History of the Institute

The Institute for the History of Medicine (IGM) is an institution of the Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, which is one of the largest industrial foundations in Germany.

It owes its origin to the interest of the industrialist Robert Bosch (1861-1942) in the history of health care in general and homeopathy in particular.

Already in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a research center for the history of medicine at the Robert Bosch Hospital (“Medizinhistorische Forschungsstelle”), the immediate predecessor of the IGM.

Until 2020, the Institute, established in 1980, was the only research institute focussing on medical history in the Federal Republic of Germany, which was not affiliated with a university. During the tenure of the long-time director Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Robert Jütte especially the social history of medicine was promoted and further developed at the IGM, in addition to the focus on the history of homeopathy and complementary healing methods The focus on patient history combined these two priorities and set accents in medical history across Germany. The same applies to the history of nursing established by the IGM and the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

The position of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Robert Jütte was not filled after his retirement in 2020. Rather, the IGM will continue as the main archive of all institutions linked to the Robert Bosch Stiftung and will therefore continue to be available for research works.