In 1867, Adolf von Baeyer and others founded the German Chemical Society (DChG) in Berlin, with the renowned chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann as its first president. As early as the following year, the Society published its first scientific journal, the “Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft”, which is now published in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry and the European Journal of Organic Chemistry .

The second predecessor organisation of today’s GDCh, the Association of German Chemists (VDCh), was founded in 1887. Its members’ journal is Angewandte Chemie, which still exists today. Whilst the DChG primarily brings together members from universities, the VDCh focuses on employees in the chemical industry.

The first job placement service for chemists was established under the umbrella of the VDCh as early as 1900. Today, the GDCh Career Service supports job seekers. At the same time, the first Divisions – sub-organisations that still play a key role in shaping the character of the GDCh today – were established within the VDCh. The 50th anniversary of the DChG on 18 April 1918 coincided with the 100th birthday of its founding president, August Wilhelm von Hofmann. The early years of the 20th century also saw the establishment of internationally recognised scientific awards, such as the Liebig commemorative coin and the Emil Fischer Medal, which are still awarded today. In 1921, the DChG, VDCh and the predecessor organisation of today’s VCI jointly founded Verlag Chemie (VCH), now Wiley-VCH GmbH.

The Nazi era did not leave the GDCh’s predecessor organisations unscathed. This is reflected, amongst other things, in the so-called ‘Führer principle’, the dismissal of Jewish staff and their incorporation into the Nazi Federation of German Engineers.&

The history of the GDCh’s predecessor organisations was later examined in detail by the GDCh. In 2015, the study “Chemists in the Third Reich”, written by the historian of science Helmut Maier on behalf of the GDCh, was published.&

After the war, neither the DChG nor the VDCh continued to operate. Instead, both organisations were incorporated into the German Chemical Society, which was initially founded in 1946 in the British zone and in 1949 throughout West Germany. The first chairman, or president, of the GDCh was Karl Ziegler, who later won the Nobel Prize. By the 1950s, membership had already exceeded the 5,000 mark.

In 1953, the Chemical Society of the GDR was founded in the German Democratic Republic (CG)

In 1958, the GDCh had over 10,000 members; in 1962, the GDCh Office moved to its current premises in Frankfurt am Main. Whilst the 1960s were characterised by a deepening of specialist knowledge, the 1970s and 1980s saw progress in environmental commitment (including the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Environmentally Relevant Substances (BUA) as well as internationalisation.

Following German reunification in 1990, the members of the Chemical Society resolved to dissolve the organisation with effect from 31 December1990. Around two-thirds of the Chemical Society’s approximately 4,500 members at the time subsequently joined the GDCh, whose membership rose to over 25,000 by 1992.

In the second half of the 1990s, the GDCh initiated a reorganisation of the continental European journal landscape in chemistry. Under the leadership of the GDCh, national journals of European chemical societies were merged into new, joint European journals under the umbrella of ChemPubSocEurope, now Chemistry Europe. This led to the creation of Chemistry – A European Journal and many other highly successful journals.

In 1997 , the German Young Chemists Network (now Young Chemistry Forum; JCF) was established as a structure within the GDCh for its young members.

Together with the Ministry of Research and other chemistry organisations, the GDCh coordinated the national ‘Year of Chemistry’ to mark the 200th anniversary of Justus von Liebig’s birth in 2003. In 2006 , the Senior Expert Chemists (SEC) were launched.

With the start of the new millennium, international networking activities are becoming increasingly important. For example, the GDCh was one of the driving forces behind the transition, in 2004, of the former Federation of European Chemical Societies (FECS) into the European Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS, now the European Chemical Society) and, in 2010, the organiser of the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Nuremberg, which attracted around 2,500 visitors. In 2011, the GDCh played a key role in organising the International Year of Chemistry, proclaimed by the United Nations and IUPAC.

This international focus continued in the years that followed. Further European journals were launched, including ChemistryOpen in 2011, the first purely open-access society journal. Cooperation with EuCheMS and the IUPAC is expanded. In 2013 the GDCh exceeded 30,000 members for the first time.

In 2017 the GDCh celebrates the GDCh marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the German Chemical Society, the older of the two predecessor societies, and in 2024 the German Chemical Society itself will celebrate its 75th anniversary.

In the 2020s, collaborations with partner professional societies at home and abroad will be further expanded. Under the banner of Science Unites , the five major mathematical and natural science societies are joining forces (alongside the GDCh, these are the societies for Earth Sciences (DVGeo), Mathematics (DMV), Physics (DPG) and Biology (VBIO)). They publish joint press releases, statements and position papers, and organise parliamentary evenings in Berlin. These events address topics such as climate change, sustainability and artificial intelligence.