The Robert Koch Institute (RKI): main building in Berlin. more
Germany’s Public Health institute RKI monitors the population’s health and wellbeing. more
The Robert Koch Institute is the German government's central institution for the identification, surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases in the Portfolio of the German Ministry of Health. more
Ceremony at the RKI for the publication of the 300th JEWISH MINIATURE
Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner at the microscope (around 1920). Click on the picture to start the presentation.
A biography published in autumn 2022 is dedicated to the life and work of Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner. The bacteriologist was awarded the title of professor in 1912 for her achievements in the field of tuberculosis research - as the first woman in Berlin and the second woman ever in Germany.
Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner worked for Robert Koch at the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases (today's RKI) from 1894. She researched and taught for a time in the USA and worked at the Institute of Pathology at the Charité from 1903 to 1919.
You can visit the photo exhibition on the life of Lydia Rabinowitsch-Kempner online here. A ceremony was held at the Robert Koch Institute to mark the publication of the 300th JEWISH MINIATURE.
Click on the image to start the presentation.
In the reading room of the Physiological Institute in Berlin, Robert Koch announced on 24 March 1882 the discovery of the tuberculosis pathogen. The day on which the 38-year-old once gave his famous lecture is celebrated every year as World Tuberculosis Day.
Contagion in the 21st Century
The Wellcome Trust initiated the Contagious Cities project on the occasion of the 1918 influenza pandemic. This project dwelt on the interactions between humans, animals and pathogens in urban environments from different perspectives.
The aim of the intercultural project is to initiate public dialogues. In four global cities - Berlin, Geneva, Hong Kong and New York - local debates will be held on global challenges of disease prevention.
As part of Contagious Cities, the Robert Koch Institute showed the short video „Contagion in the 21st Century".
The exhibition is an unusual and exciting digital experience. Contagion in the 21st Century is based on the Museum's 2019 short film Contagious Cities and is enriched with photographic and video footage. It takes you to the places where Robert Koch made his groundbreaking research and most important discoveries. The essay encourages reflection on how infectious diseases have evolved over time and how to respond.
Credits
Script and Film: Esther-Maria Antao
Script Review: Lothar H. Wieler, Henriette Senst, Heide Tröllmich
Translation: Marieke Degen, Barbara Buchberger
Photos and Video Clips: Esther-Maria Antao, RKI Photo Collection, Dirk Brockmann (Simulations), Public Domain
Consultancy: Wellcome Trust
Software: Apple inc. (iMovie/ Final Cut)
The narrative takes the audience back to the time when Robert Koch made important discoveries at various locations. Here the meaning of contagion is presented in the sense of infection by infectious agents. The meaning changes the further the story leads into the present. The audience is thus encouraged to think about what contagion could mean for us today and what health threats we have to reckon with today and in the future.
Berlin: a narrative cartography of virus | Contagious Cities
"Contagious Cities is coming to Berlin!", Press release of the Museum für Naturkunde (10.05.2019)
Wellcome Trust, Contagious Cities
Archive of Science Gallery Bengaluru’s first digital exhibition-season CONTAGION
The museum at the RKI is part of the Contagion exhibition at the Science Gallery Bengaluru. The Science Gallery is an institution for young people in India that acts as an interface between science, art and culture, drawing on the scientific expertise of India's leading research institutes. The Contagion exhibition, which exists exclusively as a digital format, explores the transmission of emotions, behaviours and even diseases in a variety of ways. The formats range from classical lecture events, workshops and film screenings to calls for projects on current and thematic research questions.
| Co-Vids | |
|---|---|
| The Co-Vids Series is a series of three-minute video clips in which scientists from different disciplines - from medicine to epidemiology and history to psychology - talk about contagion based on their expertise and discuss thematic issues that are of particular concern to them. | |
| Learning from a pandemic (Prof. Dr. Johanna Hanefeld) |
| Science and common sense in a pandemic (Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler) |
| Walktrough of the Museum at the RKI (Dr. Esther Maria Antao) |
Science Gallery Bengaluru’s Co-Vids series
People Health State. Health Offices under National Socialism.
This touring exhibition "Volk, Gesundheit, Staat. Gesundheitsämter im Nationalsozialismus." was conceived by medical historians at the Charité as part of a research project. It presents areas of activity of the health offices during National Socialism using the example of the states of Thuringia and Württemberg.
The focus is on the implementation of "hereditary and racial care", the principles of which provided the guideline for all areas of activity.
"How do I stay healthy?" A health film from 1922.
Gustav Tugendreich (1876-1948), who was particularly active in promoting breastfeeding and protecting young children, developed the idea for an entertaining educational film on health education. As a Jew, he was persecuted by the National Socialists. He emigrated to the USA with his family shortly before the start of the war.
From the series "Jewish Miniatures": Gustav Tugendreich
Paediatrician and social hygienist
Dr Benjamin Kuntz - an employee of the RKI Museum and Public Health Visitor Centre - has now published a biography on the Berlin paediatrician and social hygienist Gustav Tugendreich.
The trailer highlights the life of a woman whose memories of Auschwitz are a significant testimony to the Holocaust.
Lucie Adelsberger (1895-1971) was a specialist in paediatrics and internal medicine. She ran her own practice in Berlin, where she mainly treated patients with allergic diseases. Her scientific interest also focused on allergies.
From 1927 to 1933 she worked at the Robert Koch Institute in the newly founded Observatory for Hypersensitivity Reactions. After the National Socialists came to power, she continued to care for her patients - despite the withdrawal of her license to practice medicine. She turned down an offer from Harvard so as not to abandon her sick mother. In May 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz, where she had to work as a prisoner doctor in the "Gypsy and Women's Camp" in Birkenau. Shortly before the end of the war, she was liberated from a subcamp of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Lucie Adelsberger Auschwitz A factual account.
Emigration to the USA
Lucie Adelsberger emigrated to the USA in 1946. In New York she worked as a doctor and scientist in cancer research until her death.
Date: 24.10.2022
