["Smoked meat, full of rind, hardly edible"--patient's complaints and doctor's rebuttal in the first German state-run mental sanatory "Rasemühle" between 1903 and 1932].

Around 1900 a psychiatric reform movement propagated the foundation of sanatoriums for the lower middle class in Germany. These sanatoriums were supposed to cure patients suffering from neurasthenia and associated disorders. Many private sanatoriums existed for curing neurasthenia. Visiting them was a luxury beyond most of the patients' means. Therefore, the so called "Volksnervenheilstätten"-movement aimed at providing sanatorium care for free or at very low costs. One of the first sanatoriums that arose from this movement was the "Rasemühle" close to Goettingen. It was founded in 1903. As a governmentally funded institution for the less wealthy the "Rasemühle" constantly moved between legitimation and critique. Areas of conflict included on the one hand the need to operate economically (as requested by the sponsor) and on the other hand the demands of neurasthenic patients for optimal care and cure. Patients' complaints about the sanatorium addressed to the financiers or governmental institutions and the reactions of the sanatorium's director serve as a valuable tool for reconstructing these areas of conflict. An analysis of the complaint files of the "Rasemühle" between 1903 and 1932 reveals that complaints usually included food, accommodation and the doctors' behaviour. Before the First World War the sanatorium's reaction usually aimed at pathologising patients who put forward complaints. Complaining was described as a symptom of the treated disorder. After financiers and insurance companies had reduced their engagement for neurasthenics during the late 1920s financing the sanatorium became more difficult. With the vanishing neurasthenia discourse the "Rasemühle" had to enter the market of private patients to survive. Now the reaction to complaints shifted to understanding. The responsible government agency was asked to invest into the sanatorium to make it competitive on the market. Patients were not seen anymore as unwilling petitioners but as customers whose needs and demands should be fullfilled.