Eugen von Grosschopff

Eugen Michael von Grosschopff (born September 5, 1893 at Gut Waballen in the Telschi district , Kovno governorate (today in the Telšiai district , Lithuania ); † June 26, 1941 in Dresden ) was a German-Baltic doctor , psychotherapist and writer . He died in Gestapo custody.

Life

Eugen von Grosschopff, who lost his mother at an early age, attended the humanistic city high school in Riga and studied medicine in Dorpat and Berlin from 1912 to 1918 . His doctorate with a neurological focus did not take place until 1920. He turned away from neurology and psychiatry , however, as these only administered the sick. He developed his own psychotherapeutic method and tried to make it known through lectures and writings. In 1926 he moved from Berlin to Dresden and opened a practice there, which he ran until his death.

Grosschopff regarded the healing of the mentally ill, their return to society and the social recognition of their problems and sufferings as his life's work. He was full of ideas and full of idealism to break new ground and to fight tirelessly for innovations in the medical and social treatment of those affected. He fought for the consideration of psychological knowledge in the case law and treated his own patients outside of the practice in order to avoid a medically influenced environment. In 1930 he founded a “counseling center for emotional distress” in Dresden with a free consultation hour for all kinds of emotional conflicts.

Death under National Socialism

Eugen von Grosschopff was found hanged in the Dresden police prison at the age of 47. The exact circumstances of his death are unknown, as the files were burned in the air raids on Dresden in 1945.

What is certain is that Grosschopff, with his views and reform efforts , had to come into conflict with the National Socialist ideology of “master humanity” and the “destruction of life unworthy of life”. In a 1946 published obituary of a Dresden newspaper reported that he had former Gestapo prisoners and concentration camp supported -Insassen and Himmler called for an investigation of concentration camp atrocities.

Grosschopff left behind extensive unpublished written material. After the war it was generally forgotten.

literature

• Günter Kruse: Eugen Michael von Grosschopff (1893-1941). Doctor, psychotherapist, writer , in: Jahrbuch des Baltic Germans 2004, Lüneburg 2003, pp. 115–149