Our Institute was founded in 1959 at the University of Münster (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität) as a Department for the History of Medicine. Its first Director was Professor Dr. Karl Eduard Rothschuh (1908–1984), whose work in the fields of the History of Medicine and Science as well as the Philosophy of Medicine and Biology brought the Institute and its staff international recognition.

In 1974, Rothschuh’s chair was succeeded by his former student, Professor Dr. Richard Toellner (1930-2019), who continued the Institute’s expansion and broad scholarly orientation. Since 1976, under the name “Institute for the Philosophy and History of Medicine,” he also extended its profile to include Medical Ethics. Following Toellner’s retirement in 1995, the Institute was provisionally headed for eight years by Professor Dr. Dr. Peter Hucklenbroich, a long-standing member of the Institute.

In 2003, the Faculty rededicated the chair into a professorship for Medical Ethics and appointed Professor Dr. Bettina Schöne-Seifert to the position. At the same time, the Institute was again renamed, becoming the "Institute for Medical Ethics, History and Philoisophy of Medicine.” Since then, the triad of disciplines—also formally anchored in the revised medical licensure regulations at that time—has been fully represented in both research and teaching. The Philosophy of Medicine was primarily overseen by Professor Dr. Dr. Peter Hucklenbroich, while the History of Medicine was the responsibility of Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Kröner. In their succession, a professorship for the History and Philosophy of Medicine was established in 2015 and filled by Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Hofer.

Since September 2024, Professor Dr. Claudia Bozzaro has been Director of the Institute and Chair of Medical Ethics.