Chapter 90 - Germany

Abstract

The formation of toxicology as a scientific discipline in Germany originated with basic research in chemistry and medicine at universities on the one hand and in occupational toxicology programs associated with 19th century industrialization. In academia, lectures on toxicology were presented by Georg Augustin Bertele (1767–1818) at the medical faculty in Landshut. Experimental research on toxic gases was performed by Hermann Eulenberg between 1865 and 1876 in Cologne. The state of the art in toxicology at the end of the 19th century was presented by Rudolf Kobert (1854–1918) in his famous textbook on intoxications first published in 1893 and in an extended form from 1902–1906 when he was a professor in Rostock. Equally renowned is the textbook on toxicology published in 1928 by Louis Lewin (1850–1918) a reprint of which appeared in 1992. Physicians employed by chemical companies were instrumental in formulating the discipline of occupational toxicology in Germany. The flourishing of toxicological research around 1900 did not, however, result in the establishment of toxicological institutes at German universities. Rather, toxicology was looked upon as a part of pharmacology, and toxicological research was performed in some of the university institutes of pharmacology which were founded in increasing numbers in the early 20th century. Even today, the state-controlled curricula for students of medicine and pharmacy contain pharmacology and toxicology as one common subject.