Related party transactions - Service agreements and products - General (Details)		3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020	Mar. 31, 2020
Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma Ltd.
Related party transactions
Ownership in joint venture (as a percent)	45.00%
Fresenius SE
Related party transactions
Proportion of ownership interest in reporting entity (as a percent)	32.17%	32.17%
Fresenius SE Companies \| Minimum
Related party transactions
Term of related party agreement		1 year
Fresenius SE Companies \| Maximum
Related party transactions
Term of related party agreement		5 years

The proportion of ownership interest in a joint venture attributable to the entity. [Refer: Joint ventures [member]]

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Name IAS
-Number 27
-IssueDate 2019-01-01
-Paragraph 17
-Subparagraph b
-Clause iii
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/xifrs-link?type=IAS&num=27&code=ifrs-tx-2019-en-r&anchor=para_17_b_iii&doctype=Standard
-URIDate 2019-03-27

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Name IAS
-Number 27
-IssueDate 2019-01-01
-Paragraph 16
-Subparagraph b
-Clause iii
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/xifrs-link?type=IAS&num=27&code=ifrs-tx-2019-en-r&anchor=para_16_b_iii&doctype=Standard
-URIDate 2019-03-27

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Name IFRS
-Number 12
-IssueDate 2019-01-01
-Paragraph 21
-Subparagraph a
-Clause iv
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/xifrs-link?type=IFRS&num=12&code=ifrs-tx-2019-en-r&anchor=para_21_a_iv&doctype=Standard
-URIDate 2019-03-27

Name:	ifrs-full_ProportionOfOwnershipInterestInJointVenture
Namespace Prefix:	ifrs-full_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration