[Robert Koch--also a pioneer in immunological research? (author's transl)]

On March 24, 1982 we will celebrate the 100th anniversary-day of discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The article deals with the great merits of Robert Koch as physician and investigator and above all with his importance for the beginning of the immunologic research. Thereby three themes are especially discussed: 1. The beginnings of active and passive immunization processes, 2. Koch's Old tuberculin and the first steps in immunodiagnosis and -therapy, 3. the role of phagocytes in protection against mycobacteric infection. Though not all the scientific investigations of Robert Koch were so successful as his studies on colouring, determination and cultivation of several infectious bacteria, there is no doubt, that his experimental works provided one of the fundaments on which modern immunology is built.