This paper reports on the first 12 months during which a large psychiatric hospital was undergoing reorganization and reform, resulting outwardly in a reduction of the number of occupied beds from 870 to 730, and in an increase in the number of admissions from 2100 to 2800. Despite sociopsychiatric orientation of the reformatory measures, medical and biological steps were taken first. Second in importance were the matters concerning reorganization in the sense of a differentiation between the various treatment groups. This was associated with the parallel development of initial socio-therapeutic approaches.