Foundation trust and board of trustees

After Carl Theodor died, his wife Marie-José made the eye clinic a foundation trust in 1917. Thanks to this, it was able to withstand some extremely difficult economic times over the course of the twentieth century.

As mentioned above, Herzog Carl Theodor of Bayern and his wife Marie-José, an infanta from Portugal, founded the eye clinic in 1895 in Nymphenburger Strasse. Carl Theodor used his own private assets for the acquisition, conversion and operation of the eye clinic, whereby his special concern was for indigent eye patients who were treated free of charge. Marie-José actively supported her husband. She assisted in operations and organised the nursing staff.
In order to continue the charitable work of Carl Theodor after his death in 1909, she set up a foundation trust. The former assistant to Carl Theodor, Dr. Heinrich Zenker, became medical director. The foundation trust made it possible to continue treating needy patients free of charge. The day-to-day running and further development of the eye clinic was also supported by donations from generous patients.
The clinic suffered financially during the 1920s as the revenues from paying patients became scarcer due to the generally difficult economic situation. The first healthcare provision contract with the newly introduced social and health insurance authority brought palpable relief. The Herzog Carl Theodor Eye Clinic is still run as a foundation trust and is open to all patients with statutory and private health insurance.
The foundation trust was presided over by a board of which the founder herself was a member until her death in 1943. Since then the founder family of the Herzöge in Bayern (Bavarian dukes) have been constantly represented on the board by a descendant of Herzog Carl Theodor. Since 1973 this has been S.K.H. Herzog Max in Bayern. Other current board members are Max Oppel and attorney at law Frieder Roth.
The board is advised in important matters by an advisory board consisting of four members. Current members of the advisory board are:

- Prof. Dr. Bernhard von Barsewisch, Augen-Tagesklinik Groß Pankow

- Prof. Dr. Anselm Kampik, Director of the eye clinic of the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich

- Prof. Dr. Dr. Heinrich Fürst, Medical Director of the Martha-Maria Hospital in Munich

- Attorney at law Jens Wernick, Managing Director of the Association of Private Clinics in Bavaria

Just as their predecessors, the current members of the board and the advisory board are continuing on the path set out by Herzog Carl Theodor and his wife and are doing everything to maintain the Herzog Carl Theodor Eye Clinic as a social institution at a high medical and scientific level.