Early years: 1910–1933 The roots of the DGP go back to the
Vereinigung der Lungenheilanstaltsärzte ("Association of Tuberculosis
Sanatorium Physicians") founded by, among others, Ludolph Brauer (1865–1951) in 1910. In 1920 it formed a working alliance with the
Deutsche Gesellschaft der Tuberkuloseärzte ("German Society of Tuberculosis Physicians"), and in 1925 the two organizations merged to form the
Deutsche Tuberkulose-Gesellschaft (DTG – "German Tuberculosis Society"). At the beginning of the twentieth century tuberculosis was the second most common cause of death in Germany. Since the nineteenth century the disease had been a regular topic in
medical diagnostics and
therapy. Factors such as the publicity given to tuberculosis at congresses of the German Society of
Internal Medicine (DGIM), the discovery of the
bacillus that caused tuberculosis (
Mycobacterium tuberculosis) by
Robert Koch in 1882, the popularization of the sanatorium movement in Germany by Peter Dettweiler from 1892 onwards and the foundation of the predecessor of the DZK (1895) were milestones in the fight against the disease. The key principle was not so much the promotion of specialized research activities as an interdisciplinary approach to "gather together the knowledge of tuberculosis scattered and hidden in all the different disciplines". The official celebration of the founding of the DTG took place in
Danzig in 1925 on the occasion of a joint meeting of the coalition of the tuberculosis sanatorium physicians and the tuberculosis
public health specialists under the chairmanship of Otto Ziegler (1879–1931), medical director of the Heidehaus Sanatorium. The DPG explicitly made a point of working not only with physicians, but also with "representatives of the
medical sciences (in particular universities)". It hoped that greater cooperation at both the medical level – a "unanimous collaboration between care institutions, sanatoria and clinics" – and at the level of political parties and organizations would send a clear message to the authorities and the general public. It also emphasized the significance of
phthisiology, the forerunner of
pneumology, as a separate medical speciality. Among the founders of the DTG were renowned tuberculosis specialists such as Ludolph Brauer, Otto Ziegler, Franz Redeker, Johannes Ritter, Oskar Pischinger and Ernst von Romberg and
surgeons such as
Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Initially, activities focused on DTG meetings, the detailed minutes ("proceedings") of which appeared in
Beiträge zur Klinik der Tuberkulose ("Contributions to the Clinic for Tuberculosis") published by Ludolph Brauer.
Nazi era: 1933–1945 As managing director from 1925 to 1945, Julius E. Kayser-Petersen (1886–1954) not only played a central role in the DTG, but as secretary-general of the
Reichs-Tuberkulose-Ausschuss ("National Committee on Tuberculosis") and other key positions influenced the tuberculosis policy of the
Nazi regime. Under Kayser-Petersen's leadership, membership of the DTG rose rapidly from 379 in 1925 to more than 1,000 in 1941. The DTG's main activity was organizing the congresses, at least up to 1941, when they were suspended due to the war. Conference topics in this period included the inheritability of tuberculosis (TB), tuberculosis sufferers' "suitability for work and marriage" and the possibility of giving them a special status ("compulsory detention"). The dangers of
smoking, which
Fritz Lickint (1898–1960) convincingly proved in case studies in the 1920s, and the
anti-tobacco campaign of Nazi Germany, culminated in the recommendation of a complete
ban on smoking in all tuberculosis sanatoria and clinics in 1939. During the Nazi era, TB was no longer seen as a disease of the poor; it was suddenly considered a sign of a person's "
asocial" nature. Nazi politicians had proclaimed that it was every German citizen's "duty to be healthy", and being ill became tantamount a "dereliction of duty" and a "failure". TB sufferers who were regarded as being "incurable" and "
recalcitrant" were
stigmatised as being "asocial bacillus spreaders" who had to be dealt with using "compulsory measures". The
Nazi ideology saw them as being worthless to the "Aryan German
people's community"; they were socially neglected, sometimes systematically starved and even singled out to be murdered in euthanasia centres and
concentration camps. Doctors (among them GRS members) took part. In 2018, the GRS published a book about the role of the GRS during the Nazi era. They also published an abridged version in English.
Postwar period: since 1947 The DTG was dissolved in 1945, and congresses resumed only in 1947 after the Society was re-established under the chairmanship of Franz Ickert (1883–1954). Renewed rampant tuberculosis dominated the work of the DTG in the
postwar period. Despite different approaches, the
prevalence of the disease followed a similar pattern in both German states. Whereas the
German Democratic Republic (GDR) sought to combat tuberculosis through
statewide centralized preventive measures (
BCG vaccination and
serial X-ray screening), the
Federal Republic of Germany achieved dramatic results with the early use of new tuberculosis
antibiotics. As tuberculosis rates fell in both German states in the 1950s, sanatoria were gradually replaced by special chest hospitals that focused on diseases such as
lung cancer,
asthma,
chronic bronchitis and
emphysema (COPD),
interstitial lung disease and general environmental and occupational lung diseases. This evolution in developments is reflected in changes in the names of the two scientific respiratory societies in East and West Germany. Initially, the names contained only the term tuberculosis; lung disease was added in the early 1960s, and finally the terms "
respiratory diseases and tuberculosis" (1980 West) and "bronchopulmonary diseases and tuberculosis" (1976 East), respectively.
Scientific respiratory societies in the GDR and the FRG With the founding of the
Wissenschaftliche Tuberkulose-Gesellschaft in der Deutsche Demokratische Republik ("Scientific Tuberculosis Society in the German Democratic Republic") in 1957, the DTG split into an East German and a West German organization, which were reunited in 1991. Although external factors such as standards of health care and opportunities for professional exchanges dictated different development paths, there were also parallels, e.g. the wider focus on other lung diseases (
pneumonia and
pulmonary hypertension) and new techniques in pulmonary function diagnostics and
endoscopy, improvements in graduate training for specialists (basic training in internal medicine, followed by training in respiratory medicine) and the introduction of specialist working groups and the development of guidelines and recommendations.
Changes after 1990 The DGP integrated medical advances in pulmonary function diagnostics,
bronchoscopy,
oxygen long-term therapy and
computer tomography into its work, as did other forums such as the
Gesellschaft für Lungen- und Atemwegsforschung ("Society for Lung and
Airway Research"). From the mid-1970s the DGP's activities stagnated, as reflected in the drop in membership (lowest level 1984: 900). This changed only in the mid-1990s, following the merger of the two German societies to form the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pneumologie (DGP, "German Respiratory Society") in 1991 and efforts initiated by a group of young pneumologists to reform the organization and structure of the DGP in 1992. Reforms included the introduction of scientific sections, the appointment of a congress president, the restructuring of the annual congress with plenary sessions, symposiums, hot-topic sessions and workshops and participation in
anti-smoking PR campaigns of the
Deutsche Lungenstiftung ("German Lung Foundation"), e.g. Be Smart Don’t Start. The increase in the number of congress participants (see Annual congress above) and members testifies to the positive impact of these changes: In the past 20 years membership has almost tripled (1992: 1,117; 2002: 2,063; 2012: 3,093). == Organization ==