Erich Benjamin

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Erich Benjamin (born March 23, 1880 in Berlin , † April 22, 1943 in Baltimore , USA, full name Moritz Walter Erich Benjamin ) was a German pediatrician , curative teacher and founder of child and adolescent psychiatry .

Live and act

He was the fourth of five children of the wealthy Jewish banker Max Benjamin and his wife Therese (called Amchen), b. Marcussohn; his eldest brother was the later high school teacher Conrad Benjamin (1869-1940). In his hometown, Erich Benjamin attended the Royal Wilhelms-Gymnasium from 1887 to 1899 and studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin after graduating from high school . In November 1905 , Erich Benjamin received his doctorate in medicine in Leipzig . The topic of his dissertation was: The relationship of the spleen to the lymphocytes of the child's blood . The young doctor then worked as a volunteer assistant at the Vienna University Children's Clinic, then in Berlin and Düsseldorf . In 1908 Erich Benjamin became an assistant at the University Children's Hospital in Munich. A year later he married his sister-in-law Elisabeth (called Lili), née Haas, divorced wife of his older brother Conrad. Lili Haas came from a long-established and wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt. She had four children with her first husband. The marriage of Erich and Lili Benjamin, who converted and became a staunch Catholic, gave birth to a child, the daughter Renate.

In 1914 Erich Benjamin completed his habilitation in Munich. His habilitation thesis The protein nutritional damage of the infant was hotly debated because it dealt with the then explosive topic of artificial infant nutrition. In the following years he also made a name for himself as a specialist journalist in the field of “classical” pediatrics and hematology .

Children's sanatorium Zell near Ebenhausen, archived in the Ida-Seele archive
Former Children's sanatorium Zell
Breakfast on the sanatorium terrace, archived in the Ida-Seele archive

The medic was drafted into the war in early 1914 and served as a battalion doctor on the Western Front until the end of 1916 . After his withdrawal from the front, he took over the management of the children's outpatient clinic at the University of Munich. After a short-term practice as a pediatrician in Munich, Erich Benjamin acquired the Zell children's sanatorium in Ebenhausen (in the Isar valley) in 1921 with large property and a private villa. The facility was founded in 1910 by the pediatrician Dr. Spielberg built and managed. Benjamin headed the children's sanatorium until 1935. He specialized more and more in behavioral, nervous and neurotic children, their prophylaxis, early detection and therapy. Connected with this was his educational and scientific turn to curative education:

“Its significance for curative education may lie in the fact that it was probably the first to bring about an understanding of child neurosis. Up until his time you could only get 'expert' about the difficult child through psychiatry and psychopathology. Mr. Benjamin shone into the period of defiance, found an explanation for the regression [...], he showed that a loveless mother also plays a role in the development of a difficult child , joyless infancy and childhood could be to blame. "

In 1923, however, he received no salary. His monograph Fundamentals and Developmental History of Childhood Neurosis , published in 1930 , based on observations and experiences in his children's sanatorium, found great recognition, especially in the specialist field of curative education and child psychiatry. The psychiatrist Werner Villinger (for his later “participation in the euthanasia campaign T4 ” see) praised the work with the following words:

"What gives the book its special charm and its scientific value is the communication of a large and well-studied material, the factual, sober evaluation of this material that is not bound to school opinions and the basic curative pedagogy that pervades the whole thing."

With the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship, Nazi racial policy increasingly overshadowed his life and work. In 1935 his license to teach at the University of Munich and his license to practice medicine was revoked, and in 1937 he sold his children's sanatorium to the German Red Cross at a ridiculous price . At the last minute, he and his wife managed to emigrate to the USA . Daughter Renate, who was training as an infant sister in Great Britain, followed her parents in April 1939.

Immediately after his emigration he published the textbook on childhood psychopathology for doctors and educators , which was published by Rotapfel-Verlag in Switzerland , together with four other specialists in curative education and adolescent psychiatry, including Heinrich Hanselmann . The textbook tried to represent the entire field of children's psychopathology. It was not only addressed to doctors and educators, but also to curative teachers, welfare workers, psychiatrists, and in general to all professional groups who had to deal with difficult children. Erich Benjamin's contribution dealt with psychopathy and neurosis . The author also commented on the aspect of heredity , which was important at the time, and emphasized the importance of the doctrine of educational errors :

“When discussing the questions dealing with heredity, however, one aspect finally comes into consideration which has nothing to do with scientific considerations, but which must nevertheless be emphasized. Most conversations with the parents of difficult children end with the remark that this or that damage is due to 'hereditary grounds' and that responsibility for it must therefore be rejected. In some cases such an argument may be correct, but it leads to a pedagogical nihilism that must be strongly rejected. We should always emphasize to educators that our knowledge in this area is still incomplete and that there is therefore the possibility that we can largely influence the development of a child through beneficial educational measures. The doctrine of faults in upbringing is rightly at the center of the overall problem of the difficult child. "

In his new home the emigrant found help from Leo Kanner . Nevertheless, he no longer succeeded in making the connection he wanted. In March 1940, Erich Benjamin wrote resignedly and foresight to his nephew Max Günther:

“The topic: 'Erich B. and the German nation' is no longer topical, however, because we have been thrown out and as stateless people eke out a castrated existence. but I can only say that I wish this 'gang' all the best and I know very well that this pious wish will come true later or earlier. By 'gang' I don't just mean the representatives, but everyone, everyone !! They will undoubtedly ruin the West [...], but under the rubble they themselves will be buried. "

The child psychiatrist and scientist had only found short-term jobs at the State Training School in Warwick and at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Erich Benjamin published a few more articles and gave several lectures. At the beginning of 1939 his first publication since emigration appeared in the Swiss magazine for child psychiatry . In it, Erich Benjamin examined the pathological manifestations of the period of defiance and their prognosis. A comparison of the symptoms of American children and the children he examined in Germany did not reveal any significant differences. He came to the following conclusion:

“The most remarkable result of our study is the finding that there are no differences between the manifestations of the period of defiance in America and Germany [...] The period of defiance is therefore 'independent of the overall cultural level' or the 'racial' composition of a people. It also has nothing to do with the 'usual educational method' in a country. "

Although he still went public with publications and lectures, the destruction of his economic and social existence and the lack of prospects left him in despair. Erich Benjamin probably committed suicide at the age of 63. He was found dead in the apartment - there were no sleeping pills in the medicine cabinet. His wife Lili decided not to investigate the circumstances of his death, probably in order not to have to justify the suicide in public .

Erich Benjamin was buried in the Baltimore Jewish cemetery.

After death

Plaque

His widow, who returned to Germany in 1946, asked for the property to be returned. At the end of 1949 she received compensation for the former property worth millions (which the sisters of the Maria-Stern monastery in Augsburg had bought from the DRK in 1940 ) in the amount of (ridiculous) 35,000 marks. She was also not granted a survivor's benefit. She received only a modest amount of money from the reparation authority. Lili Benjamin died in Munich in 1966.

Today a plaque on the former children's clinic in Zell-Ebenhausen commemorates Erich Benjamin. This was ceremoniously unveiled on June 21, 1993. One street in Schäftlarn has been called Prof.-Benjamin-Allee since 1999 . Furthermore, a foundation for children in need was named after him.

Works (selection)

  • Basics and history of development of child neurosis . Leipzig 1930.
  • The disease of civilization . Munich 1934.
  • Textbook of Childhood Psychopathology for Doctors and Educators . Erlenbach-Zurich / Leipzig 1938.
  • Contributions to the pathology of the defiance period and its prognosis . In: Journal of Child Psychiatry. 1939, pp. 161-169.

literature

  • Rolf Castell et al .: History of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Germany from 1937 to 1961 . Goettingen 2003.
  • Erich Grassl: Prof. Dr. med. Erich Benjamin. The fate of a Jewish doctor . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . 1998, issue 50, p. 56.
  • Renate Jäckle: Fate of Jewish and “anti-state” doctors after 1933 in Munich . Documentation, presented on the 50th anniversary of the “expiry” of the license to practice medicine on September 30, 1938, Munich 1988, pp. 51–53.
  • Hans-Michael Körner (Ed.): Large Bavarian Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1: A-G. Munich 2005, p. 143.
  • Sybille Krafft : The Emperor of Ebenhausen. Erich Benjamin - a Jewish doctor in the Isar valley . Munich 2007 (radio manuscript, Bayerischer Rundfunk).
  • Susanne Oechsle: Life and work of the Jewish scientist and pediatrician Erich Benjamin . Munich 2004 (dissertation; PDF document; 1.7 MB ).
  • Günther Pahl: Erich Benjamin (1880–1943) - a forgotten pioneer of curative education. His life, his work and its significance for curative education today . Ingolstadt 1998 (unpublished diploma thesis).
  • Eduard Seidler : Jewish paediatricians 1933–1945. Disenfranchised / Fled / Murdered . Basel u. a. 2007, pp. 340-341.
  • Manfred Berger : Erich Benjamin - His life and work . In: heilpaedagogik.de . 2009, issue 4, pp. 22-26.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Graßl, quoted in n. Jäckle 1988, p. 52
  2. ↑ Schäfer W. "Until the long-awaited change finally came ..." - Comments on the role of the Marburg psychiatrist Werner Villinger in the Nazi and post-war period. In: Medical student council of the Philipps University of Marburg, ed. "Until the long-awaited change finally came ...". On the responsibility of medicine under National Socialism. Marburg, Schüren 1991: 178-283
  3. ↑ Schmuhl HW. Professor Werner Villinger. In: Schmuhl HW. Doctors in the Bethel asylum 1870 - 1945 (edited by Benad M). Bielefeld, Bethel-Verlag 1998: 80-86
  4. ↑ Holtkamp M. Werner Villinger (1887-1961). The continuity of the concept of inferiority in adolescent and social psychiatry (Treatises on the history of medicine and natural sciences, volume 97). Husum, Matthiesen 2002
  5. ↑ Schmuhl HW. Between hasty obedience and half-hearted refusal. Werner Villinger and the National Socialist medical crimes. Neurologist 2002; 73: 1058-1063
  6. ↑ cit. n. Oechsle 2004, p. 107
  7. ↑ Benjamin 1938, p. 167
  8. ↑ cit. n. Krafft 2007, p. 19
  9. ↑ Benjamin 1939, p. 168
  10. ↑ Oechsle 2004, p. 174.
  11. ↑ http://www.erich-benjamin-stiftung.de
personal data
SURNAME Benjamin, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benjamin, Moritz Walter Erich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pediatrician and curative teacher
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1943
Place of death Baltimore