Statement of the German Association of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Phoniatrie und Pädaudiolgie, DGPP) Eberhard Kruse, President After an initially different development of our subject within the frame of ENT - as a “sub-specialty phoniatrics” in the GDR and “partial field phoniatrics and pedaudiology” in the FRG - the now independent medical specialty of phoniatrics and pedaudiology was established with the resolution of the “Deutsche Ärztetag” for all of Germany in 1992. This independence marks the current culmination of a dynamic development towards a highly specialized and modern field in the medicine of communication disorders, a field whose academic tradition was initiated by the graduation of Hermann Gutzmann sen. as a Ph.D. at Charité University Hospital of Berlin in 1905.
		The strong dynamics in development and efficiency of the phoniatric and pedaudiologic discipline in Germany are reflected by internationally recognized, innovative research activities. This dynamical development has to be seen in direct connection with the founding of independent departments and chairs, originally only in Muenster, Mainz and Berlin. A similar high standard of research had been beyond the reach of the former sub-branch structures within the ENT departments as much as these structures prohibited appropriate support and promotion for the new generation of doctors and academics. Currently there exist 13 clinical departments with university chairs and 11 dependent departments with Ph.D. graduated directors in Germany. Additionally there are 33 non-university institutions and more than 70 colleagues working in private praxis. All in all, approximately 200 doctors holding a specialist degree are currently members of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie” (DGPP). Phoniatrics and pedaudiology, being a highly specialized medicine for communication disorders, are, not at all, concerned only with voice and its disorders, but also with disorders of speech and language, hearing impairments of children as well as with swallowing disorders. The clientele ranges from newborns to seniors high of age, from professionals putting high demands on their voices like singers or actors to complex multiple handicapped. This spectrum differs substantially from the one found in the ENT sector - both with regard to diagnosis and age profile - as well as from the ones, for example in neurology or paediatrics. Only because of this wide scope, the legitimation and the necessity arise for an independent medical discipline. This is reflected furthermore in the opening of the Union of the European Phoniatrics (UEP) to all physicians of communication disorders in Europe as agreed on in 1999.