Charité
University hospital in Berlin
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Key Takeaways
- The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University Medicine; French: [ʃaʁite] ) is a public medical school and hospital in Berlin, Germany.
- The medical school is affiliated with Humboldt University of Berlin and Free University of Berlin.
- The complex is spread over four campuses and comprises around 3,000 beds, 15,500 staff, 8,000 students, and more than 60 operating theaters, and has a turnover of two billion euros annually.
- Rudolf Virchow was the founder of cellular pathology, while Robert Koch developed vaccines for anthrax, cholera, and tuberculosis.
- More than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine, including Emil von Behring, Robert Koch, and Paul Ehrlich, have worked at the Charité.
The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University Medicine; French: [ʃaʁite] ) is a public medical school and hospital in Berlin, Germany. It is the largest university hospital in Europe. The medical school is affiliated with Humboldt University of Berlin and Free University of Berlin.
The Charité traces its origins to 1710. The complex is spread over four campuses and comprises around 3,000 beds, 15,500 staff, 8,000 students, and more than 60 operating theaters, and has a turnover of two billion euros annually.
The modern history of medicine has been significantly influenced by scientists who worked at the Charité. Rudolf Virchow was the founder of cellular pathology, while Robert Koch developed vaccines for anthrax, cholera, and tuberculosis. For his life's work Koch is seen as one of the founders of modern medicine. More than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine, including Emil von Behring, Robert Koch, and Paul Ehrlich, have worked at the Charité.
In 2010–2011 the medical schools of Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin were united under the roof of the Charité. The admission rate of the reorganized medical school was 3.9% for the 2019–2020 academic year.
History
Complying with an order of King Frederick I of Prussia from 14 November 1709, the hospital was established north of the Berlin city walls in 1710 in anticipation of an outbreak of the bubonic plague that had already depopulated East Prussia. After the plague spared the city, it came to be used as a charity hospital for the poor; so on 9 January 1727, King Frederick William I of Prussia gave it the French name "Charité".
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