Paul Kemmler

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Paul Kemmler (born November 13, 1865 in Stuttgart , † March 27, 1929 there ) was a psychiatrist , first medical director and photographer of the royal Württemberg sanatorium in Weinsberg .

Life

After studying medicine in Tübingen , he obtained his license to practice medicine on March 23, 1889, and on June 26, 1891, he received his doctorate in Tübingen on the subject of habitual vomiting on the basis of pathological mental states .

From 1889 to 1890 he was an assistant doctor in the Bürgerhospital in Stuttgart. From 1890 to 1894 he worked at the Royal Saxon Psychiatric Clinic in Wroclaw , from 1894 to 1895 at the Grand Ducal Baden University Hospital in Heidelberg, where he worked with Emil Kraepelin . From 1895 to 1901 he worked as a secondary doctor at the royal Württemberg sanatorium in Zwiefalten , from 1901 to 1902 he was senior physician at the Winnenden sanatorium . From 1902 to mid-1903 he was the provisional director of the Schussenried Sanatorium .

On July 28, 1903, he was appointed director of the future royal Wuerttemberg sanatorium in Weinsberg . This newly built house began operations on November 19, 1903, and he lived in the medical director's villa on the premises of the institution. In 1913 he was awarded the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Württemberg Frederick Order . On April 7, 1918, he called in sick with overwork, exhaustion, and heart problems. It was his last day at work; on June 30, 1918, he retired early and moved to Stuttgart, where he died in 1929. Paul Kemmler remained single.

Photographic work

The psychiatrist Paul Kemmler created a fund of 661 individual portraits and 129 group pictures of his patients as part of his medical work between 1904 and 1918. Various functions of the individual images can be named. On the one hand, they serve to identify the sick and are attached to the files. On the other hand, frontal and profile views of the faces were used for physiognomic diagnostics : in the Weinsberg Clinic, brain anomalies were assumed to be the cause of mental illnesses, which should be readable from the facial features. Brain recordings and handwritten notes on some prints establish this relationship. In addition to physiognomy, posture was also used as a diagnostic indicator. This explains the large number of full-length shots.

In addition to the photographs for clinical use, Kemmler creates documentation of the various therapies. The doctor takes pictures of his patients while they are outdoors and sunbathing, while working in the fields, at work and while they are idle. In this way the photographer snatches the patients from their abstract anonymity as scientific study objects and gives them a comprehensible context. In the background, he shows the various exterior and interior views of the clinic and uses his camera to record the state of health of the patients during their activities.

But above all, Kemmler shows his patients taking into account their social status and personal dignity. Most of his photos were taken with the active participation of the inmates and can be seen as depictions of their self-image.

However, Kemmler's photographs develop their special quality where they dissolve the boundary between science and aesthetics. This quality can not only be used as evidence of the high artistic standards of the doctor. Rather, it reflects the respect for the individuality of the respective patient. Coercion against inmates was forbidden in Weinsberg and was considered a hindrance to scientific research and medical anamnesis . For Kemmler's photographs, the question must therefore be whether there is a diagnostic as well as therapeutic value not only in the factual images, but also in the combination of photographic aesthetics with the subjective expression of those portrayed.

literature

  • Franz Andritsch: Dr. med. Paul Kemmler (1865-1929) . In: Swabia and Franconia. Local history supplement of the Heilbronn voice . 36th year, no. 6 . Heilbronner Voice publishing house, June 1990, ZDB -ID 128017-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kemmler, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Psychiatrist, first medical director and photographer of the royal Württemberg sanatorium in Weinsberg
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1929
Place of death Stuttgart