Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe visits the Teddy Bear Surgery at the Charité.

5 June 2014. At last, the time has come again. The doors of the Teddy Bear Hospital at the Berlin Campus Virchow-Clinic have reopened and children can now take their sick and injured stuffed toys to the Charité's Teddy Bear Surgery.

5. June 2014

Photo: Hermann Gröhe at the Teddy Bear Surgery — On 5th June, Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe visited the Teddy Bear Surgery at the Charité. © Copyright: BMG/Gottschalk

Like some 2,500 children so far, Federal Minister Hermann Gröhe also took advantage of the opportunity on 5th June 2014 to accompany the children and their stuffed toys during their visit to the Teddy Bear Surgery.

About the Surgery

Students of human and dental medicine as well as pharmacy and nursing students invite children of pre-school age to visit the teddy bear hospital in an endeavour to take away their fear of doctors, hospitals, medical equipment and medical procedures. Such voluntary student projects exist in almost all medical faculties in Germany. Teddy bear hospitals have been at home for more than ten years now in Germany – in the meantime they exist in 34 out of the 36 medical faculties. The idea originated in Sweden and was so successful that it has spread to many other countries worldwide in the meantime.