The "German Clinic for Diagnostics (DKD)" was founded in the spring of 1970 based on the model of a US "Mayo Clinic". The aim was to enable the diagnosis of complicated diseases through the cooperation of various specialists and modern examination procedures. The Frankfurt physician Dr. Leo Krutoff had already found supporters for his idea of a modern clinic for diagnostics in the mid-1960s. DKD Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1967. From 1970, around 40 doctors and state-of-the-art examination equipment were available to patients in the new DKD clinic building in Aukammtal.

The clinic quickly gained great medical recognition, but financial success was not forthcoming. For this reason, the state of Hesse, together with the Hesse Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the Hesse Medical Association, took over the clinic's sponsorship in 1973. Nevertheless, DKD did not cover its costs in the following years, which led to reprivatization in 1989. DKD GmbH was taken over in equal parts by Rhön-Klinikum AG and Enoch Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. From 1996, DKD belonged completely to Rhön-Klinikum AG.

Today it is part of the Helios Group. Among other things, the clinic has a dialysis center and is one of the largest bone marrow transplant centers in Germany.