Berta Bobath
Berta Bobath (née Busse ; * December 5, 1907 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ; † January 20, 1991 in London ) was a German physiotherapist . Together with her husband Karel Bobath (1906–1991) she developed the multidisciplinary rehabilitative Bobath concept for the treatment and care of patients with diseases of the central nervous system .
Berta Ottilie Bobath spent her youth in Berlin . She completed her training as a gymnastics teacher at the Anna Hermann School in 1926 and then took a position as a teacher there. The takeover of power by Adolf Hitler and the persecution of Jews by the National Socialist regime led to the emigration of the Jew Berta Bobath to England .
Berta Bobath trained as a physiotherapist in England. There she met her childhood friend, the Jewish pediatrician Karel Bobath, who had fled to England via Prague and Brno . They married in April 1941 and began collaborating in the field of neurological disorders. Berta Bobath recognized that spasticity could be influenced by certain movements and postures and, together with her husband, developed the Bobath concept. In 1950 they published their first joint publication: Spastic Paralysis-Treatment by Use of Reflex Inhibition . In 1951 they founded the Western Cerebral Palsy Center ( The Bobath Center ) in London , a private center for the treatment of patients with cerebral movement disorders.
Berta Bobath has received a number of honors, including honorary membership of the South African Association for Occupational Therapists (1966), the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (1976), Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) (1978) and an honorary doctorate from Boston University (1981).
Berta and Karel Bobath celebrated on January 20 in London in 1991 together suicide .
literature
- Horst-Peter Wolff: Bobath, Berta In: Horst-Peter Wolff (Hrsg.): Lexicon for care history. “Who was who in nursing history.” Urban & Fischer, 2001, ISBN 3-437-26670-5 , Volume 2, pp. 30–31
- Catharine MC Haines: Bobath, Berta Ottilie In: International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950. , ABC-CLIO, 2001, ISBN 1-576-07090-5 , pp. 38-39
Web links
- Literature by and about Berta Bobath in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bobath, Berta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German physiotherapist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 1991 |
| Place of death | London |