1950ies	Heinrich Borriss establishes the first Department for Microbiology headed by Hans-Jürgen Rehm at the Institute for Agrobiology. Research focus: synthesis of antibiotics.
1953	Wolfgang Manigk becomes head of the Department for Microbiology.
1955	Foundation of the first Institute for Microbiology headed by Wilhelm Schwartz as the first director. Research focus: geomicrobiology.
1959	The institute moves to the new campus at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Strasse 15.
1963	Friedrich Mach replaces Wilhelm Schwartz as director of the institute. Research focuses: molecular microbiology.
1968	Establishment of two research units: (1) General Microbiology headed by Friedrich Mach and Microbial Physiology headed by Heinz Weide & Manfred Köhler.
1977	The research unit Microbial Physiology gets renamed into Technical Microbiology.
1989	Along the reunion with the BRD two institutes are founded: (1) General and Special Microbiology headed by Michael Hecker and (2) Applied and Technical Microbiology headed by Manfred Köhler.
1990	Reunion of the two institutes to the Institute of Microbiology headed by Michael Hecker and hosting the two departments Microbial Physiology & Molecular Biology (head: Michael Hecker) and Applied and Technical Microbiology (head: Manfred Köhler). Research focus: Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, stress physiology, microbial proteomics (Michael Hecker); geomicrobiology (Manfred Köhler).
1992	Frieder Schauer becomes head of the Department Applied Microbiology (formerly Applied and Technical Microbiology). Research focus: Microbial degradation of environmental pollutants.
2005	The department Biochemistry of Metabolism headed by Rüdiger Bode gets affiliated to the Institute for Microbiology. Research focus: amino acid metabolism of yeasts.
2011	Katharina Riedel is appointed as professor for Microbiology of the University of Greifswald. (in parallel to Michael Hecker).
2012	The department Microbial Ecology headed by Christian Gliesche gets affiliated to the Institute for Microbiology. Research focus: marine microbial ecology
2012	Granting of a novel research building „C-FunGene“, in which the Institute for Microbiology will move in 2017.
2013	The Department for Biochemistry gets renamed into Department for Microbial Proteomics and becomes headed by Dörte Becher. Research focus: microbial proteomics and mass spectrometry.
2013	Katharina Riedel replaces Michael Hecker as managing director of the Institute for Microbiology and chair for microbiology. Research focus: Gram-negative opportunistic pathogens, biofilms, microbial proteomics and metaproteomics.
2014	The Department Microbial Ecology moves from the island Hiddensee to Greifswald into the novel LPG-building at the campus Berthold-Beitz-Platz.
2015	Tim Urich replaces Frieder Schauer. He is appointed as professor for Bacterial Physiology. Research Focus: gut microbiota in human and animal, methanogenic archaea, interactions between soil microorganisms and their impact on carbon and nitrogen cycling.