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Yet in 1949 beyond the public health officers of the GDR the idea to expand the network of departments of pathology and forensic medicine was born. Until then institutes of legal medicine only existed in universities and medical academies. The fact that well-known forensics remained of the conviction that there was not an adequate supply of such institutes in university-less precincts leaded to the "conception for the establishment of a forensic service in the precincts of the GDR" in 1979.
In the following years new institutes were founded in Schwerin, Potsdam, Frankfurt/Oder, Suhl, Gera and Chemnitz which was then called Karl-Marx-Stadt. The 1st of September in 1981 Dr.V.Hofmann was appointed the first director of the institute of Karl-Marx-Stadt. The first autopsy took place in a provisorical autopsy room in Rembrandt Street 6 the 18th of October in 1981.

Simultaneously to the establishment of the forensic morphology a department of forensic toxicology was build up. At first this small department only made analysis in organs and body fluids of deceased persons. Later then also blood analysis of living persons, for example road users, crime victims and culprits.

In a building of the former university hospital in Rembrandt Street 6 the institute grew and developed steadily. Also the department of forensic toxicology was expanded by establishing the high pressure fluid chromatography and the capillary gas chromatography so that external analysis in cases of drug intoxication were no longer necessary

The employment of 4 additional doctors for specialized training made it possible to guarantee a forensic standby duty and to establish the examination of living persons under forensic aspects. In 1987 a laboratory for human biological questions was set up. In January of 1990 the institute had the best-staffed situation ever with 46 employees.
After the reunion of the GDR and the GFR the Institute of forensic medicine was equipped with modern technical devices, which enabled drug screenings in solid material and biological trails to be done. In 1993 a member of the staff of the institute gave the first expert opinion dealing with DNA analysis.

The 1st of March in 1992 Dr.med.habil. Dr.rer.nat. W.Gabler was appointed director of the Department of Legal Medicine.
Since 1996 the staff of the institute consists only of 26 employees.

In the December of 1995 the Department of Legal Medicine moved to one of the buildings of the former veterinarian hospital in Dresden Street 183. But until the spring of 1998 when the moving was completed the autopsies kept on taking in the old autopsy room in Rembrandt Street 6.

The 1st of January in 1997 the Department of Legal Medicine of the Regional Investigation Institute of Chemnitz was affiliated to the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Leipzig and Karl-Heinz Thiele was appointed acting director.

OA Dr. med. K.-H. Thiele
Acting Director