Karl Seidel (physician)

Karl Seidel (born December 18, 1930 in Nuremberg ) is a German psychiatrist , psychotherapist and neurologist as well as a former functionary of the SED in the GDR .

Life

The son of a commercial clerk grew up with his stepfather, who was also a doctor , and attended elementary and high school between 1937 and 1949 . While attending school he became a member of the SED in 1947 and was a pre-study nurse between 1949 and 1950 before studying medicine at the University of Leipzig between 1950 and 1956 . In 1956 there his doctorate Dr. med. with a dissertation on the topic of bronchial carcinoma . He then became an assistant doctor , before he was between January 1961 and August 1963 senior physician and head of the neurology department of the neurological-psychiatric clinic of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig. In 1963 he became the first senior physician at the Medical Academy in Dresden , where he completed his habilitation in 1967 with a habilitation thesis on the subject of suicide in old age from a socio-psychiatric aspect .

In 1968 he was also appointed lecturer for psychiatry and neurology at the Medical Academy in Dresden, where he was also acting vice-rector for study matters. 1971 he was appointed director of the psychiatric clinic of the Charité , where he until 1978 successor to Karl Leonhard was. He made little appearance as a clinician or scientist, but cleverly used his political connections to bring about a further modernization of the mental hospital. Seidel stood up for a modern psychiatry in the GDR, he suggested the establishment of a central clinic for neurology and psychiatry in Berlin, and a collaboration between their addiction clinic with the WHO. He also spoke out in public for disclosure of the number of suicides in the GDR and for the inclusion of psychoanalytic theories in psychotherapy in the GDR. A reform of medical studies also took place under his leadership. The first department for computed tomography within neurology in the GDR was created. In addition, he accepted a professorship for psychiatry and neurology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and was also honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit (VVO) in gold in 1974 and a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in 1977 . In 1978 Karl Seidel was also awarded the GDR National Prize.

After completing his work at the Charité, he became deputy head of the SED Central Committee in 1978 and then, in 1981, as successor to Werner Hering, and held this position until the SED was dissolved in 1989. In this position, he was Minister of Health Ludwig Mecklinger , His deputy Ulrich Schneidewind and Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski , the head of the secret area for commercial coordination in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, jointly responsible for ensuring that western pharmaceutical companies, especially West German, tested drugs in clinics in the former GDR according to the usual international regulations. Seidel, who also became a member of the Council for Medical Research in 1980, was also a member of the Central Committee of the SED from 1986 to December 1989 .

After the end of the GDR he settled as a neurologist and psychiatrist in Berlin, where he still lives today.

Publications

• The problem of the disabled from a social-psychiatric aspect , Jena 1972
• Urgent indications for neurological and psychiatric diseases , Leipzig 1976
• with HAF Schulze, G. Göllnitz and H. Szewczyk: Neurology and psychiatry including child neuropsychiatry and forensic psychiatry. Student textbook. Berlin 1977; 4th edition, ibid. 1988.
• Psychopathology: Aspects of a Reconsideration , Berlin 1978
• Psychopharmacotherapy , Berlin 1982
• Diagnostic and therapeutic indications in neurology , Leipzig 1983
• Guide to the psychiatric examination , Leipzig 1986
• On the classification of endogenous psychoses , Leipzig 1986

literature

• Elke Reuter, Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Seidel, Karl . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Seidel in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Udo Grashoff: In an attack of depression ...: Suicides in the GDR . In: Research on GDR society . Ch. Links Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-86153-420-7 , p. 276 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 25, 2016]).
2. ↑ Brief overview of the development of neurology at the Charité: New beginnings and specialization (1949 - today) ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Karl Einhäupl, Detlev Ganten, Jakob Hein: 300 years of Charité - as reflected in their institutes . De Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-020256-4 , p. 79 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 25, 2016]).
4. ↑ Volker Hess: Zeitzeugen Charité: Working Worlds of the Psychiatric and Nervous Clinic, 1940-1999 , 2005, p.45 , ISBN 3-8258-8443-0
5. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , February 19, 1974, p. 3
6. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: That is Russian roulette. Dirty deals with western pharmaceutical companies brought millions to the SED regime (No. 6/1991)