This review explains the German Democratic Republic's strategy for preventing occupational diseases, which is considered one of the primary purposes of public health. It is a complex challenge that is being tackled through close cooperation between enterprise-linked occupational health services, the inspectorates of industrial hygiene, public health centers, and trade unions. In primary prevention, planning is based on results obtained in thorough analyses of all the relevant parameters, such as work conditions, industrial accidents, occupational diseases, morbidity records, and the quality of social services, and a complex work analysis has been developed to provide comprehensive and measurable information on health hazards due to harmful physical and chemical factors, dust, and job-related physical and neuropsychic stresses. Primary prevention is realized mainly through the elimination of health hazards and the improvement of work conditions, both based on a comprehensive framework of legislation. At the level of secondary prevention, company-linked occupational health services are a part of the national health services. A nationwide information system consists of compatible components for primary and secondary prevention, thus enabling control of exposure-effect relationships and the optimization of health policy.