Charité University Hospital – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The University Hospital Charité in Berlin, founded by order of the King of Prussia Frederick William I in 1710, is the largest clinic in Europe and the most important medical center of the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Charité is affiliated with the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin.
Charité is not just a hospital. From a shelter for the poor and homeless in the 19th century, it became a center of world medicine, and today it is one of the most renowned university hospitals in the world.
Outstanding personalities such as Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland — one of the best practicing physicians of his time, Albrecht von Graefe — the founder of modern ophthalmology, Otto Heubner — a pioneer of pediatrics, Rudolf Virchow — the founder of cellular pathology, and the famous microbiologist Robert Koch, who discovered the tuberculosis bacterium, worked here. Charité is the clinic that produced more than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology.
Facts and Figures
Today, the University Medical Complex Charité in Berlin includes 17 centers and more than 100 clinics united across 4 campuses, employing 19,977 staff members. Despite its enormous scale, only highly qualified doctors are allowed to practice at the clinic.
According to a Newsweek study for 2025, Charité University Hospital was recognized as the best university hospital in Germany. The ranking is based on an online survey of more than 85,000 medical experts and patient satisfaction data. The clinic’s hygiene standards were also taken into account. Charité received a score of 92.6. In addition, Charité University Hospital is an excellent base for scientific research and specialist training.
Working at Charité in Germany is honorable, and studying there is prestigious. The clinic has 320 professors who pass on their knowledge and expertise to students. No other European hospital can boast such a number of highly competent medical specialists. None has such a number of patients.
The clinic treats more than 920,000 patients per year. Every day around 20 babies are born at Charité. Up to 7,000 surgeries are performed per month.
The capabilities of the multidisciplinary Charité complex allow it to serve patients from different countries of the world in all medical fields. Charité includes the best oncology clinics in Berlin. Special attention is paid to the Center for Rare Diseases. For every individual case, the clinic has its own expert, and each patient receives personalized care.
To select the optimal treatment method for a complex medical problem, a panel of physicians from related specialties is convened. Innovations developed at Charité immediately make their way to the hospital bed and are applied in practice. If a proven discovery or innovation appears in medicine, Charité implements it immediately. Furthermore:
The high qualification of physicians and the clinic’s first-class equipment ensure the highest quality of medical care.
Main Specialties
Out of 60 medical fields in the clinic, only the most important ones are listed below as examples:
- Oncology and Hematology
- Gastroenterology and Hepatology
- Gynecology and Obstetrics
- Neurosurgery
- Cardiology
- Otolaryngology
- Neurology
- Nephrology
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonology and Infectiology
- Rheumatology
- Urology
- Surgery (general, thoracic, orthopedic, neurosurgical, transplant, plastic, vascular, metabolic)
- Endocrinology
- Radiotherapy
Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology
The Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology is a center of maximum care, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the liver and biliary tract, pancreas, and gastrointestinal tract.
The physicians of the department work closely with specialists from the departments of surgery, radiology, and nuclear medicine to offer modern diagnostics and individualized treatment in the following areas:
- diseases of the liver and bile ducts;
- diseases of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines;
- pancreatic diseases;
- hepatobiliary, gastrointestinal, and neuroendocrine tumors;
- chronic inflammatory bowel diseases;
- gastroenterological and hepatological intensive care;
- nutrition-related diseases, including obesity and short bowel syndrome;
- endoscopic ultrasound examinations;
- complex endoscopic procedures and minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment methods.
As a university medical institution, the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology continuously works on improving diagnostic and therapeutic procedures within the framework of numerous research projects. These include clinical and fundamental research conducted in cooperation with national and international research centers.
Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation
The Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Immunology at the Virchow Campus is part of Charité’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, which includes the departments of radiotherapy, immunology, transfusion medicine, and hematology. This structure ensures cooperation between interdisciplinary oncology centers, enabling patients to benefit from all the resources Charité has to offer.
The department has 96 inpatient beds and treats more than 2,700 inpatients and 8,000 outpatients annually. The department’s experts have extensive experience in diagnosing and treating oncological and hematological diseases.
The Oncology and Hematology Department at Charité serves as the base for several certified interdisciplinary oncology centers, allowing each case to be discussed during tumor boards with specialists from different fields. Certified centers include:
- abdominal oncology center;
- colorectal cancer center;
- pancreatic and gastric cancer center;
- hepatobiliary and esophageal tumor center;
- sarcoma center;
- ovarian cancer center.
The oncology department treats all malignant hematological diseases, including lymphomas and leukemias, as well as complex coagulation disorders. The center for allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the core of the department and is certified to perform CAR-T therapy using chimeric antigen receptor T cells.
Charité is proud of its elite medical staff. It is one of the few clinics in Germany where top medical and scientific specialists work for the benefit of their patients.
Take the first step toward world-class medical care, call +49 170 6247020 to book your appointment at Germany’s top clinic