In October 2003 an international scientific conference took place in Trzebiechów (Trebschen). Historians of fine arts, scientists representing related science branches and journalists from Belgium, Germany and Poland were invited, and they were presented the forgotten work by Henry van de Velde, the famous Belgian secession artist.

Trzebiechów (Trebschen) is a small village not far from Zielona Góra, and it only takes an hour to drive there from the Polish-German border. The chestnut tree alley leads us straight to the palace. It was owned by princess Maria Alexandrina Reuss. She came from Weimar and she was the daughter of Great Prince Carl August, a connoisseur of fine arts. She had carried out the idea of opening a "physiotherapeutic-dietetic" sanatorium in Trebschen since 1897. Max Schündler an architect from Zwickau, worked on the plan of the sanatorium building in 1902. The sanatorium complex consisted of the main building, the doctor’s house and some other smaller buildings, including the pavilion for walks, room for bed-resting, room for air-baths and even a tennis-court.

The commission to decorate the interiors in the sanatorium was not given to anyone else, but Henry van de Velde (1863-1957), who was a famous Belgian architect at that time.

The princess met van de Velde probably in Weimar, where the artist had just started to live, and under the patronage of the Princess’ young nephew, Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernest, he was conducting seminars for craftsmen. This commission was both a privilege and a challenge, because van de Velde had never before worked for the upper class or decorated any sanatorium interior. Besides, he had to compromise, since the buildings had already been completed and the interiors had been established. It can be assumed that this did not make the whole task easy. Yet, the contract covered something more than only furnishing of the rooms. The elegant style was achieved by numerous details: original stairs, precious brass fixtures or ornaments at the door embrasures.

The doctor’s house was designed both as a flat for doctor Oskar Müller, the main doctor of the sanatorium, and as a place for admitting patients. On the ground floor there were the doctor‘s consulting rooms and offices and the rooms for examinations made with help of electricity and other examining methods, the x-ray room and the doctor’s library. Passing through the richly decorated door, which reminds of one of the doors in the Nietsche archive in Weimar, we go along narrow stairs to a wide room, lighted from above and which has an upper gallery. According to van de Welde’s words, this was to be a place that would be "simple, strong and noble" in character. This is not surprising, as this was the representative habitable part of the sanatorium’s main doctor.

In this corridor, designed with so much dynamics, we find a cosy fireside, a recess bench with a shelf and a characteristic staircase with a gallery from where the doors lead to the private rooms. A connecting building, covered with a roof, leads from the doctor’s house to the sanatorium’s main building.

The three-floor building has rooms for 30 patients, rooms for surgical interventions and rooms for daily sojourn. Behind the representative entrance to the main building, the visitors will come across the van de Velde’s interior which does not fit too well to the previously established interior and the built-in niches. The expressive stair balustrade with its decorative line was made by Hans Scheidenmantel’s company from Weimar, and the secession flower grating on the lift door was produced by the artistic metal-work Otto Bergner company from Bad Berka.

From the central hall at the first floor we enter probably the most beautiful sanatorium’s room. It used to be divided into two parts. In the front there used to be a reading room with a big table, small tables, many chairs and comfortable armchairs. Previously there used to be a metal glassed construction. The second part of the room is connected to the winter garden which is headed for the landscape park. The design of the eating-house, situated in the opposite, was going to be „plain and simple", according to van de Velde’s intention. He designed two big tables for 30 people and simple chairs with wicker seats.

Apart from the daily rooms in the main building, van de Velde designed doors for the patients’ rooms at the first and second floor. The architect Max Schündler informed Princess Reuss in the cost calculation made by the Scheidenmantel company about 48 double doors that had been ordered. The simple and functional decoration of the patients’ rooms was made according to the project of two designers from Dresden Margareth Junge and Gertrud Kleinhempel from the Workshops of German House Utensils.

After 4 years of its activity, the sanatorium was closed down in summer 1908. The change in the directorship of the sanatorium did not help. Doctor Oskar Müller, who was little known, was substituted by a famous medical doctor Brennecke from Dresden. The financial failure of the sanatorium was said to have been caused by the fact that it was difficult to reach this place. It took two hours by carriage to arrive at the sanatorium in Trebschen from the railway station in Sulechów.

Nowadays, there is a nursing home in these well-maintained buildings. Everyone who is interested in this forgotten work of the famous secession Belgian artist Henry van de Velde can visit this place at any time. Even though that we know many letters from Henry van de Velde and Max Schündler to Princess Maria Alexandrina von Reuss, still many questions regarding the history of the sanatorium are left unanswered. Who knows anything about doctor Oskar Müller or doctor Brennecke?

We would be much grateful for any information about Trebschen - Trzebiechów, about Princess von Reuss and Henry van de Velde.