[Contributions of Max Bürger to the development of sports medicine]

The paper describes and appreciates the merits of Max Bürger who--as a clinician--realized very early the preventive and health-promoting role of regular physical training which can be principally carried out, from his point of view, up to the older age. He proved this opinion over more than 3 decades by numerous results of examinations especially in the field of the cardiopulmonary system and metabolism. Max Bürger became in several ways one of the forerunners of modern sports medicine by his important publications (among others "Normale und pathologische Physiologie des Blutkreislaufes bei sportlichen Anstrengungen", "Die Methodik der körperlichen Leistungsprüfungen mit Einschluss der Eignungsprüfungen für Beruf und Sport") by influencing the development of new research apparatuses and the installation of a larger performance diagnostic unit within his hospital as well as by the understanding between his aging research and sports medicine promoted by him and by his inititative to invite interested sports physicians to the foundation session of a "working group for sports medicine" the 13th and 14th November 1954.