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News | 10/02/2025
READY FOR THE MUSEUM

COVID-19 Testing Unit as part of Munich's city history

Exhibits from the Munich Tropical Institute, documenting the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been added to the collection of the Münchner Stadtmuseum.
Five years ago, the first coronavirus case in Germany was identified at the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the LMU Hospital in Munich. Immediately afterwards, the Tropical Institute set up what is believed to be Germany's first COVID-19 test station. On February 5, 2025, Director Prof. Dr. med. Michael Hoelscher and Dr. med. Camilla Rothe from the Munich Tropical Institute have now donated objects from this early period of the pandemic to Director Dr. Frauke von der Haar and Dr. Simon Goeke from the Stadtkultur collection of the Münchner Stadtmuseum.
Münchner Stadtmuseum
Handover of the Corona objects to the Münchner Stadtmuseum, from left to right, Dr. Simon Goeke (Münchner Stadtmuseum City Culture Collection), Dr. med. Camilla Rothe (Head of Outpatient Department at the Tropical Institute), Dr. Frauke von der Haar (Director of the Münchner Stadtmuseum), Prof. Dr. med. Michael Hoelscher (Director of the Tropical Institute)

The exhibits from the former COVID-19 Testing Unit (CTU) at the Munich Tropical Institute - an information banner and a poster with instructions for visitors to the testing station - provide an exemplary insight into the challenges and contribution of medical facilities in Munich in coping with the global health crisis.

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Hoelscher, Director of the Tropical Institute at LMU Klinikum München, commented: "We are delighted that the Munich City Museum is including the exhibits from the test station in its collection and that our activities to overcome the pandemic are being documented and honored as part of Munich's city history."

"The Münchner Stadtmuseum responded very early to the coronavirus pandemic with a call for collections. We are therefore delighted to receive objects from the Munich Tropical Institute from the early days of the pandemic to add to our collection," said Dr. Frauke von der Haar, Managing Director of the Münchner Stadtmuseum.

Münchner Stadtmuseum

The COVID-19 Testing Unit at the Munich Tropical Institute

The team led by Dr. med. Camilla Rothe from the Munich Tropical Institute diagnosed the first COVID-19 case in Germany on 27.01.2020 (laboratory analysis by the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology). Under the direction of PD Dr. med. Günter Fröschl, the Tropical Institute set up a COVID-19 test unit in a separate building area of the institute on 28.01.2020.

By decision of the Bavarian State Government and together with the City of Munich, the testing capacities were then expanded by a tent in the outdoor area of the Tropical Institute (Georgenstraße) and opened on 23.03.2020 by the then Bavarian Minister of Science Bernd Sibler. By the end of the one-year operation of the test station until March 2021, over 10,000 PCR tests had been carried out there (see www.coronatest-tropeninstitut.de).

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