The legal basis and the occupational disease related regulations of trade assigned statutory accident insurance institutions in Germany (Berufsgenossenschaften) were reviewed. German companies were required to hold membership in a Berufsgenossenschaft. The tasks of the German Berufsgenossenschaften were to prevent occupational accidents and diseases and health hazards in the workplaces, and to establish treatment, rehabilitation, and compensation for injured and diseased workers. There were 35 Berufsgenossenschaften in industry and trade, 20 regional Berufsgenossenschaften serving in the area of agriculture, and 54 accident insurance carriers in the public sector. The German occupational disease registry was based on a list of 67 defined occupational diseases. The acceptance of a claim required that an occupational exposure capable of causing the reported occupational disease must have occurred and there must have been a causal link between exposure and illness. In order to be compensated, employees must have stopped the causative working activity. If a claim was denied, the worker could have applied to the Social Welfare Tribunal, free of charge. The number of confirmed occupationally caused diseases in 1995 included 1,510 allergic airway diseases, 331 irritative airway diseases, and 59 isocyanate induced disorders. Seventy one percent of all confirmed occupationally caused diseases were accepted. Patients who were suffering from an accepted occupational disease but not entitled to a pension were entitled to curative treatment and were looked after by medical specialists paid by the Berufsgenossenschaft.

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