Hermann Witter

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Hermann Witter (born April 12, 1916 in Diedenhofen ; † June 18, 1991 ) was a German forensic psychiatrist .

Life

Hermann Witter studied medicine in Göttingen , Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich , where he received his doctorate in 1940 . In 1936 he joined the NSDAP , he was a storm man in the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) and became a member of the National Socialist German Medical Association .

After the state examination in 1940 he worked as a medical officer in Vienna , Gmünd and Oberpullendorf . Nothing is known about its denazification . Witter received his habilitation in 1953 and was an adjunct professor in Saarbrücken from 1959. From 1966 he was professor of forensic psychiatry and criminology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Saarland in Homburg , where in 1968 he founded the at that time new Institute of Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry.

Witter was repeatedly called in as a forensic psychiatrist in criminal proceedings and was thereby also known to the public. Witter advocated the castration of sex offenders and opposed an overly generous diagnosis of reduced sanity . In protest against the politicization of research and teaching, he demonstratively resigned as dean of the university's medical faculty in 1969 .

In the assessment of long-term damage suffered by Nazi victims , Witter opposed the survivor syndrome theory developed by Eissler , Baeyer, and Netherlands in the early 1960s , thus preventing the victims from being recognized.

The "Southwest German Academy for Forensic Psychiatry" awards the Hermann Witter Prize.

Fonts (selection)

  • as editor: The psychiatric expert in criminal law . Springer, Berlin 1987
  • Different perspectives in general and forensic psychiatry . Berlin: Springer, 1990
  • Outline of Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry . Heidelberg: Springer, 1970
  • Course of Graves' disease after conservative and surgical treatment . Munich, Med.Diss., 1940
  • Magazine articles

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Pross: reparation: the guerrilla war against the victims . 1988, p. 169
  2. ↑ Kurt R. Eissler: The murder of how many of his children does a person have to endure symptom-free in order to have a normal constitution? , in: Psyche , 17, 1963, pp. 241-291
  3. ^ William G. Netherland: The misunderstood victims. Late compensation for emotional damage , in: Ludolf Herbst, Constantin Goschler (Ed.): Reparation in the Federal Republic of Germany . Munich: Oldenbourg. 1989 Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history pp. 351–359
  4. ^ Christian Pross: reparation: the guerrilla war against the victims . 1988, p. 157
personal data
SURNAME Witter, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forensic psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Thionville
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1991