[Social urban development and poverty control as health promotion]

The Salomon Neumann Medal of the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention bears the inscription. "Medicine is a Social Science". This provocative statement is most topical. It compels us to actively promote health by healthier living and environmental conditions apart from medical prevention. A core of this sphere of action is the reduction of social inequalities. Several recent congresses and publications have clearly shown that this subject remains one of the biggest challenges facing health promotion. German law has set the signs for reducing socially rooted inequalities for chances of health. This article postulates the thesis that health promotion can find allies for a healthy public policy in programmes planning for healthy urban development and for combatting poverty. The specific approaches for combatting social inequalities in the health sphere are reported and examples are given how such a health promotion policy may be translated into reality on a communal level. Finally, spotlight is on the dilemma of combatting inequality of chance due to differences in social status.