The pulmonary pathology working group was founded in 2008 and has been officially active since the 93(rd) Freiburg DGP ("Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pathologie", German Society of Pathology) congress in 2009. It is based on the competence and activity of its members who elect the board, the chair, and its vice chair. Both are responsible for the organization of the sessions at the annual DGP congress in the spring and a meeting in the fall. The vice chair will replace the chair after one year. The working group concentrates on scientific issues and topics relevant for daily practice, including solutions to specific diagnostic cases. This article highlights the history of the working group, the pulmonary sessions at the 95(th) DGP congress in Leipzig 2011, and future activities. New results for lung cancer from whole genome sequencing are addressed. Specifically, recent data is presented on FGFR1 amplification, DDR2 mutation, and EML4-ALK fusion, the role of non-coding RNA, cell adhesion, the cytoskeleton, as well as the problem of subtyping of lung tumors in cytology.