german neurology

Over the last months, Neuropenews has featured 8 chapters describing the beginning of neurology in Germany (chapter 1), a golden age at the end of the 19th century, the first 30 years of the 20th century with true scientific breakthroughs (chapter 2), the dark age before and during World War II (chapter 3), the slow and painful (chapter 4) and since the 1970ies accelerating recovery (chapter 5-8) of clinical neuroscience and neurology in Germany [1].

After the Second World War, the German education system was organised in a decentralised fashion in order to facilitate a pluralistic control of research and education. Therefore, educational and funding systems exist in parallel, on the level of the regional political structure (state) where a specific university is localised, and on the level of funding by the central government and its Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

As outlined in previous chapter VI of this series, the last three decades have seen a steadily growing number of neurologists (not only) in Germany. This continuing rise is certainly supported by the expanding diagnostic and therapeutic options for neurological diseases, but this alone wouldn’t suffice as an explanation.