Skodsborg Badesanatorium: An Adventist Health Resort on the Fringe of Danish Public Healthcare 1898–1992.

This article examines the history and ideological positioning of Skodsborg Badesanatorium, a private Danish health resort owned by the Seventh-day Adventists that operated from 1898 to 1992. Founded on Adventist health principles emphasizing natural therapies and abstinence from stimulants, the sanatorium navigated a complex relationship between alternative and orthodox medicine while increasingly cooperating with Denmark’s expanding public healthcare system. Key turning points include the 1949 authorization of its physiotherapy course, the 1967 integration with public hospital rehabilitation programs, and a 1980s attempt to revive its preventive health focus amid financial challenges. The sanatorium’s experience highlights the tensions and adaptations of a religiously based private institution within a predominantly secular, publicly funded healthcare system, contributing to the understudied history of private healthcare in Denmark.