History

Ophthalmology in Tübingen can look back on a long tradition. With the first clinical teaching institution for internal medicine, surgery (including ophthalmology) and obstetrics at the University of Tübingen, founded in 1805 in the Burse, ophthalmology was practiced clinically for the first time as a sub-specialty of surgery.

With Albrecht Nagel, the establishment of ophthalmology as an independent subject began in Tübingen. In his efforts to emancipate ophthalmology, which until then had been subordinate to surgery, as an independent specialty, Nagel clashed with the medical faculty in all his partial successes (extraordinariate, support of his private eye clinic) and was finally able to win his own chair of ophthalmology. Nagel's private eye clinic was nationalized in the course of this and thus the first university eye clinic was founded in Tübingen.

Ophthalmology in Tübingen

1865Opening of the private eye clinic of Albrecht Nagel
1867First Extraordinariate for Ophthalmology/ State Subsidy for the Eye Clinic
1874First professorship for ophthalmology in Tübingen
1875Opening of the first university eye clinic in Tübingen (Wilhelmstrasse)
1909New building of the eye clinic in the hospital valley (Schleichstraße)
2007Foundation of the Department of Ophthalmology
2016New construction of the eye clinic in the Berg Clinic (Elfriede-Aulhorn-Straße)

Department of Ophthalmology

The Department of Ophthalmology Tübingen - with a structure that is unique in Germany - was established in 2007 and consists of the University Eye Hospital under the direction of the Medical Director Prof. Dr. med. K. U. Bartz-Schmidt and the Research Institute of Ophthalmology - directed by Prof. Dr. rer. nat. M. Ueffing. The Department is one of the thirteen medical centres of excellence in the state of Baden-Württemberg and among them the only one for ophthalmology.
The special structure of the Department of Ophthalmology provides the basis for a close integration of patient- and basic science-oriented research with the goal of translational application for the benefit of patients. A structurally comparable institution consisting of a clinic and a research institute can otherwise only be found on a European level (London and Paris). As a university science centre, the clinic and institute jointly research eye diseases and develop new therapeutic procedures. In doing so, they are closely involved in the education of medical students as well as medical technology students and ensure the further education and training of hospital and practicing physicians. It also supports the work of the graduate schools in Tübingen. The Department's fundamental aim is to develop new and further diagnostic and therapeutic concepts for ophthalmology at the highest international level. The central focus is on research into the causes and therapies of degenerative, inflammatory, vascular and neoplastic diseases of the eye and the visual pathway.

Current directors of the department

Prof. Dr. med. Karl Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt

Medical Director of the University Eye Hospital

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Prof. Dr. Marius Ueffing

Medical Director of the Research Institute of Ophthalmology

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Medical Directors of the Department

1989 - 2006Eberhart Zrenner
2000 - todayKarl Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt
2011 - todayMarius Ueffing

Medical directors of the eye clinic

1874 - 1895Albrecht Nagel
1909 - 1921Gustav von Schleich
1921 - 1952Wolfgang Stock
1952 - 1976Heinrich Harms
1970 - 1989Elfriede Aulhorn
1974 - 1978Achim Wessing
1975 - 1980Gottfried Naumann
1979 - 2000Ingrid Kreissig
1980 - 1999Hans-Jürgen Thiel
1989 - 2006Eberhart Zrenner
2000 - todayKarl Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt

University Eye Hospital Tübingen - Chronicle

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the University Eye Hospital Tübingen in 2009, a chronicle was written. Starting from the first recorded evidence of ophthalmological activity in Tübingen to the emancipation of ophthalmology as an independent subject as well as the change of the eye hospital, all facets are covered. In addition, an insight into the anniversary year and the joint new building of the Eye Clinic and the Research Institute of Ophthalmology is given.

_{A. E. Hunder, J. M. Rohrbach, K. U. Bartz-Schmidt 100 Years University Eye Hospital Tübingen 1909 - 2009 "Change and Visions". With a foreword by Klaus Bergdolt. Schattauer, 2010.}