History

With the "Imperial Message" of 1881, the groundwork was laid for German Social Insurance. There followed the "Accident Insurance Act of 6 July 1884", announced on 9 July in the Imperial Law Gazette. Despite the many amendments that have been made in the intervening years, the main features of this law are still in effect today:

• protection of insured persons and their families from the consequences of occupational accidents or illnesses,
• financing of contributions exclusively by employers, on the pay-as-you-go principle, and their consequent release from employer liability,
• comprehensive prevention, rehabilitation and compensation from a single source.

A key milestone in the history of statutory occupational accident insurance is represented by Book VII of the Social Code (SGB VII), which went into effect on 1 January 1997. Book VII replaced the provisions in Book III of the Reich Insurance Code, which had been in force for almost 100 years.

For further information on the history of occupational accident insurance, see the websites of:

• the Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung (DGUV) (in English)  and
• the Central Association of Agricultural Social Insurance (Spitzenverband der landwirtschaftlichenSozialversicherung; in German).