The 50th anniversary of the German Society for Immunology offers a unique opportunity to closely examine both the scientific triumphs and the development of the field of immunology in the German research landscape from the past to the present. This volume focuses on the evolution of immunological societies in the former Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic after 1945 and their unification after reunification. It also provides a detailed account of the period from the discovery and first clinical application of antibodies by Emil von Behring, Shibasaburo Kitasato, and Paul Ehrlich, through the incredible decline of immunology with the exodus of outstanding clinical immunologists after 1930, to the development of hybridoma technology by Georges Köhler and César Milstein in 1975. Includes numerous illustrations.