[Return to work after occupational accidents and occupational diseases]

The key formula "by all suitable means" is a structural support for successful occupational reintegration. In this respect, the special system of accident insurance administered primarily through the "Berufsgenossenschaften" (BG), differs from the other branches of social security. This system's roots in civil law do not allow any comparison with the principle of public law insurance underlying the other branches of social security in Germany. Under the statutory accident insurance scheme, the employer, i.e., the liable party within the employment relationship, has to compensate any health damage incurred by an employee, subject to the principles of compensation for damages under civil law, in a manner enabling the employee to return to his position in worklife and in society as unscathed as possible. From this general mandate by the legislator, the social partners involved within the self-management of the BGs draw their strength and their dynamics in arranging for organizational methods within the-administrative offices and in cooperation with the health care providers. This control of rehabilitation, i.e., the accident insurance system's share of the responsibility for successful rehabilitation, contributes a great deal to reentergrating insured persons into work and career, returns valuable workers to the employers, thus having a favourable effect for the gross national product of a society, and last but not least provides a support for the social state.