Army Medical Service (Germany)

The Army Medical Service (German: Sanitätsdienst Heer or Sanitätsdienst des Heeres) is a non-combat specialty branch of the German Army traditionally responsible for providing medical services within the army, and which has a humanitarian function during armed conflicts in accordance with international humanitarian law, and specific rights and responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions, their additional protocols and customary international humanitarian law. It is entitled under international humanitarian law to use the red cross as a protective sign and its personnel are protected persons under international humanitarian law. Since 2002, most of its former responsibilities have been transferred to the Joint Medical Service.

The Army Medical Service has been a separate branch within the military since the German Empire. The first Army Medical Service was established in Prussia and Germany between 1868 and 1873, and was regulated by the Kriegssanitätsordnung für das deutsche Heer from 1878. Following German rearmament in the 1950s, the medical service was reestablished based on the traditional structure, with a medical service for each military branch. This changed in 2002, when the medical services were largely merged to form the Joint Medical Service, although the Army Medical Service still exists as a much smaller organisation.

The Army Medical Service consists of military physicians, nurses, medics and other groups, and is traditionally responsible for providing medical humanitarian relief in armed conflicts, including caring for sick or wounded soldiers on the and operating first aid stations and field hospitals near the frontline, as well as organising transports of patients. Other responsibilities include occupational health services, medical disaster relief and international humanitarian missions in non-combat situations.

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