Statistics in the medical sciences - the long Germany road to there

This contribution aims at tracing the development of statistical methods in medical science. Statistical methodology in medical research was first implemented in England in the age of the Enlightenment during the 18th century. As this approach stood in a clear opposition to the conventional medical practice directed in a rather authoritarian manner, this research field had to overcome a lot of difficulties. Nowadays, there is a widespread consensus that medical research is hardly possible without profound knowledge and application of statistical methods. Nevertheless, it took an extremely long time until the end of the 20th century, before this methodology was taken notice of and became appreciated. In order to better understand this long process, a brief summary of the development of statistics beginning from the Ancient Times is presented. It is shown how medical progress evolved parallel to the advancing mathematical understanding. A focus is put on the influence of the latter on medical sciences. Moreover, the special case of Germany in this aspect is analysed.