The first beginnings of the AGMB date back to the year 1966. Medical subject specialists who had come together for a meeting at Frankfurt discussed the proposal of establishing a permanent association. The Third International Congress on Medical Librarianship in Amsterdam 1969 finally provided the impetus for the founding of the AGMB on November 11th, 1970 in Cologne.

Since then the AGMB has carried out numerous excellently organized and greatly successful (annual) meetings, thus providing medical librarianship with a valuable communication platform. Meanwhile working groups have further intensified the exchange of information and experience.

On the initiative of long-term chairman Ulrich Korwitz and with the consent of the general meeting, the AGMB became a registered association on June 1st, 2000. The following statements made by Franz Josef Kühnen, “founding father” and honorary member of the AGMB,  and Klaus Gerber, long-term chairman, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the AGMB summarize the tasks and aims of the association:

"Die Aufgaben der AGMB bestehen darin, Probleme aufzuarbeiten und auch im internationalen Rahmen vertreten zu sein." ("The tasks of the AGMB consist in managing problems and being present in the international context also.")

Keynote speech Franz Josef Kühnen (pdf)

"Die AGMB bietet ihren Mitgliedern umfangreiche Informationen, Austausch von Erfahrungen, persönliche Kontakte und gegenseitigen Rat - manchmal sogar Hilfe." ("The AGMB offers its members extensive information, exchange of experience, personal contacts, and mutual advice – sometimes even help.“)

Keynote speech Klaus Gerber (pdf)

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the AGMB in 2010, Franz Josef Kühnen, in his opening speech at the conference in Mainz, took the audience back to the times when the AGMB was founded:
Opening speech Franz Josef Kühnen 2010 (pdf)

 

Obituary Klaus Gerber, 2014