Brauner Hirsch - WW II - Ilsenburg, Germany - Field Hospitals on Waymarking.com

A Sign at the wall tells more about the colorful history of this building. It was built in 1505 as the brewery for the local monastery, became a pub when the Reformation caused the closure of the monastery, and was (in the 17th and 18th century) temporarily used a a court house and as a post office.

Then, there is the note - without a date - that during World War II it was used as a field hospital.

während des zweiten Weltkrieges
Nutzung as Lazarett

During World War Two
used as a field hospital

There is no specific date and the sign does not say who used the place. As far as we researched the town's history, there are two posibilities:

1. Ilsenburg, tugged in the Harz Mountains was spared from the bombing raids that hit neighboring towns in 1944 and 1945. We know that a lot of civilians from nearby towns fled to the relative safety of this mountain village and it is entirely possible that people wounded in the bombings were evacuated to Ilsenburg as well.

2. Between April 17 and April 20, 1945, the US Army, 12th army, 1st division sustained serious losses taking the heavily guarded Mount Brocken and liberating Mittelbau-Dora, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. On April 20, the the US Army took Ilsenburg and possibly used the building to take care of their wounded soldiers.