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Pettenkofer School of Public Health Munich – Public Health in Munich

The Pettenkofer School of Public Health Munich (PSPHLMU) concentrates on public health activities in Munich. The PSPHLMU is sponsored by the faculty of medicine as well as from the two collaboration partners, Helmholtz Center (Helmholtz Zentrum) and the Bavarian Sate Office for Health and Food Safety (Landesamt für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit).

The main task of the PSPHLMU is to promote interdisciplinary research, cooperation, and education. Additionally, the PSPHLMU is intended to strengthen the connection between institutions and partners of the LMU, coordinate the public image, and support academic contracts. 

The growing challenges of Public Health require a strong network. The network provides a foundation for the continuing improvement for the research and promotion of health and to support the development and transfer of new scientific methods into medical practices.

The Pettenkofer School of Public Health in Munich has a medical focus on public health as it is incorporated within the faculty of medicine. The PSPHLMU will contribute significantly to the delivery of new concepts in treatment strategies and preventative medicine to the general population. The school has already initiated two master's programs as well as the interdisciplinary research center, Munich Center for Health Sciences (München Zentrum für Gesundheitswissenschaft), which was founded within the framework of the LMUinnovative program. Through these initiatives, the PSPHLMU has become connected to many other faculties, including: economics, business management, social sciences, math, statistics, and informatics. 

Max v. Pettenkofer (1818-1901), for which the school was named, saw health not as a medical concern alone, but rather as a social, economic, technical, and epidemiological issue. Through his work, Pettenkofer justified hygiene as a science and placed the issue of public health in a scientific context. He can therefore be seen as one (or the) father of the field "Public Health", which has its roots in the scientific field. 

Pettenkofer was named a professor of medical chemistry at Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in 1847 and in 1865 became the president of LMU. In the same year, he became the first professor of hygiene, also in Munich, and from 1876 - 1879 built the first Institute of Hygiene. Max v. Pettenkofer is therefore a role model for the school's initiative to become a focal point for public health activities in Munich.