Albrecht Hasinger

Albrecht Hasinger was one of the founding fathers of the DRFZ. Already in the beginning of the 1980s, as Berlin State Secretary for Health, he promoted the establishment of a center for rheumatic diseases research. Finally the German Rheumatism Research Center was founded in 1988.

Albrecht Hasinger’s merits for the German Rheumatism Research Center

Albrecht Hasinger (1935 – 94) studied law in Munich and Freiburg and worked in the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance until 1967. He then moved to Bonn and was a research assistant in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group until 1969.

Albrecht Hasinger was already interested in social issues in the 1970s. From 1974 to 1977, he was chief executive of the CDU social committees. In the legislative period from 1976 to 1980, he was a member of the German Bundestag.

In 1981, he was appointed State Secretary to the Senator for Health and Social Affairs in Berlin by the then Governing Mayor Richard von Weizsäcker.

Retrospective

In the early 1980s, the Gesellschaft zur Erforschung rheumatischer Erkrankungen – Forschungszentrum Berlin e. V. discussed the poor situation of rheumatology in Germany with Albrecht Hasinger in his capacity as State Secretary for Health.

Subsequently, renowned physicians and scientists such as Hans Kröger, Raimund Frankl, Helmut Mischke, Jochen Kalden, Fritz Melchers and Pastor Elimar Brandt, in cooperation with Albrecht Hasinger, paved the way for the establishment of a center for research into rheumatic diseases. The mayor of Berlin at the time, Eberhard Diepgen, announced in 1985 that the city of Berlin would establish just such a center.

After long negotiations, the Foundation German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ) was founded in 1988. The sponsors were the state of Berlin and Immanuel-Krankenhaus GmbH.

With the election results of 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a changed political constellation emerged. Albrecht Hasinger was therefore unable to continue his work at the Senator for Health and Social Affairs. But thanks to his energetic preparatory work, the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ) was able to begin its work in 1990.

Albrecht Hasinger became the first president of the of the Board of Trustees of the DRFZ.