American influences on the development of anaesthesiology in the federal republic of Germany between 1949 and 1960

In anaesthesia, relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States as well as Great Britain are traditionally good and long established. Political conditions have not interfered with the scientific exchange. In the years after World War II, these contacts helped to establish anaesthesia as a special field of medicine in Germany. Today, these contacts are mutual and indispensable. Important steps in establishing anaesthesiology in Germany were the support of the USA and Great Britain in reconstructing the field in general and enabling the education and advanced training of physicians. The participation of Sir Robert Macintosh in the German Surgeons' Congress in 1950 and his presentation there contributed decisively to the professionalization of anaesthesia. This was the starting point for the consolidation of anaesthesia as a special discipline of medicine in Germany in the 1960s.