GFO-Klostergarten

"I want them to have life and to have it abundantly" Jn. 10.10

The idea for the GFO site Klostergarten Bornheim-Merten is: People who live in the different facilities of the Klostergarten should come together in various forms and enrich their lives with each other - similar to a bowl that fills up and feeds other bowls from this abundance.

This togetherness includes encounters, mutual support, the shared experience of the annual cycle, and the celebration of festivals. The everyday life of all the facilities thus becomes even more lively and opens up worlds of life.

The people in the Klostergarten meet each other with respect and understanding for the life situation of their counterpart. Some biographies of younger and older people show similarities, and deeper bonds are formed across generations and life situations.

The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of Olpe (GFO) celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2013. They follow in the footsteps of the order's founder Maria Theresia Bonzel, who was beatified in 2013. The sisters of the order have always been committed to serving people and have been present in Bornheim for more than 130 years.

Thanks to a donation from the Freifräulein Josephine von Boeselager, the Sisters of the Order of Olpe were able to found the "Holy Family Convent" in Bornheim-Merten in 1885, where they took on various tasks in the areas of child, youth and elderly care.

After the Second World War, the hospital "Zur Heiligen Familie" was founded, which had to reorient itself frequently in the course of time. It was a branch of the Bonn University Hospitals, a lung clinic for tuberculosis patients and a rehabilitation hospital for metabolic and urinary stone diseases.

For 121 years, the Sisters of the Olper Franziskanerinnen were active in Bornheim-Merten. Today, the non-profit Gesellschaft der Franziskanerinnen zu Olpe mbH (GFO) continues Maria Theresia Bonzel's legacy.

In November 2014, the hospital was closed. Geriatrics moved into a new building at the GFO Klinik Brühl. GFO continues to stand for the Franciscan values of helping people in need and standing up for human dignity. The building in Bornheim therefore continues in this spirit and stands out as a place of lively coexistence for all generations.