About physiopraxis

physiopraxis

physiopraxis is the German-language specialist journal for physiotherapy, published by the Georg Thieme Verlag in Stuttgart since 2003. With a print run of 4,780 copies — 4,770 distributed, 4,750 sold (Q2/2025) — it serves the physiotherapists' practice: the clinical cases, the red-flag diagnostics, the professional politics, the practice economics, the history and the perspectives, month after month. The departments: physiopolitik, physioforum, mediathek, Profession, Perspektiven — the politics, the forum, the library, the profession and the perspectives structuring every issue. The journal's articles carry the DOI series 10.1055 and appear on Thieme Connect. The editorial voice — the subject editor Isabelle Bonno's 2019 editorial on the therapist stereotypes — shows the journal's practitioner-near tone: the "Dr. Physio," the "Sunshine," the "Mother Theresa" of the practice everyday.

Overview

physiopraxis is a German-language specialist journal for physiotherapy, published by the Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart. It has appeared since 2003 (physiopraxis 2003; 1(7)). The circulation: 4,780 printed, 4,770 distributed, 4,750 sold (Q2/2025 media data) — the nearly complete sale of the print run showing the subscription journal's loyal readership. The programme: the clinical practice — the red-flag articles, the case reports — the professional politics — the physiopolitik — the practice economics — the surveys on the physiotherapy practices' situation — the forum — the physioforum debates — the media library — the book comparisons — and the perspectives — the physiotherapy's future. The clinical articles are the journal's medical core: the red-flag diagnostics — the serious pathologies behind the musculoskeletal complaints — taught through the detective cases: the kickboxer's shoulder bump that is not the muscle tear, the evening head-tilt's hidden cause. The professional-politics articles — the physiopolitik — cover the profession's legal framework: the model projects' participation rights since July 2008, the IFK and ZVK chairs' interviews, the manual-therapy certificates' Federal Social Court status. The practice-economics articles — the Profession department — quantify the everyday: the small practices' employee-search struggles, the health-insurance remuneration's meagreness, the bureaucracy's annual growth, the IFK's biennial profitability survey's facts for the fee negotiations. The forum articles — the physioforum — host the profession's debates: the DDR physiotherapy's level (the Michalski-Quaiser exchange), the FIBO physio day's lectures. The media-library articles — the mediathek — review the professional literature: the lymphology books' green-vs-yellow comparison. The perspectives articles — the Perspektiven — imagine the future: the Physiopunk students' socially and ecologically responsible physiotherapy scenarios. The readers: the physiotherapists — the practice owners, the employed therapists, the students — the German-speaking physiotherapy's practitioners. The practice owners — the small practices' entrepreneurs — read the journal for the economics and the politics: the fee negotiations' facts, the bureaucracy's changes. The employed therapists — the clinics' and practices' staff — read it for the clinical: the red flags, the techniques. The students — the next generation — read it for the profession's debates: the Physiopunk perspectives, the academisation. The journal's tone: the practitioner-near, the humorous, the debating — the columnist Ulrike Maier's therapist characters, the readers' letters on the DDR physiotherapy.

History

physiopraxis's history begins in 2003: the Thieme Verlag's journal for the physiotherapists' practice — the 21st volume year running in 2023. The 2003 founding year's context: the physiotherapy's academisation debates, the model projects' participation rights (since July 2008 the legally secured co-determination), the practice economics' pressures. The journal's 20-plus years span the profession's transformation: the manual-therapy certificates' wall decorations and the Federal Social Court's rulings, the skilled-workers' shortage, the bureaucracy's growth, the health-insurance remuneration's meagreness. The 2003 founding year's physiotherapy — the Heilpraktiker-adjacent practice, the prescription-bound therapy — differs from the 2023 journal's: the direct access debated, the academisation advancing, the evidence-based practice demanded. The certificates' story — the manual therapy, PNF, Bobath certificates decorating the practice walls, costing effort, time and money, impressing the patients — and the Federal Social Court's verdict that they are no longer needed for the admission extension: the profession's qualification inflation questioned. The skilled-workers' shortage — the practice owners unable to pay the desired salaries from the meagre insurance remuneration — is the economics' vicious circle: the bureaucracy's growth adding the unpaid hours. The journal's surveys — the IFK's biennial, the Bavarian annual — arm the fee negotiations with the facts: the practice press as the profession's economic advocate. The 2019 editorial — the subject editor Isabelle Bonno presenting the red-flag kickboxer case (Prof. Harry von Piekartz, Prof. Christoff Zalpour) and the therapist stereotypes — shows the mature journal: the clinical detective work and the self-irony. The editorial's dramaturgy — the case's suspense (the muscle-tear suspicion, the difficult trace search), the column's amusement (the recognisable characters), the reading invitation — is the practice press's art: the professionals entertained while educated. The subject editor's role — the Fachredakteurin curating the issue — is the journal's quality: the experts' articles selected, the cases vetted, the columns commissioned. The 2023 "Physiopunk" perspectives — the Norwegian physiotherapy students' transformative scenarios — show the journal's future orientation: the socially and ecologically responsible physiotherapy imagined. The Physiopunk essays — the stories of the responsible future healthcare — bring the students' voices into the established journal: the Arctic University of Norway's scenarios, the two essay collections, the transformative change's necessity amid the crises. The perspectives department — the Zukunftsdenken — is the journal's innovation: the practice press imagining the practice's future.

Coverage and Content

The journal's programme is the physiotherapist's practice. The clinical: the red-flag articles — the 27-year-old kickboxer's shoulder bump, the differential diagnostics — the case reports. The professional politics: the physiopolitik — the model projects' status (IFK's Ute Repschläger, ZVK's Ulrike Steinecke interviewed), the certificates' legal status. The practice economics: the Profession surveys — the small practices' struggles, the IFK's biennial profitability survey, the Bavarian association's annual analysis with the Munich health-economics institute. The forum: the physioforum — the readers' letters (the DDR physiotherapy debate: Barbara Michalski's defence, Thomas Quaiser's objection), the FIBO physio day. The media library: the mediathek — the book comparisons (the green doctor's book vs. the yellow physiotherapist's guide to lymphology). The perspectives: the Perspektiven — the transformative change, the Physiopunk essays. The journalism is the practice press's: the clinical, the political, the economic — the physiotherapists' journal.

Organization and Ownership

physiopraxis is published by the Georg Thieme Verlag KG in Stuttgart — the medical publishing house founded in 1886, the journal's institutional home since 2003. The subject editor (2019): Isabelle Bonno; the columnist Ulrike Maier. The commercial model is the medical specialist journal's: the subscriptions — the 4,750 sold copies — the physiotherapy industry's advertising via the media data — the device manufacturers, the training providers — and the Thieme Connect licenses' institutional revenues. Detailed editorial-staff and founding information beyond the 2003 first volume is not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The journal's platform is thieme-connect.com — the Thieme E-Journals with the abstracts, the full texts, the DOI series 10.1055/a and 10.1055/s, the 2003–2023 archive browsable by volume. In the German physiotherapy-press landscape physiopraxis occupies the practice-journal pole: the 2003-founded Thieme journal — the red flags and the therapist types, the practice economics and the DDR debate — from Stuttgart to the physiotherapy practices, in print and on Thieme Connect, for the physiotherapists. The practice-journal positioning — the clinicians' monthly against the scientists' journals — defines the readership: the practice owners and employed therapists reading for the Monday morning, not the dissertation. The Thieme house's medical portfolio — the 140 journals — is the context: the physiotherapy journal in the medical publisher's programme, the therapists alongside the physicians. The humour — the therapist stereotypes' column, the self-recognition's amusement — is the journal's humanity: the practice everyday's characters celebrated, the "Dr. Physio" and the "Sunshine" known to every practice.