The authors are members of a committee in charge of a special study module (SSM) entitled Principles of Medical Theory and Practice in a problem-based and integrated reformed curriculum track at the Charité, the medical school and university hospital of the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. The SSM contextualizes medicine by highlighting the societal contexts of the doctor-patient relationship and the medical profession. Integrating the humanities into medical education helps students develop an awareness of the strengths and limitations of modern medicine, develop their own personalities and sense of social responsibility, and generally broaden their outlook. Teachers in the SSM seminars are from different disciplines, such as the history of medicine, bioethics, sociology, anthropology, and complementary medicine. Once a week, one or two teachers meet with as many as 21 students per group for a 90-minute course. Twelve courses constitute a seminar. Students are required to participate in four seminars during five years of studies. They can choose different topics from a set range. Although this SSM has been largely successful, some problems have occurred. Results from the course evaluations and experiences show that the seminars differ from one another in many ways. Financial restraints and the departmental structure of the faculty have influenced implementation of the SSM. However, the SSM is a new concept and is continuously reviewed and renewed. Future plans will be to specify outcomes, continue to discuss reasonable seminar topics, establish continuous support and training for teachers, and motivate students to become actively involved in the seminar discussions.

In 1905 the first German association of Social Medicine was founded. Out of its now 100 years of history two aspects which were of peculiar importance for its development are studied here by the method of historic analysis of the sources and the examination of secondary literature: the noteworthiness of this foundation is characterized by the fact that the society was based from its beginnings on multidisciplinarity and the appliance of different scientific methods. It is showed which fascination had exclusively biological and genetic explanations for the genesis of diseases and human attitude characteristics. In transformation to practical action these ideas led to the extermination of disease causing genetic attributes and often their bearers as well. This aim was followed up even when the genetic causation of specified attitudes was not clearly proved. These biological interpretations of disease phenomenons neglected social causes for the process of the appearance of certain diseases and the emergence of health. They were responsible for medical interventions into the physical integrity of hundreds of thousands of human beings under the political terms and conditions of National Socialism.