Since the early 1970s, pediatric nephrology has been established as a special field of pediatrics in Germany. Clinical centers for the care of children and adolescents with renal disease were established, mainly in university hospitals and often related to similar institutions in other European countries and in North America. The relatively low incidence of pediatric patients with renal disease led to the challenge to resolve diagnostic and therapeutic problems by initiating cooperative clinical studies, which initially mostly concerned nephrotic syndrome and renal insufficiency. In 1976 the German-speaking Society of Pediatric Nephrology (APN; since 2008, GPN) was founded in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 it was combined with a similar society existing in eastern Germany. The main activities of the GPN concern the performance of cooperative clinical studies, the organization of renal replacement programs, and the establishment of clinical guidelines and postgraduate courses. Two main meetings are held each year, one being exclusively devoted to the discussion of cooperative studies.