Franz Günther von Stockert

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Franz Günther Ritter von Stockert (born January 9, 1899 in Vienna , † February 25, 1967 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a psychiatrist with Austrian and from 1928 German citizenship. He was a professor at the Universities of Halle (Saale), Frankfurt and Rostock and is considered a co-founder of child and adolescent psychiatry in Germany.

Life

family

Franz-Günther Ritter von Stockert was the son of the Austrian government councilor Leopold Ritter von Stockert (1860–1938) and his wife, the writer Dora von Stockert-Meynert (1870–1947). The couple also had three daughters. His maternal grandfather was the psychiatrist and neuroanatomist Theodor Meynert (1833-1892). Franz-Günther Ritter von Stockert was married to Lisette Anton (1907–1977), daughter of the psychiatrist Gabriel Anton (1858–1933). The couple had four children.

Early years: education and beginning of academic career

Von Stockert passed his Matura at the Stiftsgymnasium Kremsmünster in 1917 and then entered the military. After the end of World War I. In 1918 he attended the University of Vienna , a medical degree to which he in 1924 with the promotion ended. From February 1923 Stockert worked in the Viennese mental hospital for psychiatry " Am Steinhof ". In autumn 1924 he took up a position at the mental hospital at the University of Vienna. In 1926 he moved to the psychiatric clinic at the University of Halle , headed by Gabriel Anton . In Halle he completed his habilitation in 1928 with the text About the conversion and dismantling of language in the case of mental disorders and was appointed associate professor in 1935. In 1935/1936 he worked in the neurosurgical department of the University of Würzburg . In 1937 von Stockert went to the University of Frankfurt , where he headed the children's department of the university neurological clinic for a few months. In June 1937 he settled in a neurological practice in Frankfurt.

Period of National Socialism and the post-war period

Biographical statements differing in some cases about Stockert's career during the Nazi era and the first post-war years. These are based, among other things, on various information from Stockert, on the one hand from the GDR court proceedings and on the other hand from his West German personal file.

Stockert became a member of the SA and the National Socialist Teachers' Union (NSLB) in 1933 . In 1937 he became a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).

At the Second World War Stockert participated in 1939 as a military doctor. From July 1940 to 1942 he was an advisory psychiatrist in the 1st Army , after which he was a member of Army Group Center until December 1944. From 1942 he held the rank of senior staff doctor, from 1944 that of senior field doctor . From 1939 to 1945 he also held the position of an unscheduled professor at Frankfurt University.

After a short American imprisonment, Stockert returned to Frankfurt am Main in July 1945 , where he was initially released because of his NSDAP membership. He practiced in his own branch until the end of 1948 and then held a position as a lecturer in child psychiatry at the university. In the context of denazification , Stockert was classified as “exonerated”.

Activity in the GDR: The Rostock Years

Due to the increasing centralistic influence on the universities and politicization of science (Second University Reform 1951/52) by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), Hans Heygster (1905–1961), professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Rostock , left the country in 1953 . Due to the shortage of specialists and teachers in the GDR, it was not possible to fill the chair with a successor who was equally suitable ideologically and professionally. It was not until September 1, 1954, after long negotiations, that Stockert was appointed to Rostock. The clinic was temporarily headed by Gerhard Göllnitz .

Stockert's colleagues, who worked in the GDR, had warned him not to take over the chair for neurology and psychiatry in Rostock. Looking back around 1958, he determined that he had inadequately assessed the political situation after the uprising of June 17, 1953 , it appeared to him “a little more pacified”, he assumed that the authorities were “willing to compromise”.

In July 1957, the State Secretariat for Higher Education in Berlin terminated the contract with Stockert with effect from August 31, 1957, citing the fact that Stockert did not want to take on GDR citizenship , a requirement that was not specified in the contract. Before that, Stockert had repeatedly criticized the social conditions in the GDR. An unofficial employee (IM) with the code name “Schneider”, who was an assistant doctor at the clinic, carried internal matters to the Ministry for State Security (MfS). Stockert's relationship with his colleague and predecessor in office, Gerhard Göllnitz, was also strained. The points of contention were based on the one hand on different political positions and on the other hand on mutual accusations about the implementation of research projects.

With the aim of “restricting” Stockert's “sphere of influence”, the State Secretariat decreed the division of the chair into a total of three chairs in December 1957, although the financial and personnel situation did not permit such changes and the faculty took a negative position. As part of these changes, on March 1, 1958, Gerhard Göllnitz was given the management of the department for child and adolescent psychiatry, and he was also temporarily given the chair for psychiatry. Stockert's appointment to the universities in Halle and Jena , which he was open to, was refused.

On March 31, 1958, von Stockert was arrested by the State Security. The trial against him at the Rostock District Court opened on May 7, 1958. The indictment accuses Stockert of "inciting agitation against our people's democratic order which is a threat to the state by continuing to agitate against other races, against the workers 'and peasants' power as well as against their organs and social organizations and against citizens because of their social activities ... He furthermore truthfully claimed that the GDR will soon be bankrupt because it deals with the manufacture of atomic bombs. In addition, he called leading members of our government rags and liars and made derogatory remarks against members of the working class party. ” In the indictment, Stockert was also accused of anti-Semitic remarks. Although the public prosecutor had to drop numerous charges, Stocker was sentenced to one year imprisonment on May 20, 1958 by the Rostock District Court for "defamation of the state". In the appeal proceedings, the Supreme Court of the GDR (OG) imposed a one-year prison sentence for “propaganda and agitation”. In addition, Stockert was given a two-year suspended sentence and the costs of the proceedings.

The GDR strove for international recognition as a sovereign state and was confronted with extensive reporting on the trial against the psychiatrist. Stockert's arrest was discussed in the German press as well as in foreign newspapers. Numerous scientists from the Federal Republic of Germany and Western countries, but also doctors from the GDR, spoke out on behalf of the accused. Stockert left the GDR on July 25, 1958.

Late career in the Federal Republic of Germany, aftermath

After fleeing the GDR, Franz Günter von Stockert returned to Frankfurt am Main. He was again active as a lecturer at the university, in 1960 he was appointed to the Scientific Council , in 1964 he was appointed associate professor for child psychiatry. He retired in 1967 and died on February 25, 1967 in Frankfurt.

In 1958, Stockert's colleague Werner Schulze , who had headed the Rostock University Dermatology Clinic, also left the country and returned to Freiburg im Breisgau . The judgment against Stockert was declared inadmissible in the same year by the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt am Main. After German reunification , the Rostock regional court overturned the 1958 judgment in 1995 and rehabilitated the psychiatrist posthumously.

Act

Franz Günter von Stockert was particularly interested in child and adolescent psychiatry. In this young discipline he held numerous positions in professional associations, including that of the chairman of the German Association for Adolescent Psychiatry and that of the President of the Union of European Pedopsychiatrists. He was also head of the German Society for Sexual Research.

Publications (selection)

  • About remodeling and dismantling the language in the case of mental disorders . Karger, Berlin 1929. (Habilitation thesis)
  • Introduction to Childhood Psychopathology . 1st edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1939. (up to 4th edition 1967)
  • The child's sexuality . Enke, Stuttgart 1958.

literature

  • R. Castell among others: Franz Günther Ritter von Stockert. In: History of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Germany from 1937 to 1961 . Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-46174-7 , pp. 480-488.
  • E. Kumbier, K. Haack, UK Zettl: Subject differentiation under socialist conditions - The establishment of neurology at the University of Rostock. In: Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr . 2009; 77, pp. 3-6. doi : 10.1055 / s-0028-1109592
  • E. Kumbier, K. Haack, SC Herpertz: Franz Günther von Stockert in the field of tension between politics and science. In: Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr . 2009; 77, pp. 285-288. doi : 10.1055 / s-0028-1109400

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ R. Castell, among others: Franz Günther Ritter von Stockert. In: History of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Germany from 1937 to 1961 . Göttingen 2003, p. 482.
  2. ↑ Genealogical representation ( memento of January 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Castell et al., Pp. 481f.
  4. ↑ Cf. R. Castell et al .: History of child and adolescent psychiatry in Germany from 1937 to 1961. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, ISBN 3-525-46174-7 , pp. 483, 485.
  5. ↑ H. Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism 1933-1945. mdv Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle / Saale 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X .
  6. ↑ G. Berger: The advisory psychiatrists of the German army 1939 to 1945. Lang, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-631-33296-3 , p. 291.
  7. ↑ Kumbier, Haack and Herpertz note membership in the NSDAP since 1939, Berger used, among other things, Stockert's NSDAP personnel records for his presentation.
  8. ↑ Berger, p. 291.
  9. ↑ Castell et al., P. 483.
  10. ↑ Volkmar Sigusch, Günter Grau: Personenlexikon der Sexualforschung. Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-39049-9 , p. 679.
  11. ↑ Castell et al., P. 485.
  12. ^ E. Kumbier, K. Haack, UK Zettl: Subject differentiation under socialist conditions - The establishment of neurology at the University of Rostock. In: Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr . 2009; 77: S4.
  13. ^ E. Kumbier, K. Haack, SC Herpertz: Franz Günther von Stockert in the field of tension between politics and science. In: Fortschr Neurol Psychiat . 2009; 77: 286.
  14. ↑ a b c Castell et al., P. 486.
  15. ↑ BArch DR3–11122, quoted from Kumbier, Haack and Herpertz., P. 287.
  16. ↑ Quoted from Kumbier, Haack and Herpertz, p. 287.
  17. ↑ a b Kumbier, Haack and Herpertz, p. 287.
  18. ↑ Gesch. No. 314 E-1697.
  19. ↑ Kumbier, Haack and Herpertz, p. 286.
personal data
SURNAME Stockert, Franz Günther von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stockert, Franz Günther Ritter von (full name); Stockert, Franz-Günther; Stockert, Franz-Günther von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1967
Place of death Frankfurt am Main , Germany