“It can be deployed to a disaster area within 48 to 72 hours,” reports Timo Seimetz, who is responsible for emergency and disaster relief at the German Red Cross (DRK). “Thanks to its modular design, it can be flexibly adapted to local conditions on site.” Depending on its size, Seimetz says, one or two transport aircraft are needed to bring the hospital to the deployment site.

In an entire exhibition hall (Hall 23), DRK staff explain how the field hospital operates and how it can provide medical care for a population of up to 250,000 people. It features an emergency room, an operating room, a ward, an X-ray unit, a laboratory, an obstetrics unit, and a pharmacy.

As Timo Seimetz goes on to explain, several modules of a German Red Cross (DRK) mobile hospital have been in Gaza for two years now. In Rafah, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been operating a 60-bed field hospital since May 2024.

Rose Ansorge has served there as a doctor on three occasions. “Despite difficult conditions, the field hospital allows us to treat people almost as we would in a permanent clinic,” says the general practitioner. She says she has witnessed immense suffering there, but also a great deal of warmth and kindness from the patients.

But the German Red Cross has also provided assistance with its field hospital in other parts of the world. Among its largest operations were, for example, the devastating earthquakes in Turkey in 1999, in India in 2001, and in Haiti in 2010.

According to Seimetz, it is not yet clear where the modules currently on display in Hanover will be needed in the future. After INTERSCHUTZ, they will be transported back to the DRK logistics center in Luckenwalde, from where they can be dispatched to the next mission as needed.

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