Ernst Siemerling

Ernst Siemerling

Ernst Paul Bruno Siemerling (born September 9, 1857 in Müssow ; † January 6, 1931 in Berlin ) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist. He published work on neuropathology. After eight years as professor and head of the mental hospital in Tübingen, from 1901 he held the same position at Kiel University for 25 years.

First years

Ernst Siemerling was born the younger son and one of six children of the farmer and tenant von Müssow Friedrich Siemerling (1822–1871) and his wife Marie, née. Schurig (* 1823). The family later moved to Bodstedt near Franzburg and then to Freienlande near Stralsund . In Stralsund he attended the Stralsund grammar school up to high school graduation in Easter 1877. He studied from 1877, with the exception of an interruption during which he studied for a semester in Leipzig, until his doctorate in 1882 at the University of Marburg . During his studies he already worked in the anatomical institute of the University of Leipzig, his doctoral thesis entitled Contributions to the embryology of the excretory organs of the bird he also wrote about anatomy. After he had already done the first part of his military service during his studies, the second followed immediately after his studies at the Marburg garrison. At the end of 1882 he left the anatomical institute and began to work as a volunteer doctor at a psychiatry in Nietleben near Halle, which was headed by Eduard Hitzig .

Act

Worked at the Charité

In 1884, Siemerling went to the Berlin Charité mental hospital as an assistant doctor , where he worked under Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal . In Berlin he also met Pauline Fanny Ferdinande Freiin von Richthofen (born November 11, 1873 in Carlsruhe O / S ), a daughter of Fanny Freifrau von Richthofen, née Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1851–1924) and Major Eugen Freiherr von Richthofen (1835–1871), a granddaughter of Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and distant relatives of Westphal, whom he married on November 25, 1893. A best man was Ferdinand von Richthofen , the bride's uncle. The couple had two daughters.

At the Charité he worked with Karl Moeli and Hermann Oppenheim , among others . Under the leadership of Westphal, Siemerling began with brain anatomical examinations in Berlin. He wrote several papers on various diseases of the nervous system, partly together with Oppenheim. In 1888 Siemerling received his habilitation together with Oppenheim. When Westphal fell ill shortly afterwards, Siemerling supported him in running the clinic. After Carl Westphal's death, Siemerling was also appointed acting head of the clinic. After Friedrich Jolly's arrival, he took over the management. Siemerling worked again as a senior physician in psychiatry until he accepted a call from the University of Tübingen in 1893 .

Activity in Tübingen

Siemerling became director of the newly founded clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy and also took over the chair of the university. Initially, the establishment of the newly founded institution was his first task. Then he mainly dealt with the pathological-anatomical consideration of nervous diseases. He also counted the description of clinical pictures and forensic-psychiatric problems to his main area of ​​responsibility. After Siemerling went to Kiel in 1901, where he also had to set up a newly established clinic, Robert Wollenberg succeeded him in Tübingen as head of the clinic.

Activity in Kiel

During his activity at Kiel University, both as a professor and as head of the psychiatric and nervous clinic, he introduced a system that he had got to know in Berlin and had already established in Tübingen. New patients were admitted to the clinic, where only the diagnosis was made and acute treatments were carried out. Long-term cases were admitted to the institution. The university clinic thus always had to work with new cases and thus secured the university's teaching and research. The training of nursing staff was also very important to Siemerling. In 1910 he founded his own nursing school belonging to psychiatry, where he was able to specifically train specialists. He also continued to publish papers on neuropathology during his time in Kiel. Siemerling held the chair and management of the clinic until his retirement in 1926, his successor was Georg Stertz . After his retirement, he and his family moved to Berlin, where he was active in literature. Among other things, he was co-editor of the Archives for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases .

Publications

• Anatomical studies on the roots of the human spinal cord. Berlin, 1887.
• On syphilis of the central nervous system.
• About the chronic progressive paralysis of the eye muscles. Berlin, 1891.
• Contributions to forensic psychiatry. Transient disorders of consciousness in epileptics.
• Moral crimes and mental disorder.
• On the pathological anatomy of spinal polio.
• Hardening and technique of large brain slices.
• Casuistic contribution to the forensic assessment of traumatic epilepsy with consecutive mental disorder. Tubingen, 1895.
• Report on the effectiveness of the psychiatric university clinic in Tübingen from November 1, 1893 to January 1, 1901. Tübingen, 1901.
• Psychiatry through the ages. Kiel, 1904.
• In memory of Friedrich Jolly. Berlin, 1904.
• About nervous and mental disorders of youth. Berlin, 1909.
• Nervous and mental disorders during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium. Special edition of Albert Siegmund Gustav Döderlein's (1860–1941) Handbook of Obstetrics, volume 3, Munich, 1916.
• About sleep and insomnia. Berlin, 1923.
• Revision course in practical neurology. Leipzig, 1927.

literature

• Hans Schliack, Hanns Hippius: Neurologists 2: 21 biographies and a psychiatry-literary-historical essay. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-13-128351-3 , pp. 171-178.
• E. Meyer: Obituary for Ernst Siemerling. In: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. Volume 93, number 1 / December 1931.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Grasso: Topographical-statistical handbook of New Western Pomerania and the island of Rügen, or alphabetical list of all cities, towns, villages, estates, farms, etc. Stralsund 1859, p. 19
2. ↑ Hans Reddemann : Famous and notable doctors from and in Pomerania. Helms, Schwerin 2003. ISBN 3-935749-24-4 . P. 169
3. ^ Standesamt Berlin XIIa, No. 558 of November 25, 1893, accessed on ancestry.com on August 25, 2017.
4. ↑ History of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , accessed on March 15, 2009.
5. ^ History of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Kiel , accessed on November 24, 2012.