Abstract. The Department of Pathology was the first scientific unit established at the German Primate Center (DPZ) already in its planning phase. At that early time the planning of administrative duties was also necessary, including the financial framework of the laboratory equipment of the then-envisioned three departments of pathology, virology and physiology, in order to get the DPZ off the ground. Otherwise the functions of the Department of Pathology were both service duties and scientific evaluations. The service functions after the establishment of the DPZ included pathological, bacteriological and parasitological examinations/surveys and the veterinary care of nonhuman primates at the DPZ and other primate colonies. On an international level its service functions were reflected by the collaboration within the Office International de Epizooties (OIE, Paris) (Dollinger et al., 1996) and the Infectious Diseases Working Group of the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians, and the establishment of a bacteriological laboratory in Iquitos, Peru, at the request of the Pan American Health Organization.

Parallel to those administrative and service duties to the DPZ and to international communities, the different scientific activities started, which in a pathology department always are a combination of service and research. They are documented by a total of almost 120 publications, including 3 doctoral theses and 116 publications by the author from 1973 to 1999; the most important ones are summarized in the following examples.