The Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene at the Humboldt University in Berlin was founded in 1885 as the Hygiene-Institute. Originally the Hygiene-Institute was located on Klosterstrasse where its first director, Professor Robert Koch, led the institute until 1891. His successor, Professor Max Rubner accepted the chairmanship of physiology in 1909. At this point Rubner moved his Institute for Physiology into a new building originally designed for the Hygiene Institute on Hessischestrasse.
	Photographs: Thomas Räse
	As the building complex on Dorotheenstrasse opened, the Hygiene-Institute moved into these quarters. The building was planned by Emil Dubois-Reymond and constructed by Spieker from 1874 to 1877. It is one of the most important examples of Berlin’s architecture from the founding years of the German Empire. Particularly noteworthy is the section that includes the lecture room and the library, where Robert Koch gave his groundbreaking speech about the discovery of the infectious agent of Tuberuculosis on March 24, 1882. For his work on this topic, Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1905. In memory of this event, World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated each year on March 24.