David Katz

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David Katz (born October 1, 1884 in Kassel , † February 2, 1953 in Stockholm ) was a German experimental psychologist .

Life

David Katz was born on October 1st, 1884 in Kassel, where he published his first booklet (on Latin tutoring) while still at school. In 1902 he began a teaching degree in mathematics and natural science subjects at the University of Göttingen , then switched to psychology and became a student of Georg Elias Müller . In 1906 he was awarded a doctorate in psychology, physics and philosophy based on a thesis in psychology on time experience (the dissertation was published in 1907) (examiner here: Edmund Husserl ).

From 1907 David Katz was an assistant at GE Müller in Göttingen and deals with topics from developmental psychology , social psychology (especially animal social psychology) and educational psychology. In 1911 he completed his habilitation in psychology with a work on color perception that is still highly regarded today and that was examined by Müller and Husserl. From 1914 to 1918, Katz took part in the First World War as a volunteer . In 1918 he was given a job at the Technical University of Hanover on psychological aspects of prosthesis construction. After the end of the First World War, he became an Apl in 1918. Professor at the University of Göttingen appointed.

In 1919 David Katz was offered a professorship at the University of Rostock , which was created on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the university's founding. In the same year he married the psychologist Rosa Heine . The couple had sons Theodor (1920–1997) and Gregor (1922–2015).

David Katz's main research areas in Rostock were primarily perceptual psychology (sense of touch, vibration, color perception), needs psychology (hunger and appetite), language development (together with his wife), educational psychology and (animal) social psychology. Until 1933 he supervised 21 dissertations on these topics. Katz supported the Norwegian scientist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe , who did his doctorate in Greifswald, in preparing the publication version of his dissertation. The collaboration between Katz and Schjelderup-Ebbe, which had already started in Göttingen, gave rise to the term “ pecking order ”. In the 1920s, Katz ran the only German psychological animal station in Rostock, where mainly learning and animal-social psychological experiments with chickens, but also perception experiments on hearing or smelling with dogs, were carried out. In addition, Katz was committed to teacher training, produced educational films and, together with his wife, wrote an educational guide. During his time in Rostock, Katz also acted as editor of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie, he continued to work on the board of the Society for Psychology until 1933 and on the board of the International Society for Psychology. During his time in Rostock, Katz also revised and expanded his habilitation thesis and published the extensive volume in 1930 under the title "Aufbau der Farbwelt"; the English translation was published in 1935 under the title "The World of Color" by Routledge (England). The ideas of his habilitation thesis could thus be received worldwide.

In 1923, Katz received a call to the Mannheim Commercial College, and was subsequently appointed full professor in Rostock, with the retention of the full professorship associated with the establishment of the Psychological Institute. In 1928 a conference of German perception and gestalt psychologists was organized in Rostock , attended by Katz and his wife as hosts, Fritz Heider , Kurt Lewin , Heinz Werner , Wolfgang Köhler , Albert Michotte, Edgar Rubin and Max Wertheimer . In 1929, Katz was visiting Maine (USA) as a visiting professor .

In 1933, after the National Socialists ' seizure of power , David Katz was forced to apply for a research semester and was subsequently excluded from the academic world and given leave of absence. This was preceded by a campaign by the Nazi student body and the Low German observer against him and his wife. In 1934 he was transferred to final retirement. From 1933 David Katz stayed in England . Lecturing, publications, various research assignments and finally animal psychology experiments in the London Zoo (with Cyril Burt ) determined his life. He was initially refused to leave for England in 1933 and was only approved after, among other things, Vice Dean Schüssler from the Philosophical Faculty had advocated for Katz. In 1934 Schüssler went to the Herder Institute in Riga in order - according to the biographical encyclopedia of historical studies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - to avoid imminent sanctions by local Nazi authorities for helping a Jewish colleague. Only after the economic situation had been secured and further schooling had been clarified for the sons, Katz was able to bring his family to England in 1935.

In 1937 David Katz received a call to the first Swedish professorship for psychology at Stockholm University , which was donated by Olof Eneroth . In the following years he mainly dealt with topics in educational psychology, intelligence diagnostics and gestalt psychology . He also published a number of textbooks and developed a scriptochronograph, a device for recording hand movements while writing, for which he received a patent. In 1951 David Katz hosted the 13th International Congress of Psychology at Stockholm University. In 1952 he was accepted into the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In the same year, already in retirement, he received an honorary professorship at the University of Hamburg . Shortly after his return from Hamburg, David Katz died on February 2, 1953 in Stockholm.

Fonts

  • Psychology and math classes. In: Felix Klein (Ed.): Treatises on mathematical teaching in Germany. Volume 3, no.8, IV. Leipzig 1913.
  • The construction of the Tastwelt Leipzig 1925. Internet archive
  • with Rosa Katz: conversations with children. Berlin 1928 (translated into English and Swedish).
  • The structure of the color world. Leipzig 1930 (translated into English).
  • Animals and Men. London 1937 (translated into German, Swedish, Spanish and Japanese).
  • Gestalt psychology. Basel 1944 (translated into English, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Finnish and French).
  • Individual test for intelligensundersökning. 2 år 6 mån. till 6 år. Stockholm 1950.
  • (Ed.): Handbook of Psychology. Basel 1951 (first published in Swedish in 1950, also translated into English, Spanish, Finnish and Italian. Several new editions posthumously with Rosa Katz as co-editor).
  • Autobiography. In: HS Langfeld, EG Boring, H. Werner, M. Yerkes (Eds.): A History of Psychology in Autobiography. Volume 4. Worcester (Mass) 1952, pp. 189-211.

literature

  • Wilhelm Arnold:  Katz, David. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 332 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Michael Buddrus , Sigrid Fritzlar: The professors of the University of Rostock in the Third Reich. A biographical lexicon. Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-598-11775-6 , pp. 217-219.
  • Katz, David. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica , 1971, Volume 10, Col. 823
  • Heinz Grassel: On the development of psychology at the University of Rostock. Scientific journal of the University of Rostock. Society and Linguistics Series 20, Rostock 1971, pp. 155–163.
  • Katz, David. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 13: Jaco-Kerr. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-22693-4 , pp. 292-296.
  • Christoph Perleth: Katz, David. In: S. Pettke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Mecklenburg. Volume 4. Rostock, Lübeck 2004, pp. 111-117.
  • Christoph Perleth: David Katz - cornerstone of the German psychology of the Weimar Republic . In: Gisela Boeck & Hans-Uwe Lammel (eds.): The University of Rostock in the years 1933-1945. Rostock 2012, ISBN 978-3-86009-132-6 , pp. 45–60.
  • Perleth, Ch. (2017). David Katz . In U. Wolfrad, E. Billmann-Mahecha & A. Stock (eds.), German-speaking psychologists 1933–1945 (2nd edition). (P. 225ff). Wiesbaden: Springer.
  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , pp. 599f.
  • Stefan Volke: Leading phenomena and conceptual figure - About David Katz's distinction between surface and surface color. In: Steffen Kluck / Stefan Volke (eds.): Closer to it? On the phenomenology of perception. Freiburg / Munich 2012, pp. 82–103.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Katz, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German experimental psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1953
Place of death Stockholm