GERMAN TUBERCULOSIS ARCHIVE MUSEUM OF THE GERMAN TUBERCULOSIS ARCHIVE

The Museum of the German Tuberculosis Archive at the Thorax Clinic Heidelberg is a collection on the history of medicine and science devoted to the history of tuberculosis and its control.

The Tuberculosis Archive and its museum document the research, diagnosis, therapy, and social perception of an infectious disease that has ranked among the world’s deadliest illnesses for centuries and still constitutes a significant global health threat today. The archive was founded in 1996 by the pulmonary specialist Dr. Robert Kropp in Fulda. In 2011, it was transferred to the support association of the German Tuberculosis Archive and reopened as a museum in the Rohrbacher Schlösschen, the nucleus of today’s Thorax Clinic Heidelberg. The collection preserves written sources, photographs, medical instruments, models, and everyday objects that illustrate in particular the development of tuberculosis medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries. It arose from the aim of preserving knowledge about a widespread disease and making it accessible for research, teaching, and the public.