The Robert Koch Institute: one of the world’s oldest Robert Koch’s legacy: biomedical institutes museum and mausoleum

Staff members, 1920 1947 New laboratory building, 1980 BSL-4 laboratory Health monitoring Robert Koch’s scientific legacy, which includes 1,100 letters, certificates, manuscripts and notes, microscope slides, lab equipment, numerous After the National Socialist takeover, Jewish The Federal Health Office is dissolved. ­ scientists are forced to leave the institute. photos and Koch’s scientific library, is preserved RKI merges with the AIDS Centre, which The strategy “RKI 2025” envisages During the Third Reich, RKI is heavily in- at the Robert Koch Institute. had been founded in 1988, and the Institute The Bundestag decides to develop extending digital epidemiology, con- volved in National Socialist strong-arm The institute starts producing the for Social Medicine and Epidemiology in RKI into a modern public health necting public health stakeholders Robert Koch is ­tactics. RKI’s role under National Socialism only yellow fever vaccine licensed by Berlin-Tempelhof—the latter specialising The institute acquires an additional institute (‘RKI 2010’). Staffing and taking on greater ­responsibility awarded the Nobel has been deeply investigated in a research the WHO in Germany. Production in non-communicable diseases. site in Berlin-Wedding: Seestrasse. numbers are increased. at international level. Prize in Medicine. project. continues until 2002.

Robert Koch Protection against Infection Act (Infektions­­­ schutzgesetz, IfSG) enters into force. The A new office and laboratory build- On 1 July, the “Royal Prussian Institute for Parts of the institute have been When the first cases of AIDS registering and control of infectious diseases Together with the Federal Statistical ing is inaugurated at the Seestrasse Infectious Diseases” takes up its work. ­destroyed during the war. With the ­occur in Germany, RKI establishes are fundamentally modernised, RKI’s respon- Office, RKI is tasked with health site, including a laboratory with the ­Robert Koch heads the institute until 1904. help of the Allies, work is resumed. an AIDS register. sibilities are extended. ­reporting for Germany. highest safety level (BSL-4). 1891 1905 1933 1945 1960 1982 1994 2001 2002 2006 2008 2015 2017

Museum at RKI THE ROBERT KOCH INSTITUTE 1910 1978 1942 2014 1900 1998 2016 2019 1952 1990 2001 2007 2003 Some items can be seen in RKI’s Museum at the Relocation to a new building on The institute becomes an independ- A new laboratory building is RKI conducts its first comprehensive RKI introduces the KiGGS Study: for the In West Africa, 50 members of RKI’s RKI gets its own Centre An Historical Overview the Nordufer in Berlin-Wedding, ent Reich institute called the Robert ­inaugurated on the Nordufer, one study on the state of health and health first time, comprehensive data on the staff help to contain the largest Ebola for International Health Nordufer site—such as an incubator, scientific still RKI headquarters to this day. Koch Institute. It now focuses on re- of the most modern in Europe. behaviour of adults in Germany. health situation of children and young Virus Disease outbreak in history. Protection. drawings and a steamer in which culture media search into infectious diseases that people are collected nationwide. were sterilised by jets of steam up to 120° Celsius. threaten military striking power. Re-designed in 2017, the exhibition showcases After German reunification, various GDR RKI is officially charged with health moni- The institute celebrates its 125th anniversary. how the institute investigates risks and ­protection ­authorities are integrated in RKI, including RKI becomes the central point in Germany toring. The institute thus continuously More than 1,100 people with 90 different factors for the health of the population in the 21st Robert Koch dies and is laid to rest in RKI becomes part of the newly-­ parts of the Institute for Experimental Epide- for recognising and addressing bioterrorist ­collects data on disease incidence and risk ­occupations are employed at the four sites in a mausoleum at the institute. founded Federal Health Office. miology in Wernigerode in the Harz region. risk situations. behaviour amongst all age groups of the Berlin and Wernigerode, including 450 scien- century as well as the importance and current The Wernigerode site is still a branch of RKI. population in Germany. tists. ­relevance of the discoveries made by ­Robert Koch and his students.

The mausoleum in which Robert Koch’s ashes were laid to rest can also be visited. ΩΩMore on the institute’s history: www.rki.de/history ΩΩFrom Robert Koch to Lothar H. Wieler—the Presidents ΩΩOpening hours and guided tours: of RKI: www.rki.de/presidents www.rki.de/museum-en Robert Koch Institute 2019 | Images: RKI except Hotel Zoo Berlin (Peter Kuley, CC BY-SA 4.0) Institute 2019 | Images: RKI except Hotel Zoo Berlin (Peter Kuley, Robert Koch

Producing vaccine against Microbial strain collection, Nordufer, 1900 spotted fever, 1940s Yellow fever laboratory, 1960 Wernigerode HIV Seestraße Robert Koch: In Koch’s footsteps Robert Koch’s ­A life for research in Berlin students

In the 19th century, diseases like tuberculosis, In summer 1880, Robert Koch, his wife Emmy and Emil von Behring, immunologist and serologist. Shibasaburo Kitasato, bacteriologist. Investigat-  diphtheria, wound infections and cholera were their daughter Gertrud moved into their first home Developed antisera against diphtheria and teta- ed tetanus and diphtheria, demonstrated the the most common cause of death worldwide. In in Chausseestraße 118 1 in Berlin-Mitte. At the nus; founded the Behring-Werke in Marburg. ­efficacy of antisera. Founder of today’s Kitasato Germany alone, hundreds of thousands of people Kimberley/South Africa, 1896 Koch and Kitasato in Japan, 1908 time, it was an industrial area, but only a short walk Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1901. Institute in Tokyo. died of them every year. This was the time when from Koch’s workplace, the Kaiserliche Gesund- the doctor, Robert Koch, discovered that diseases which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medi- In the course of his career, Robert Koch investi- heitsamt (Imperial Health Authority) in Luisen- Paul Ehrlich, doctor and researcher. Founder of Friedrich Loeffler,physician. Discovered the of this kind were caused by tiny organisms—bac- cine in 1905. All this was thanks to new scientific gated and fought infectious diseases worldwide, straße 57 2 . It was here that he discovered the chemotherapy; developed drugs against syphilis glanders and diphtheria pathogens, investigated teria. He and his colleagues in Berlin managed to methods, such as systematic animal experiments, including malaria in ­Italy and New Guinea, plague tuberculosis pathogen in 1882. Today, the building  and an antiserum against diphtheria. Nobel Prize foot and mouth disease. Co-founder of virology identify many pathogens and infection paths and the cultivation of micro-organisms on solid cul- in India, rinderpest and East Coast fever in South houses, amongst others, the Institute of Sexology  in Medicine, 1908. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, the and founder of ­today’s Friedrich Loeffler Insti- 8 thus pave the way for therapies and preventive ture media, microphotography and dyeing tech- Africa—and cholera in Egypt and India. In the and Sexual Medicine that is part of Berlin’s Charité.  Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, tute for Animal Health on Riems Island. measures. Together with Louis Pasteur, Robert niques, which made it possible not only to trace 19th century, the “Asiatic hydra” had repeatedly  was named after him. Koch is now thought of as the pioneer of micro­ the pathogens but also to visualise them. Scien- broken out in Germany, too, especially in the big On 24 March 1882, Koch held his lecture on the  Bernhard Nocht, harbour physician and tropical  biology. tists from all over the world travelled to Berlin to city slums. “Aetiology of Tuberculosis”, which gained him Paul Frosch, bacteriologist and co-founder of medicine specialist. Founder of today’s Bernhard learn about “Koch’s methods”. In 1891, Koch was world fame, at the Physiological Society of Berlin  ­virology. Isolated the foot and mouth disease Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. Helped to »» Only when it was known what the given his own research institute, the Royal Prus- »» I consider it my duty to go and work where ­ in Dorotheenstraße 96 3 . This is now the Robert pathogen and fought malaria, plague, typhus. contain the cholera epidemic in Hamburg in 1892. pathogens themselves were, was it sian Institute for Infectious Diseases, in Berlin-­ I can be of greatest use to science.« Koch Forum that belongs to the Berlin universi- possible to fight them directly.« Wedding. But he did not manage to fulfil his pri- ties and Charité. Georg Gaffky,bacteriologist and hygienist. Culti- Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner, microbiologist. mary objective of finding a remedy for or vaccine In 1892, Robert Koch helped to contain a serious vated, amongst others, typhus pathogens in pure Demonstrated, amongst other things, that As a young doctor in 1876, Robert Koch managed against tuberculosis: “tuberculin”, the drug he cholera outbreak in Hamburg—not least because In April 1885, Koch became the first professor in cultures. As a close colleague of Robert Koch, he ­tubercle bacteria are transmitted in cow’s milk.  for the first time to prove that micro-organisms ­developed, was a failure. he insisted drinking water should be boiled. In the new Hygiene Institute at Friedrich-Wilhelms-­ contributed to Koch’s discoveries. First woman in Berlin to hold the title of professor. caused infectious diseases—the test object was 1906/1907, Koch and colleagues travelled to Ger- Universität in Klosterstraße 36 4 . Here he devel- 1890 the anthrax pathogen. In 1878, he discovered the man East ­Africa to investigate sleeping sickness. oped the ineffective remedy, tuberculin. From 1882 bacteria that lead to wound infections. And in They tested an arsenic-based drug on patients, but to 1891, the family lived in Magazinstraße 16 5 , 1882, he identified the tuberculosis pathogen for many of them went blind and some even died. later in Brückenallee 39 6 . Koch’s final expedition was thus also the darkest chapter of his career. His last big journey in 1908 The Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseas- lying in the sun between grass and flowers on the From 1901 to 1904, Robert and Hedwig Koch took him, amongst other places, to Japan. He died es opened its doors on 1 July 1891, initially in a flat roof of the house, playing the zither or (…) ­resided at Kurfürstendamm 25 10 , today’s Hotel during a subsequent stay at a sanatorium in Baden-­ converted residential building at the corner of frightening the greedy sparrows that plundered Zoo Berlin. From 1904 until his death, they lived Baden in 1910. The urn containing his ashes was Charité-/Schumannstraße 7 . Due to its shape it the fruit trees in the garden with a fowling gun.” at Kurfürstendamm 52 11 . laid to rest in a specially constructed mausoleum was known as the “triangle”. at his institute. In 1900, the Royal Prussian Institute for Infec- On 27 May 1916, a monument was unveiled to Together with his second wife, Hedwig, Robert tious Diseases relocated to a new building, partly the citizen of honour at Luisenplatz in Mitte— ΩΩMore about Robert Koch: www.rki.de/robertkoch-en Koch moved into a house in Ahornallee 30 8 in designed by Koch, at Nordufer 20 9 in Berlin-­ known since 1932 as Robert-Koch-Platz 12 . ΩΩKoch’s work, journeys and congresses: ­ Berlin-Westend in 1894. Looking back in 1928, Wedding, which is still the headquarters of the www.rki.de/rk-table-en Egypt, 1896 ΩΩLiterature: www.rki.de/rk-literature Hedwig wrote that Koch “was happy as a sandboy Robert Koch Institute to this day.

German East Africa, 1906