[The SGB IX, book 9 of the German social code, in the development of social security law].

The SGB IX is the legal basis of rehabilitation in Germany since 2001. It is embedded in the codification of the German social code, the Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB). There it has an intermediate function between the general social law and the special laws of the social insurance and social security institutions. Rehabilitation in Germany is working in a system of several different institutions with different legal roots. In special these are compensation of damages caused by employment accident and war and the avoidance of disability benefits by rehabilitation and activation. Inequality of treatment of disabled people according to the cause of their disability and to their employment status are accepted less; common principles of rehabilitation are being searched. Important reforms of rehabilitation law have taken place in 1974 and 1975. Since then problems have become visible in implementation and in the coordination of the complex system. SGB IX is a new effort for a general rehabilitation law. Open questions remain in handling the relations between rehabilitation and sickness treatment, long term care and prevention. Important are the newly defined terms for participation (Teilhabe) and disability (Behinderung), which build the linkage of SGB IX with constitutional law and with the health sciences. A weak point is still the relation of disability and age. Political attempts for unequal benefits in health insurance endanger the now reached level of rehabilitation law.