Wilhelm Griesinger

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Wilhelm Griesinger

Wilhelm Griesinger (born July 29, 1817 in Stuttgart , † October 26, 1868 in Berlin ) was a German internist , psychiatrist and neurologist and is considered one of the founders of modern, (natural) scientific psychiatry .

Life

education

Wilhelm Griesinger is the son of Karoline Luise Griesinger, b. Dürr, and Gottfried Ferdinand Griesinger, foundation administrators of the hospital in Stuttgart. The father was killed by the family's insane piano teacher. (a) At the age of 16 Griesinger passed his Abitur in 1834 and enrolled as a medical student at the University of Tübingen in the same year . There he came into conflict with the professors and the university administration because of his political involvement in the Corps Guestphalia, which had emerged from the fraternity , as he publicly advocated a free, united and republican Germany in front of university members, but also because of his critical remarks towards the romantic taught in Tübingen Medicine that Griesinger rejected as "speculative". He refused to listen to the psychiatric lectures of the natural philosopher Carl August von Eschenmayer and preferred to read the physiologist Johannes Peter Müller . (b) Together with Julius Robert Mayer , he was expelled from the university for one year in 1837 (by means of consilium abeundi ). He continued his studies with Johann Lukas Schönlein in Zurich , although the visit to the university there had been banned by the Bundestag, and after he had returned to Tübingen and had completed his final exams for medical studies, he finally received his doctorate in Tübingen in 1838 with a dissertation on the "Garotillo" ( diphtheria ). - However, Schönlein was later opposed by him as an ontologist in 1842 . (c)

Medical and teaching activities

From Tübingen, Griesinger turned to Paris to expand his clinical knowledge. He met François Magendie , the founder of experimental physiology and the author of the first modern textbook on physiology, whose research approach strongly influenced him. In 1839 he moved to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance as a practicing doctor . In the following year, 1840, he received the offer to work as a secondary doctor at the Winnenthal mental hospital under the director Albert Zeller . In the next two years that he worked there, Griesinger gathered a great wealth of practical experience, which became the basis of his major work, The Pathology and Therapy of Mental Illnesses , published in 1845, a “new era” in psychiatry . In it he attempted to establish psychiatry from medical physiology and pathology . Already on the first page there is Griesinger's famous saying that in order to understand every symptom of a disease it is necessary to localize the phenomenon in question and to recognize all mental illnesses as diseases of the brain .

In the field of therapy, Griesinger did not bring much new information. He recommended laxatives and thorn apples according to the time .

Before the publication of his new, materialistic approach in psychiatry, which soon became widespread in Germany, Griesinger settled for a short time as a doctor in Stuttgart in 1842 and undertook further study trips to Paris and Vienna . In the same year he began working on the archive for physiological medicine . Soon afterwards, in 1843, he accepted a position as assistant doctor at the Medical Clinic in Tübingen, where he completed his habilitation in the same year and began teaching as a private lecturer for pathology, materia medica and the history of medicine. In 1847 he was appointed associate professor; in addition, Griesinger became editor of the archive for physiological medicine . He had previously published the book The Pathology and Therapy of Mental Illnesses (Krabbe, Stuttgart) in 1845 .

In 1849 he was appointed director of the Kiel University Clinic , where he carried out neuroanatomical research at the pathological institute. In 1850 Griesinger married Josephine of Rome. With her he left Germany for political reasons in the same year to take up a position as personal physician to the Egyptian viceroy Abbas Pascha , which combined the duties of the director of the medical school in Cairo and the president for the entire medical system of Egypt . During this time Griesinger collected a large part of his material for his later treatises on clinical and anatomical observations on the diseases of Egypt (in: Archiv für Physiologische Heilkunde , Stuttgart 1854, 13, pp. 528-575) and on infectious diseases (in Virchows Handbuch of special pathology and therapy , Enke, Erlangen 1857).

In 1852 Griesinger and his wife returned to Stuttgart. In 1854 he became full professor of clinical medicine at the University of Tübingen and succeeded Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich as director of the medical clinic. In 1857 he published the book Infectious Diseases: Malaria Diseases, Yellow Fever, Typhus, Plague, Cholera (Enke, Erlangen). Around 1858, Griesinger became friends with Ludwig Meyer through the common struggle for a scientifically oriented psychiatry, which would later make a name for itself as university psychiatry in Germany. This friendship was also strengthened by the joint founding of the " Archive for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases " in 1867, a challenge to institutional psychiatry . (d) In 1859, Griesinger took over the management of the Mariaberg mental health institution near Gammertingen ( Württemberg ), which was founded in 1847 and was one of the first institutions for children and young people with a mental disability in Germany.

In 1860 Griesinger left Germany again and took over the management of the Clinic for Internal Medicine in Zurich . At the same time, as a member of the Medical Commission, he developed a plan for the construction of a modern insane asylum in the canton of Zurich , which was implemented in 1865 with the opening of the Burghölzli University Psychiatric Clinic . In 1861 he published the second, revised edition of his textbook Pathology and Therapy of Mental Illnesses . It is Griesinger's main work and made him one of the leading psychopathologists of the time.

Griesinger's grave in Berlin-Schöneberg
Griesinger's bust in the middle of the Charité campus

A year earlier, in 1864, Griesinger had accepted a professorship at the Charité in Berlin, where he also became director of the psychiatric clinic. He made numerous reform proposals and ensured that a nerve station was attached to the Charité insane asylum (the first neurological station in Germany opened on May 1, 1866). The chair for psychiatry and neurology, which Griesinger held from 1865, was the first of its kind in Germany. In 1867 he founded the Berlin Medicinisch-Psychologische Gesellschaft (since 1879 Berlin Society for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases ; since 1933 Berlin Society for Psychiatry and Neurology ), which he chaired, and published the first edition of the Archive for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases .

death

In the summer of 1868, Griesinger fell ill with perityphlitis , an abscess of the appendix . After the abscess had been operated on, the wound became infected with diphtheria , the infectious disease that Griesinger had written about in his dissertation. He died on October 26, 1868 in Berlin. His grave is in the old St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in the Großgörschenstraße in Berlin-Schöneberg in field J, JN-004/005, diagonally opposite the grave of Rudolf Virchow and his wife.

It was dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honorary grave from 1962 to 2012 .

Honors

40 Pf - special stamp of the GDR post from 1960

In 1960, a GDR special stamp was issued to mark the “250 years Charité Berlin” anniversary with a portrait of Griesinger.

In the 1960s, a bust was erected on the Charité premises in front of the psychiatric clinic, Griesinger's main field of activity.

In 1968, on the 100th anniversary of Griesinger's death, the institute for epileptic Wuhlgarten near Biesdorf , which was set up and operated based on the findings of Griesinger, was renamed the Wilhelm Griesinger Hospital .

DGPPN

From 1986 to 1989 the German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology (DGPPN) awarded the “ Wilhelm Griesinger Medal ”. In the first year, the medal went to Gerhard Schmidt, the former director of the Lübeck Psychiatric Clinic, for his life's work; After 1945, Schmidt had carried out educational work on the crimes against the mentally ill and the mentally handicapped. The Wilhelm Griesinger Medal of the DGPPN has been awarded again since 2013.

In 1991, Holger Bertrand Flöttmann founded the “Wilhelm Griesinger Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics” in Kiel. Like Griesinger, it deals with fear research , among other things .

The District Medical Association of South Württemberg has been awarding the Wilhelm Griesinger Medal since 1995 to people who have made a special contribution to the health care and medical profession in South Württemberg.

Griesinger's grave in Berlin was a grave of honor for a long time until this status was recently revoked by a Senate resolution. Since then, the District Medical Association of South Württemberg has been responsible for looking after graves. Since 2018, the DGPPN has shared grave sponsorship with the District Medical Association of South Württemberg.

Fonts (selection)

Books

  • Pathology and therapy of mental illnesses, for doctors and students. Krabbe, Stuttgart 1845. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
  • Infectious diseases. ( Virchow's Handbook of Special Pathology and Therapy. ) Erlangen 1857.
  • To the knowledge of today's psychiatry in Germany. A pamphlet against the brochure of the Samitta Council Dr. Laehr in Zehlendorf: “Progress? - Step backwards! ” Wigand, Leipzig 1868.
  • Collected Treatises. 2 volumes. Hirschwald, Berlin 1872.

Contributions

  • Mr. Ringseis and the natural history school. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 1st year 1842.
  • Theories and Facts. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 1st year 1842.
  • About the pain and about the hyperemia. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 1st year 1842.
  • About psychological reflex actions. With a look at the nature of mental illness. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 2nd year 1843, p. 76ff.
  • New contributions to the physiology and pathology of the brain. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. Stuttgart 1844.
  • About sulfur ether inhalations. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 6th year 1847, pp. 348-350.
  • Comments on the insane being in Württemberg. In: Württemb. Medic. Correspondence sheet. Supplementary volume for the years 1848 a. 1849, no.20.
  • Clinical and anatomical observations on the diseases of Egypt. In: Archives for Physiological Medicine. 13th year 1854, pp. 528-575.
  • About insane asylums and their further development in Germany. In: Archives for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases. Vol. 1, H. 1. 1868.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre . On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. (1969) Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / M 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 :
    (a) p. 315 on tax. “Death of the father”;
    (b) p. 315 to district “CA Eschenmayer”;
    (c) p. 315 to district “JL Schönlein”;
    (d) pp. 313, 316 to Stw. “L. Meyer ".-
  2. ↑ Erich Bauer : The Guestphalia I and II to Tübingen . In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research 17 (1962), p. 59
  3. ^ Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach: Griesinger, Wilhelm. 2005, p. 510.
  4. ↑ Gerhardt Nissen : Somatogenic Psychosyndromes and their Therapy in Childhood and Adolescence. Medical historical, neurological, neurophysiological, neuropsychological, neurosurgical, endocrinological, psychiatric, prognostic and therapeutic aspects. Edited by Gerhardt Nissen with the collaboration of Francisco Alonso-Fernandez. Bern 1990, p. 11 f.
  5. ↑ Hans Bangen: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-927408-82-4 . Page 20
  6. ^ Griesinger W .: Lecture on the opening of the Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases in the Royal Charité in Berlin. In: Arch physiol Heilk . tape 7 , 1866, pp. 338-349 .
  7. ^ Rüdiger vom Bruch , Christoph Jahr, Rebecca Schaarschmidt: The Berlin University in the Nazi era . Volume 2. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005. ISBN 3-515-08658-7 . P. 55 ( Scan on GoogleBooks)
  8. ↑ Heritage Institute (ed.): The architectural and artistic monuments in the GDR capital Berlin I . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984; Page 317
  9. ↑ Psychiatry under National Socialism - Remembrance and Responsibility. (No longer available online.) German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology, November 26, 2010, archived from the original on January 8, 2011 ; Retrieved January 30, 2011 .
  10. ↑ Overview of the people honored with the Wilhelm Griesinger Medal on the website of the Baden-Württemberg State Medical Association. Retrieved February 15, 2012 .
  11. ↑ compare Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof Berlin # Graves of Honor

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Griesinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiversity: Griesinger, Wilhelm (1861)  - course materials
personal data
SURNAME Griesinger, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist and internist
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1868
Place of death Berlin