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Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich is the university hospital of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the Haidhausen district. As a maximum-care hospital covering almost every specialty, it receives the most complex and combined cases: tumours that need several kinds of treatment, rare diseases or several serious conditions at once. Since 1 August 2024 it has formed TUM Klinikum together with the German Heart Centre Munich.
In a German university hospital, each large department is a clinic in its own right, led by a director who is usually a professor. Below: a short history, the key departments and their directors, and how to arrange treatment from abroad.
History of Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich, Germany
Rechts der Isar began as a small hospital for the poor, opened by the municipality of Haidhausen on 1 May 1834 in the converted rooms of a former coffee house on today’s Ismaninger Straße, with rooms for 36 patients upstairs. In August 1840 the nursing order of the Barmherzige Schwestern (Sisters of Mercy) took over patient care and kept it for the next 130 years. The name came later: on 1 October 1854 Haidhausen became part of Munich, whose older hospital lay “left of the Isar”; the Haidhausen one was now called Krankenhaus rechts der Isar, “right of the Isar”.
It became a university hospital in 1967, when a growing number of medical students at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität led to the city’s second medical school opening at the Technical University. Munich’s other university hospital belongs to that university: LMU University Hospital Munich; like all university hospitals in Germany, both combine patient care with research and teaching. Since 2003 Rechts der Isar has been a legally independent public-law institution. In July 2008 its surgeons performed the world’s first transplant of both complete arms. After merging with the German Heart Centre into TUM Klinikum in 2024, it kept its name and is now TUM Klinikum Rechts der Isar.
Cancer Care and Surgery
Drug treatment of tumours and blood diseases is the field of the Department of Internal Medicine III, Haematology and Oncology, directed by Prof. Florian Bassermann. It treats benign and malignant blood disorders and tumours of the organs, bones and soft tissues with chemotherapy and other anti-cancer drugs.
Abdominal operations are performed by the Department of Surgery under Prof. Helmut Friess. Its field is visceral surgery, meaning surgery on the abdominal organs: oesophagus, stomach, bowel, liver, pancreas and bile ducts; the team also operates on hernias, the thyroid and adrenal glands and performs organ transplants. For other options in the city, see our overview of cancer hospitals in Munich.
Urology and the ProstaTUM Prostate Cancer Centre
The Department of Urology is led by Prof. Jürgen Gschwend, who also heads the ProstaTUM prostate cancer centre, the bladder cancer centre and the uro-oncology centre for tumours of the whole urinary and genital tract. All three are certified by the German Cancer Society (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft). Treatment options are explained on our page about prostate cancer treatment.
A certified organ cancer centre is not a separate building but a network of departments and doctors who treat cancer of one organ by shared rules for diagnosis and treatment. As a review of the certification programme in BMC Cancer describes, the German Cancer Society bases these rules on clinical guidelines and audits every centre each year. For the patient, the key element is the mandatory tumour board: urologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and other specialists review each case together and agree on a treatment plan instead of leaving it to one doctor.
Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neurosurgery and Orthopaedics
The Department of Internal Medicine I, Cardiology, Angiology and Pulmonology, directed by Prof. Karl-Ludwig Laugwitz, treats heart attacks and their after-effects, heart failure, valve disease and rhythm disorders. The Department of Internal Medicine II, gastroenterology, is led by Prof. Roland Schmid and treats diseases of the stomach, bowel and liver, plus diabetes, hormonal disorders, infections and digestive cancers.
The Department of Neurosurgery, which operates on the brain, spinal cord and spine, is directed by Prof. Bernhard Meyer. The Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Orthopaedics is led by Prof. Rüdiger von Eisenhart-Rothe, who also heads EndoTUM, the maximum-care joint replacement centre. It holds the higher of the two levels of Germany’s EndoCert certification: besides fitting artificial hips and knees, the team performs complex revision operations, replacing an existing implant that has loosened or become infected.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Rechts der Isar Hospital?
The main site is in Haidhausen on the right bank of the Isar, at Ismaninger Straße 22 by Max-Weber-Platz, in central Munich. From the main railway station it is four stops on the U4 or U5 underground line; from the airport, take the S8 to Ostbahnhof and then the U5 for one stop.
Can I be treated by the director of a department at Rechts der Isar?
Yes. Treatment by a department head, known in Germany as Chefarztbehandlung, is an optional service. It is agreed in writing in an optional services agreement (Wahlleistungsvereinbarung), and you are then treated by the director or by a deputy named in that agreement. Like a single or double room, it is charged on top of the standard costs.
How much does treatment at Rechts der Isar cost?
There is no fixed price: the hospital calculates the cost for each patient from their medical records, depending on the diagnosis, tests, treatment method and length of stay. After reviewing the documents, it issues a cost estimate (Kostenvoranschlag), and the patient pays the hospital directly. A single or double room and treatment by a department director are charged separately.
How AlenMed Arranges Treatment at Rechts der Isar
AlenMed prepares your documents and sends the request to the department at Rechts der Isar that treats your condition: we translate medical reports into German and attach your scans. The hospital’s doctors decide on admission and, if they can help, the hospital issues a cost estimate (Kostenvoranschlag). AlenMed is not a branch of the hospital: the patient pays the hospital directly. See also our page on arranging treatment in Germany.
We help with the visa invitation, our interpreter accompanies you to appointments and tumour boards, and we find accommodation nearby for your relatives. At the hospital you can choose a single or double room for an extra charge, and free patient Wi-Fi is available in the rooms. AlenMed’s office is in Munich, too.
This material is for reference only and is not an offer. The treatment plan is decided by the hospital’s doctor at an in-person consultation.