The "Hospital zum Heiligen Geist" ("Hospital to the Holy Ghost") is Boppard's oldest social institution. It has two roots, which stretch back to the Middle Ages. One goes back to a donation made by knightly and noble families in Boppard in the mid 13th century, and the other goes back to 1349 when the Boppard "Schöffen" (roughly "lay jurists") families founded the church brotherhood, or "Schöffen" brotherhood with the "Kleines Hospital" ("Little Hospital"). After the French Revolution, both institutions were merged. In 1855, the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo were called to work at the hospital.