 The Institute was originally founded by Max Rubner as the "Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Arbeitsphysiologie", part of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1913.During the First World War the Institute focussed on nutrition and diet, and how ersatz substitutes could be found for particular foodstuffs which were becoming scarce.They worked alongside the Kriegsernährungsamt (War Nutrition Office) to try out different food surrogates both for the military and the civilian population.