $86m). The money is badly needed to cover a huge deficit in Berlin's budget.
The politicians say that one university hospital in Berlin is enough and point towards the merger of the West Berlin Virchow Hospital with the East Berlin Charité into a giant hospital a few years ago. The medical faculty of the new Charité belongs to the East Berlin Humboldt University.
The announcement of the closure raised a storm of protest from the 5000 members of the hospital staff and from the Free University of Berlin, which houses the hospital's medical faculty.
The university hospital was opened in 1969 by the city's former mayor Willy Brandt. The hospital's dean, Professor Martin Paul, has pointed out that the man who is closing it down, Mayor Klaus Wowereit, is Brandt's grandson.
Professor Paul and his academic colleagues point out that highly rated medical research and scientists will be lost, as well as grants worth about €25m from outside sources, such as the German research council. Furthermore, several joint ventures and investments from firms will have to be given up.
In the short term the state of Berlin will have additional costs, instead of the expected savings, Professor Paul points out. Grants amounting to about €100m from the federal government for the upkeep of the hospital will have to be paid back, because only university hospitals are entitled to them. Also, about 4000 medical students in Benjamin Franklin have a right to finish their studies.
The politicians commiserate with the hospital but stand by their decision. The Free University and the hospital staff are determined to protest until the decision is reversed by the senate. But there is also fear that the most qualified scientists will try to leave the hospital.
