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Berlin Karsten Vilmar was at the head of the German medical profession for more than two decades and was then honorary president of the Federal Medical Association (BK) and the German Medical Association for many years. He died in October at the age of 94.

The medical profession mourns the loss of a wonderful colleague and great person, said the President of the Federal Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt. The news of Karsten Vilmar’s death was heard with great sadness.

Vilmar was a man of stability who worked tirelessly to preserve medical freedom and the individuality of the patient-doctor relationship as basic requirements for a patient-friendly healthcare system.

With foresight and unwavering perseverance, he put the issues on the political agenda early on that are still active today. Karsten Vilmar has achieved great things as a person, as a doctor and also as a professional politician, said Reinhardt.

He recalls Vilmar’s explanation that the age structure of the population and increasing multimorbidity inevitably increase the need for medical and nursing care and thus also the expenditure on health services. While these connections were denied for a long time by politicians and those responsible for paying the costs, today no one seriously questions them, says Reinhardt.

The BK President emphasized that the basic health policy programs of the medical profession, which are summarized in the so-called Blue Paper, largely go back to Vilmar. Vilmar was passionately involved in the programmatic development and dealt with the problems and possible solutions in detail.

Born on April 24, 1930 in Bremen, Vilmar studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich from 1950 to 1955, where he then received his doctorate. He completed his further training as a surgical specialist in his hometown.

From 1964 to 1995 he was senior physician at the trauma surgery clinic at the Sankt-Jrgen-Strae municipal hospital in Bremen. His professional political involvement also began there: in 1970 he took over the position of chairman of the Marburger Bund (MB) doctors’ union in Bremen, which he held until 1996.

At the federal level, Vilmar was at the head of the MB from 1975 to 1979. He was President of the Bremen Medical Association from 1976 to 1996 and President of the Federal Medical Association and the German Medical Association from 1978 to 1999.

Vilmar continued his professional political activities even after becoming president. He was involved in transplantation medicine on the board of trustees of the German Organ Transplantation Foundation.

As chairman of the Kaiserin Friedrich Foundation, he was committed to continuing medical education and, as chairman of the Hans Neuffer Foundation, he was committed to the exchange of experiences between German doctors and their colleagues abroad. At the international level, Karsten Vilmar held responsibility on the Executive Council of the European Physicians and on the Board of the World Medical Association.

A hospital doctor by training, Vilmar vehemently advocated for the interests of all doctors in all areas of healthcare. The 103rd German Medical Association in Cologne recognized his commitment to the medical profession in Germany and the world by awarding him the Paracelsus Medal, the highest award of the German medical profession.

The funeral and memorial service will take place with the family. We kindly ask you to refrain from direct inquiries to the family. Please send letters of condolence or inquiries to the press office of the German medical association. The Federal Medical Association will invite people to a memorial service for Karsten Vilmar at the appropriate time © EB/aerzteblatt.de