Richard Cassirer

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Richard Cassirer (portrait of Max Liebermann 1918, now in the Tate Gallery in London).

Richard Cassirer (born April 23, 1868 in Breslau , † August 20, 1925 in Berlin ) was a German neurologist .

life and work

Richard Cassirer came from the famous German-Jewish family Cassirer from Silesia . He was born in Breslau as the son of Louis Cassirer (1839-1904), who had made it as a textile entrepreneur to prosperity there, and his wife Emilie (née Schiffer). His brothers were Hugo , Paul and Alfred Cassirer , and he had two sisters, Else and Margaret. After completing school in his hometown, he then studied medicine in Freiburg im Breisgau , where he obtained his doctorate in 1891. He then worked as an assistant at Carl Wernicke until 1893worked in the Psychiatric Clinic in Wroclaw. He then deepened his education at the University of Vienna, where Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Heinrich Obersteiner were among his teachers. In 1895 he switched to the "Berlin Polyclinic for Mentally Ill People" as Hermann Oppenheim's assistant . From 1912 until his death in 1925 he was professor of neurology at the University of Berlin . His research focused on neuroanatomy and neuropathology .

In 1921 Cassirer was the medical expert for the young Armenian Soghomon Tehlirian , who shot the former Ottoman Young Turkish Interior Minister Talât Pascha on the street in Berlin. Cassirer came to the conclusion that Tehlirian had been traumatized by the murder of his family in the context of the genocide of the Armenians during the war; his free will at the time of the crime was not completely excluded. This corresponded to the assessment of four of the five medical experts consulted, including Hugo Liepmann and Edmund Forster . Nevertheless, Soghomon Tehlirian was acquitted by the jury .

His marriage to his wife Hedwig had three children: Anamarie, Hans and Thomas Werner. Richard Cassirer's brother was the publisher and gallery owner Paul Cassirer (1871-1926), his cousins ​​were Bruno Cassirer (also publisher) and Ernst Cassirer (philosopher and writer).

Richard Cassirer died after long and severe suffering on August 20, 1925 at the age of 57 in Berlin. The burial took place with strong participation of scientists and students as well as representatives of the intellectual and cultural life of Berlin on August 22nd, 1925 at the cemetery Heerstraße in Charlottenburg (today's district of Berlin-Westend ). Karl Bonhoeffer was one of those who spoke words of remembrance at the grave . Cassirer's friend Felix Hollaender recalled how tragic humor and goodness grew out of a basic feeling of deep melancholy and hostility to life in the deceased. Richard Cassirer's grave has not survived.

Publications (selection)

  • The vasomotor-trophic neuroses . Berlin, 1901. (2nd revised edition Berlin, 1912)
  • Multiple sclerosis . Leipzig, 1905.
  • Diseases of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves . In: Julius Schwalbe (Ed.): Diagnostic and therapeutic errors and their prevention. Leipzig, 1921; 2nd edition with Richard Henneberg, 1926.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 22, 2015 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / historify.de
  2. ↑ Mitigating circumstances alone are not authorized by the then legal situation of the mandatory for murder death penalty in sight
  3. ↑ cf. the negotiation minutes translated into English [1]
  4. ^ Professor Richard Cassirer † . In: Berliner Tageblatt . Friday, August 21, 1925. p. 3.
  5. ↑ The funeral for Professor Cassirer . In: Berliner Tageblatt . Sunday, August 23, 1925. p. 3.
  6. ↑ Prof. Richard Cassirer. Neurologist . Short biography at http://www.berlin.friedparks.de/ . Retrieved November 20, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Cassirer, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neurologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1925
Place of death Berlin