Alfred Katzenstein

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Alfred Katzenstein (born May 16, 1915 in Mönchengladbach ; † January 16, 2000 in Berlin ) was a German-American psychologist, psychotherapist and politically motivated resistance fighter during the Nazi era .

Life

Alfred Katzenstein was the son of a Jewish clothing manufacturer. He attended the Stiftisch-Humanist Gymnasium in Mönchengladbach , which he had to leave as a primary student during the Nazi era before taking his Abitur. In the Third Reich he was the youngest member of a resistance group around Theodor Hespers and Hans Ebeling .

Since 1933 he was a member of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD). He fled to France, was expelled to Belgium and then went to the Netherlands.

From May 1937 to February 1939 he fought in the Spanish Civil War in the Edgar André battalion of the XI. International Brigade . From 1939 to 1941 he was interned in various camps in France, such as the camps of Saint-Cyprien , Gurs , Le Vernet and Les Milles . In the Camp de Rieucros camp , he met his future wife Ursula Pacyna (* 1916 in Berlin, † 1998).

In 1941 he managed to emigrate to the USA to live with his parents and siblings.

In 1942 Alfred Katzenstein became a US soldier. With the 9th US Infantry Division of the 1st US Army , he took part in World War II in Europe. He belonged to the special department CIC ( Counter Intelligence Corps ). His division was involved in the liberation of the Dora concentration camp near Nordhausen. After the end of the war in June / July 1945 he went to his hometown in American uniform. December 1945 he was released and returned to the USA.

He took on American citizenship, began studying social pedagogy, but then studied psychology at the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis in Kansas , where he also received his doctorate.

In June 1954 Alfred Katzenstein returned to Germany with his wife Ursula. He settled in the GDR. In 1973 he was appointed professor. He was considered one of the most important clinical psychologists in the GDR.

In August 1989 he took part in a meeting of former Jewish citizens in Mönchengladbach.

Publications (selection)

  • and custom, Ellen: fear. Essence, origin, coping. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1989.
  • (Ed.): Hypnosis: Current problems in theory, experiment, etc. Clinic. Jena: G. Fischer VEB, 1971.

literature

  • Hans-Gerd Warmann: The German youth front. In: Gerhard Neudorf (editor): Idea and movement. Issue 97, March 2012, Asbach-Sickenberg, pp. 97-101, ISSN  1435-8883 .
  • Elfriede Kriegel: Position and tasks of psychotherapy in socialist health protection; a symposium on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Prof. Dr. Alfred Katzenstein. 1980, Berlin.
  • Günter Erckens: Jews in Mönchengladbach , Volume 2, Mönchengladbach 1989, p. 478 ff., ISSN  0175-4793

Web links

Commons : Alfred Katzenstein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Another source

Alfred Katzenstein's estate in the Psychology History Research Archive (PGFA) at the Distance University in Hagen

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Wolfradt Elfriede Billmann-Maheche Armin Stock. Published by German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945. A dictionary of persons.
  2. ↑ Uwe Wolfradt, Elfriede Billmann-Mahecha, Armin Stock (editor): German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945, p. 231.
  3. ^ Sibylle Hinze: Antifascists in Camp Le Vernet: Arbiss of the history of the Le Vernet concentration camp, 1939–1945, Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, 1988.
  4. ^ André Fontaine: Le Camp d'étrangers des Milles: 1939-1943, Aix-en-Provence 1989.
  5. ↑ Heike Bernhardt, Regine Lockot: With without Freud: on the history of psychoanalysis in East Germany, Psychosozial-Verlag 2000, p. 210.
  6. ↑ Heike Bernhardt, Regine Lockot: With without Freud: on the history of psychoanalysis in East Germany.
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Visit of the former Jewish citizens in Mönchengladbach: from August 24 to 31, 1989, documentation, Mönchengladbach 1989.
personal data
SURNAME Katzenstein, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American psychologist, psychotherapist and politically motivated resistance fighter during the National Socialist era
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 2000
Place of death Berlin