The german historical museum of orthopaedic surgery. A museum for science and public

The German historical museum of orthopaedic surgery was founded 1959 in Wur zburg. The main task of this institution is the furtherance of science in m edical-history. Since the beg inning, 41 years ago, the number of books and exhibits increased continuously. The library of the museum is the biggest public collection in Germany and contains more then 6000 books and publicat ions in orthopaedics. Furthermore the museum includes a big a mount of exop rostheses of the upper and lower limb, alloarthroplasties of hip- and kneej oints, traumatologic implants and instruments of orthopaedic surgery. A big number of bone-preparations with pathologic alterations and variations wil l also be presented. The exhibition and the library is open to the public and is available to th ose people in the history of orthopaedic surgery. Local requirements in Wur zburg were one of the reasons to transfer the place of the museum to Frankf urt/Main. The museum was reopened at 6th of June 1998 at the university of Frankfurt/Main, department of orthopaedic surgery.