On the 8th September 1951, delegates representing seventeen national physiotherapy associations met in Copenhagen, Denmark to establish the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT); now World Physiotherapy. Seventy-five years later it represents more than 600,000 physiotherapists through 129 member organisations, and is recognised as the global voice of the profession.
The creation of the WCPT is often portrayed as a natural consequence of the international optimism that followed the Second World War; a profession recognising the benefits of cooperation and coming together around a common purpose. The archival record suggests a more interesting story.
Recently examined correspondence, committee minutes, organisational reports and personal accounts from several countries reveal that the creation of WCPT was neither straightforward nor inevitable. Behind the celebrations of Copenhagen lay competing organisations, conflicting visions of professional identity, disputes over governance, and moments when the entire project appeared close to collapse. Yet these same documents reveal something equally significant. Despite profound disagreements, the leaders of the profession consistently prioritised the long-term interests of physiotherapy over national, organisational and personal ambitions.
As our gifts to World Physiotherapy to help celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary, the International Physiotherapy History Association has written the previously unknown recount of the dramatic events leading up to its birth, and in a recently published companion article provided a commentary on the qualities that made its formation possible.
Happy birthday World Physiotherapy!
