About Die Chirurgie

Die Chirurgie

Die Chirurgie is the leading German-language specialist journal for surgery, published monthly by Springer Medizin in Berlin as part of Springer Nature. Until May 2022 it appeared under the title Der Chirurg, which it had carried since its founding in 1929, before being renamed as part of a broad gender-inclusivity initiative by the publisher that replaced titles based on male professional designations with titles based on medical disciplines. The journal publishes practice-oriented review articles for surgeons in practice, hospitals, and research, offers certified continuing medical education, and serves as the official organ of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (DGCH) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemein- und Viszeralchirurgie (DGAV). With a sold print circulation of around 3,000 copies, an impact factor of 0.7, and more than 380,000 full-text downloads per year, it is the most important surgical journal in Germany.

Overview

Die Chirurgie is a monthly journal that addresses all surgeons working in private practice, hospitals, and research. Its editorial concept centres on practice-oriented review articles on surgical topics, written to be directly useful in clinical work. Each issue focuses on a thematic emphasis, and every thematic focus is accompanied by a questionnaire that allows readers to certify their continuing medical education, making the journal a working tool for professional development as well as a scientific publication.

The journal is published online-first by Springer Nature, with articles appearing digitally before the print edition. Contributions undergo peer review, and the journal is published by the Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgie (BDC), the professional association of German surgeons, together with an editorial board. It is also the official organ of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie, founded in 1872 as one of the oldest medical-scientific societies in the world, and of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemein- und Viszeralchirurgie, the society for general and visceral surgery.

The print circulation is 2,998 sold copies according to the 2023 media data, and the journal's reach extends far beyond print: more than 380,000 full-text article downloads are recorded per year, and nearly 10,000 institutes and clinics worldwide have access to the online version. The journal's ISSNs are 2731-6971 for print and 2731-698X online, and its impact factor stands at 0.7 as of 2025. The editorial board is led by Detlef Klaus Bartsch, Katharina Beyer, Christiane Bruns, Christoph Reißfelder, and Utz Settmacher. The journal's standing as the most important German-language surgical publication is reflected in its society partnerships, its peer-review standards, and its steadily growing digital usage, which together make it the reference journal for surgical continuing education in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

History

The journal was founded in 1929 as Der Chirurg, making it one of the oldest continuously published surgical journals in the German language. For more than nine decades it served as the central publication organ of German surgery, accompanying the specialty through the transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from the post-war rebuilding of German medicine through the rise of minimally invasive techniques to the digitalization of surgical practice.

The most significant recent milestone was the 2022 renaming. In the course of Springer Medizin's broad equality initiative, the publisher replaced its journal titles based on male professional designations with titles based on the medical disciplines themselves, following the concept of "Der Facharzt" becoming "Die Fachdisziplin". Der Chirurg became Die Chirurgie effective with the June 2022 issue, in the same wave that turned Der Anaesthesist into Die Anaesthesiologie, Der Internist into Die Innere Medizin, Der Gynäkologe into Die Gynäkologie, Der Hautarzt into Die Dermatologie, Der Onkologe into Die Onkologie, and Der Diabetologe into Die Diabetologie. The renaming preserved the journal's continuity, volume numbering, and bibliographic identity.

The journal remains among Springer Medizin's ten most-read journals, listed alongside MMW Fortschritte der Medizin, Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde, Die Innere Medizin, Die Anaesthesiologie, and Der Nervenarzt. Popular long-running rubrics include the Journal Club and Chirurgie und Recht, introduced by Henning Dralle, which have become fixtures of the journal's identity.

Coverage and Content

The journal publishes practice-oriented review articles on surgical topics aimed at all surgeons in practice, hospitals, and research. The reviews cover the full spectrum of general and visceral surgery as well as topics of broader surgical relevance, always with an emphasis on practical applicability. Each issue's thematic focus is accompanied by a CME questionnaire, allowing readers to earn certified continuing-education credits by working through the issue's central topic.

The Journal Club rubric discusses current publications from the international surgical literature, while Chirurgie und Recht addresses the legal questions that arise in surgical practice, from liability and documentation to patient consent. Original articles and case reports round out the content, and all contributions undergo peer review. The journal's online-first publication model means that new findings reach readers quickly, and the steady growth in full-text downloads, now exceeding 380,000 per year, testifies to the journal's acceptance in the surgical community.

As the organ of the DGCH and the DGAV, the journal also carries the societies' communications and reflects the professional concerns of organized German surgery. Its coverage connects clinical practice with the scientific literature and with the legal and professional framework in which surgeons work. Because the journal addresses surgeons across all settings, from the office-based practitioner to the university hospital researcher, its articles are written to balance scientific depth with direct clinical applicability, and the CME questionnaires give every issue a structured educational function that readers can use to document their continuing professional development.

Organization and Ownership

Die Chirurgie is published by Springer Medizin Verlag, the medical publishing division of Springer Nature, with editorial operations centred in Germany. The journal is published by the Berufsverband der Deutschen Chirurgie (BDC) together with an editorial board headed by Detlef Klaus Bartsch, Katharina Beyer, Christiane Bruns, Christoph Reißfelder, and Utz Settmacher. It serves as the official organ of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (DGCH), headquartered in Berlin and founded in 1872, and of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemein- und Viszeralchirurgie (DGAV).

The journal is indexed in the major scientific databases and carries an impact factor of 0.7 as of 2025. Its peer-review process and its society partnerships give it a central institutional position in German surgery: it is the journal in which the specialty's societies speak and in which its practitioners keep current.

Digital Presence

Die Chirurgie is published online-first on the Springer Nature Link platform, where articles appear before the print edition and are available to the nearly 10,000 institutes and clinics worldwide with access to the online version. The journal's page on the Springer Medizin website provides the current issue, the archive, and the CME questionnaires tied to each issue's thematic focus.

The digital reach of the journal is substantial: more than 380,000 full-text downloads per year are recorded, a figure that has grown steadily and demonstrates the journal's acceptance beyond its print circulation of around 3,000 copies. The journal's digital identity is integrated into the Springer Medizin and Springer Nature Link platforms rather than maintained as a separate brand site, which is standard for the publisher's specialist journals. Institutional access is arranged through the publisher's licensing, and nearly 10,000 institutes and clinics worldwide can reach the online version, giving the journal an international readership that extends well beyond the German-speaking surgical community.