Using tobacco industry documents, we examined how and why the tobacco industry sought to influence science and scientists in Germany as a possible factor in explaining the German opposition to stricter tobacco regulation. Smoking and health research programs were organized both separately by individual tobacco companies and jointly through their German trade organization. An extensive network of scientists and scientific institutions with tobacco industry links was developed. Science was distorted in 5 ways: suppression, dilution, distraction, concealment, and manipulation. The extent of tobacco industry influence over the scientific establishment in Germany is profound. The industry introduced serious bias that probably influenced scientific and public opinion in Germany. This influence likely undermined efforts to control tobacco use.

Heide Weishaar and colleagues did an analysis of internal tobacco industry documents together with other data and describe the industry's strategic response to the proposed World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The evidence suggests that Germany played a major role in the tobacco industry's efforts to undermine the FCTC. Germany's position consistently served to protect industry interests and was used to influence and constrain other countries. Germany thus contributed significantly to attempts to weaken an international treaty and, in doing so, failed in its responsibility to advance global health.

In spite of up to 140,000 tobacco-related deaths each year, Germany still lacks comprehensive tobacco control policies. Through systematic analysis of internal tobacco industry documents we examined how and to what extent the German Cigarette Industry Association (Verband der Cigarettenindustrie, VdC), which is the tobacco industry's trade organisation in Germany, contributed to this lack of more effective tobacco control. The role and strategies of the VdC are illustrated by using selected case studies. The evaluated documents reveal a profound influence of the VdC on political decision-makers in Federal and State Ministries as well as on German governments. The VdC successfully curbed and delayed the national adoption of EU legislation on tobacco advertising and product regulation, public smoking bans, legislation to protect the youth, and rises in tobacco taxation. The VdC's influence has played a key role in obstructing the development and implementation of effective tobacco control policies in Germany.