Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains from outbreaks of infections in 6 hospitals in Berlin exhibited genomic DNA fragment patterns (SmaI digestion) and rRNA-gene spacer patterns (length polymorphism detected by PCR) which were different from those of previously known epidemic MRSA and nearly identical to those of S. aureus with phage pattern 95 and sensitivity to methicillin.