© EGT
The present of Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at LMU Munich traces its origins to the founding of the Institute for the History of Medicine on 1 April 1939. This date marks the beginning of the institutional establishment of a discipline within the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich that had already undergone a multifaceted development with changing academic affiliations over a period of around 150 years.
Beginning with the lecture series ‘Historia medica’ by Heinrich Palmatius von Leveling (1742-1798) in the academic year 1777/78, and the lectures by Peter Theodor von Leveling (1767-1822) and his brother Heinrich Maria von Leveling (1766-1828) during the university's Ingolstadt and Landshut period, the subject was taught in the following centuries by such renowned figures as Johann Andreas Röschlaub (1786-1835), Josef Reubel (1779-1852), Georg Ludwig Ditterich (1805-1873), Emil Harleß (1820-1862), Heinrich von Ranke (1830-1909), and Martin Müller (1878-1960), who, as an associate professor, was the first chair holder to be entrusted with the management of the new institute.
The long-standing efforts to provide teaching and research in the history of medicine with an independent structural framework were brought to a successful conclusion by a donation of 30,000 Reichsmarks from the publishers of the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift (Munich Medical Weekly), not least thanks to the support of Friedrich von Müller (1858-1941). For this purpose, the university established the so-called Brakl House at Lessingstr. 2, designed by the famous architect Emanuel von Seidl (1856-1919), which had already been acquired in 1930 through donations from Dr Sophie Nordhoff-Jung, a physician who had emigrated to the USA. The funds were transferred to the university via a foundation established by Nordhoff-Jung in the 1920s, whose stated aim was ‘to maintain and promote German science as the highest cultural asset.’
Martin Müller's successors as chair holders were Werner Leibbrand (1896–1974), Gernot Rath (1919–1967), Werner Leibbrand (after Rath's untimely death), Heinz Goerke (1917–2014) and Paul U. Unschuld (born 1943). From the end of 2006 to 2010, the institute was headed on an interim basis by Wolfgang G. Locher (born 1951). On 1 October 2010, Georg Marckmann (born 1966) was appointed director of the institute.
By resolution of the University Council on 26 November 2010, the Institute for the History of Medicine was renamed the Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine in line with its expanded range of responsibilities.
Historical details about the institute and detailed biographies of the chair holders:
Paul U. Unschuld (Hrsg.): 50 Jahre Institut für Geschichte der Medizin der Universität München, München 1989.
(Paul U. Unschuld (ed.): 50 Years of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Munich, Munich, 1989)