[Hundred years of social medicine in Germany]

In 1905 the first German association of Social Medicine was founded. Out of its now 100 years of history two aspects which were of peculiar importance for its development are studied here by the method of historic analysis of the sources and the examination of secondary literature: the noteworthiness of this foundation is characterized by the fact that the society was based from its beginnings on multidisciplinarity and the appliance of different scientific methods. It is showed which fascination had exclusively biological and genetic explanations for the genesis of diseases and human attitude characteristics. In transformation to practical action these ideas led to the extermination of disease causing genetic attributes and often their bearers as well. This aim was followed up even when the genetic causation of specified attitudes was not clearly proved. These biological interpretations of disease phenomenons neglected social causes for the process of the appearance of certain diseases and the emergence of health. They were responsible for medical interventions into the physical integrity of hundreds of thousands of human beings under the political terms and conditions of National Socialism.