The Mausoleum for Robert Koch

Mausoleum for Robert Koch. Source: RKI

Robert Koch died during a stay at a sanatorium in Baden-Baden on 27 Mai 1910. The urn containing his ashes was laid to rest in a specially constructed mausoleum at his institute on 4 December 1910.

Georg Gaffky, then director of the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases, had written to the minister for "clerical, educational and medical matters" on June 4th 1910 that he wished to keep Koch’s ashes right there – since the institute had once been built for Robert Koch himself and been shaped by the researcher’s ideas.

Opposite the auditorium, a large room was selected as his tomb and adorned with marble in various colours. In the west wall there is a white marble ledger with the relief portrait of Robert Koch which was fashioned by the Berlin sculptor Walter Schmarje. Below this, the bronze urn with his ashes rests in a niche sealed with a white marble slab. The eastside of the Mausoleum bears Robert Koch’s work and achievements. The mausoleum was financed by the staff of the institute, Robert Koch’s colleagues and friends.

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