Federal Health Office

The Federal Health Office ( BGA ) was founded in 1952 as the successor organization to the Reich Health Office and was the central state research institution of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of public health , based in Berlin . It was tasked with identifying risks to human and animal health at an early stage, evaluating them and containing them within the scope of its legal powers.

The Kohl government finally dissolved it on June 30, 1994 after nearly 600 deaths as a result of HIV-contaminated blood preparations . Its tasks were transferred to three successor institutes.

Organizational structure

The office was divided into a central department and seven, later six, scientific institutes:

• Institute for Drugs (drug approvals and registrations, research into drug effects)
• Institute for Social Medicine and Epidemiology (development and application of methods of health statistics)
• Institute for Radiation Hygiene (research on the effects of radioactivity on humans and the environment, transferred to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection before the Federal Health Office was dissolved )
• Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene (scientific and preparatory work on water and soil protection ( soil contamination ), wastewater , air pollution control and air pollution and for certain consumer products)
• Max von Pettenkofer Institute ( consumer protection , approval of plant protection products , assessment body according to the Chemicals Act ) Head of Toxicology : Friedrich Bär (until 1975); Hartmut Uehleke (1975–1988)
• Robert Koch Institute (Infectious Diseases and Genetic Engineering)
• Robert von Ostertag Institute, Institute for Veterinary Medicine (hygiene of animal foods, animal diseases and residue research)

Dissolution and reorganization

The dissolution of the Federal Health Office in 1994 resulted in three independent institutions that were subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Health :

• Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM, from the Institute for Drugs)
• Robert Koch Institute (RKI, from the Robert Koch Institute and the Institute for Social Medicine and Epidemiology)
• Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine (BgVV, from the Max von Pettenkofer Institute and the Robert von Ostertag Institute)

The Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene was incorporated into the Federal Environment Agency .

At the time of the dissolution, the Institute for Radiation Hygiene was no longer part of the Federal Health Office.

The Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine was dissolved in 2002 and was largely incorporated into the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and a smaller part into the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL). The Jena branch was transferred to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute , Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI).

President of the Federal Health Office

• 1952–1953: Franz Klose
• 1953–1956: Franz Redeker
• 1956–1958: Wilhelm Hagen
• 1958–1964: Walther Liese
• 1964–1969: Josef Daniels
• 1969–1974: Georg Henneberg
• 1974–1980: Georges Fülgraff
• 1981–1984: Karl Überla
• 1985–1993: Dieter Großklaus

Files on Nazi human experiments

In 1983 the Federal Archives unsuccessfully requested the BGA to hand over the files on human experiments in the Third Reich . Since the Sinti and Roma were particularly affected by these, members of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma finally occupied the Max von Pettenkofer Institute on March 18, 1987 in order to force the files to be handed over. Dieter Großklaus then had the entire NS files handed over to the Federal Archives in Koblenz. The handover took place on June 10, 1987. However, the files provided only little information about the persecution of the Sinti and Roma.

Web links

• Federal Institute for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products
• Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
• Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
• Robert Koch Institute

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The history of the blood AIDS scandal in Germany. Interest group for haemophiles , April 4, 2011, accessed on April 18, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Seehofer remains stubborn (Federal Health Office: The planned dissolution meets with growing resistance) , Die Zeit
3. ↑ The dissolution of the Federal Health Office took effect - tasks were transferred to the successor institutes , wernerschell.de
4. ^ Act on successor institutions of the Federal Health Office (BGA-NachfGesetz - BGA-NachfG) of June 24, 1994, Federal Law Gazette 1994 I p. 1416
5. ↑ Herbert Heuss: Science and Genocide . In: Federal Health Gazette . Volume 42, March, 1989, ISSN  0007-5914 , p. 20–24 ( digital copy [PDF]).