Historical relations of the development of chemistry as a science and a teaching subject on one hand and the formation of didactics of chemistry as an interdisciplinary science branch on the other are dealt with in the paper. The consequences are described of the formation of first chemistry textbooks and efforts at introducing chemistry as a general education subject at different levels of education systems. The analysis of chemical teaching in Germany, England, France, U.S.A. and Russia confirms the raison d'etre of an independently developed science branch - didactics of chemistry.