Diakonissestiftelsen was founded in 1866 at the initiative of Crown Princess
Louise, consort of the later king
Christian IX. She instigated
Louise Conring to make a study trip to Sweden, where the order had been active for ten years, and to Germany where pastor
Theodor Fliedner had opened the first Deaconess motherhouse in 1836 in
Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth in 1836. A building in
Smallegade near their current site, contained a small hospital and residences for the Deaconess sisters. Their current site was inaugurated in 1876. Their hospital in Smallegade closed in 1880. ==The site today==