The “Club of Mainz” for Improved Emergency and Disaster Medicine Worldwide was conceived in 1973 and founded in 1976 by about 10 reanimatologists under the leadership of the late Rudolf Frey (Crit Care Med 6:389, 1978). Its objectives are: “(1) to foster optimal resuscitation and life support methodologies worldwide; (2) to concern itself with a range from everyday emergencies to mass disasters, with appropriate consideration for differences in populations, available resources and other factors; and (3) to informally pursue the objectives by combining the resources of scientific, social and related information and experiences, together with international communication and collaboration.”

The Club of Mainz recognizes the experiences and contributions of other organizations for public health related disaster relief, which particularly helps uninjured survivors and rehabilitates regions, but wishes to add the potentials of modern resuscitation (emergency and critical care medicine), focusing on the acutely ill or injured individual victim in distress.

The Club of Mainz was inspired by the Club of Rome, which was initiated in 1968 by the late Aurelio Peccei and some other concerned non-medical leaders and scientists. The 10 non-medical key problems identified by the Club of Rome have equivalents for disaster medicine: (1) overpopulation (starvation); (2) no long range planning; (3) destruction of the environment (destruction of people); (4) business crises; (5) competitive armament leading to wars; (6) poverty (starvation, epidemics); (7) chaotic development in science and technology; (8) antiquated institutions; (9) schisms between East and West and between North and South; and (10) lacking moral leadership.