Abstract: Up to the present day the contributions Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773 - 1843) made to the development of psychosomatics have been little acknowledged. This paper points out that it was Heinroth who introduced the term 'psychosomatic' into medical literature and examines his concept for psychosomatic ideas. Quotations from his work, among them the passage in his famous 1818 Textbook of Disturbances of Mental Life, are presented and interpreted in their context. All this shows clearly that Heinroth's approach reveals distinct psychosomatic ideas, especially in his concept of body and soul, the etiology and pathogenesis of mental illnesses. For Heinroth soul has the primacy over the body and both interact in many ways. Consequently, mental and many somatic illnesses are caused by the soul, i. e. psychogenetically. Hence Heinroth is of major importance for the history of psychosomatic medicine, not only because he introduced the name, but also due to his holistic and anthropological approach.

Abstract: This paper investigates trends in the history of names for psychiatric institutions in Germany in the 20 (th) century. Professional lobbyism as well as efforts to fight stigmatisation of mentally ill patients form the background for name changes. The replacement of the term "Heil- Und Pflegeanstalt" ("Institution for the Cure and Care") by "Krankenhaus" ("hospital") in the 1950s/1960s, when through the introduction of modern psychopharmaceuticals psychiatry finally got acknowledged as an equal medical discipline and at the same time broke with the dreadful heritage of Nazi psychiatry, was a major step. The unity of the hospital itself and complimentary mental health care institutions is often expressed by "Zentrum" ("centre") as is the preservation of the patients' ties and their reintegration into the community by "Soziale Psychiatrie".

Abstract: OBJECTIVE This is the first paper to analyse historical changes and trends in psychiatric reports in one German daily newspaper. METHODS A total of 4362 issues of the LEIPZIGER VOLKSZEITUNG from 14 selected years of publication, 2 subsequent every 15 years starting in 1897, was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, thus covering all relevant eras of German history (with the exception of the years of World War I and the era of "National Socialism"). RESULTS The presentation of psychiatric issues changed from rather neutral reports to negatively connotated reports. On the other hand the language used altered significantly: from mostly paraphrases to the use of exact psychiatric terms. Unexpectedly, however, this did not have a positive or smoothing impact on the character of the report. CONCLUSIONS Further and more extensive studies are necessary to find out whether our findings are suggestive to a general tendency toward stigmatisation and selective negative reporting on the subject of psychiatry in the history of German daily papers.

Abstract: The Möbius-Foundation was founded on the initiative of some co-workers and friends of Leipzig neurologist and psychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius, who had died in 1907. Their aim was to venerate the memory of Möbius and to gather support for his and their subjects. After a starting phase of structuring and consolidating, the "Möbius-Foundation" began, according to its statute, to honour achievements in the fields of neurology and psychiatry. The foundation gained reputation throughout Germany in both of these fields. Among the prizewinners of the "Möbius-Award" were Alois Alzheimer, Emil Kraepelin, Max Nonne, Cécile and Oskar Vogt, or Otfrid Foerster. The inflation of 1923 immensely reduced the capital stock of the foundation, sentencing it to inactivity. Until 1938 Johannes Bresler tried to revive the "Möbius-Foundation". Later, the foundation was absorded by the GDNP (Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists). However, due to the outbreak of WW II in 1939, the foundation was not able to take up its work again. The history of the foundation mirrors en miniature both the social changes in Germany and German psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century.

Abstract: This paper aims to acknowledge the major impact Leipzig neurologist and psychiatrist Paul Julius Möbius had on the classification of nervous and mental illnesses. His main objective was to differentiate them by their underlying cause. Between 1890 and 1893 he sampled his views for both subjects. Expanding Evariste Marandon de Montyel's ideas of 1889 Möbius not only agreed that illnesses can emerge from causes that lie mainly within the body as well as mainly outside it, he even went as far as to say that there were illnesses that are solely based on causes outside the body. Moreover, it was Möbius who first introduced the terms "endogenous" and "exogenous" diseases. In accordance with the degeneration theory of his time he referred to transmission as the only etiological factor for endogenous illnesses, proposing that the extent of the illness is determined by the degree of degeneration. In the case of exogenous illnesses, however, the various stimuli affecting the nervous system would lead to qualitatively different illnesses. It is mainly due to Emil Kraepelin, who took over Möbius's dichotomy in the fifth edition of his most influential textbook of psychiatry of 1896, that his views had a lasting influence. And as it shown in the present study it was both through personal arguments with his old friend from Leipzig as well as through Möbius's equally critical and reprimanding reviews of the individual editions of Kraepelin's textbook that the latter acknowledged the importance of the etiological factor in his multi-factorial clinical and empirical nosology. However, since Möbius only considered etiological causes and neglected all others one should refrain from renaming, as suggested, "Kraepelin's nosology" as "Kraepelin's and Möbius's classification".

Abstract: The trial of Johann Christian Woyzeck for murder is among the most significant for forensic psychiatry in the 19 (th) century. The case gained worldwide fame, not only because of Georg Büchner's eponymous drama. A thorough analysis and reconstruction of the proceedings would allow more light to be shed on one of the major events in the evolution of modern psychiatric positions regarding criminal responsibility. To support this effort, this paper presents two original sources that have just been rediscovered in the archives, and which are of major importance in respect of both the Woyzeck case and the history of forensic psychiatry. Until now only transcripts had been available. The two documents in question relate to the death sentences issued by the Leipzig magistrates court (Schöppenstuhl). They clearly show the ruling feudal and municipal authorities' efforts to exploit both the general rules of procedure as well as the forensic testimony given by Leipzig's medical officer and professor, Johann Christian August Clarus, for their own restorative political interests. This is revealed by the fact, among others, that the legal procedures are interpreted in the narrowest possible way and the crux of the problem, namely the culprit's criminal responsibility, is not really the focus of attention. The defence does not really have a chance, the more so since it makes pleas that are both contradictory and amateurist from a psychiatric point of view. Moreover, its efforts to garner support from reformist forces, above all among scholars, are undermined by the defence team's manipulation of the facts.

Abstract: This historical review shows that the early history of cognitive psychopharmacology, originally labelled as "pharmacopsychology", is closely linked to developments in experimental psychology and academic psychiatry. At the beginning of his scientific career, the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) joined Wilhelm Wundt's laboratory of experimental psychology at the University of Leipzig. Although Kraepelin was fired from his clinical position at the university's psychiatric hospital, he completed his habilitation, the German equivalent of Ph.D., and started a series of pharmacological investigations in healthy volunteers using common recreational drugs (alcohol, coffee, tea) or medicinal products (amyl nitrite, chloral hydrate, chloroform, ethyl ether, morphine, paraldehyde) together with innovative psychological tasks. This paper reviews Kraepelin's pharmacopsychological research and his methodological innovations, providing translations, for the first time, from original papers, his monograph On the Modulation of Simple Psychological Processes by Some Medicines and from other sources. Kraepelin's contributions to psychopharmacology and clinical neuropsychology were far ahead of his time and his conceptual achievements have been largely neglected by modern psychiatry and cognitive neuroscience.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Considering as example Akinesia algera - postulated in 1891 as a disease by Paul Julius Möbius, the relevance for diagnosing body-related mental disturbances will be demonstrated . METHOD: Relevant original works of Möbius and of some of his well known contemporaries for instance Kraepelin, Binswanger, Erb were explored. The correlation of the described phenomenon to current textbook doctrine has been attempted. RESULTS: Möbius, case histories, described as Akinesia algera, can be subsumed under the typology of coenästhetic schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Akinesia algera is by primary source to be evaluated as a coenästhetic symptom and remains in daily practice a diagnostic challenge.

Abstract: Composer and director of music at Leipzig's Gewandhaus Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy died remarkably young, on 4 November 1847, at the age of 38. The cause of his early death has been a mystery ever since. Three contemporary doctors diagnosed Nervenschlag ("nervous stroke"). Starting with a short outline of Mendelssohn's pathography, this paper includes and quotes for the first time all the contemporary accounts of his death. After considering the older medical interpretations, the paper considers these reports from the point of view of present-day neurological and psychiatric expertise. It reveals that all the accounts had been filed by medical laymen, so their personal impressions had played a major role in their reports. However, it is indisputable that it was pathologic brain alterations that lead to Mendelssohn's death. Weighing up and carefully considering the sources, the authors regard subarachnoidal hemorrhage (SAH) as a likely cause of death. There may even have been some kind of genetic predisposition, since what is reported in this paper regarding Mendelssohn's death also applies to the very similar symptoms and circumstances surrounding his sister Fanny's death.

Abstract: Further to the study of Newmärker and Bartsch (2003) of Karl Kleist (1879-1960), this short contribution based on archive material, cited for the first time, looks into Kleist's motives for refusing an appointment as Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Leipzig University. This study comes to the conclusion that Kleist thought seriously of moving to Leipzig. However, the Saxony Ministry of People's Education refused to make a definite financial commitment to the reconstruction and building work that Kleist considered essential. On the other hand, the authorities in Frankfurt am Main, where Kleist had been appointed 3 years earlier, evidently agreed to the funding he required if he was to remain there. This finally prompted him to turn down the Leipzig offer.

Abstract: Through Georg Büchner's drama the case of Johann Christian Woyzeck gained worldwide fame. For the first time ever this study presents the testimonial drawn up by the Medical Faculty of Leipzig University, which until now had been regarded as having been lost. Now, however, the first-named author rediscovered it in the files of the Leipzig University Archives. The testimonial proved to be a decisive importance, as it sealed Woyzeck's execution in 1824. Before presenting major passages from the testimonial this study give an overview of the chronology of the Woyzeck case and the other medico-psychiatric testimonials drawn up by Leipzig municipal physician Johann Christian August Clarus. It also reveals which professors of Leipzig Medical Faculty were involved in drawing up the final testimonial which confirmed Clarus's findings and rejected the objections raised by Woyzeck's counsel - remarkably without examining the offender himself first-hand, but merely relying on and evaluating the testimonials drawn up by Clarus.

Abstract: Throughout his work Johann Christian August Heinroth regarded sin to be the cause of mental illness. The present two-part paper investigates what exactly Heinroth understood by sin. Based on a thorough analysis of his own texts, this study shows that on the one hand Heinroth referred to sin in a Christian-Protestant sense. On the other, however, a moral-ethical code of conduct was also involved. Thus, Heinroth did not regard sin as a singular event, but rather as a life conducted in a wrong way for years or even decades, by which he meant a steady striving towards earthly, bodily satisfaction.

Abstract: The University of Leipzig boasts a long tradition in the field of psychiatry. In 1811 Johann Christian August Heinroth was appointed as the first professor of mental health ("psychic therapy") in Europe. He conceived mental illness as based on a person's own guilt, as the consequence of turning away from God and living a life untrue to Christian ethics. After Heinroth retired in 1843 the Leipzig chair remained vacant until 1878 brain researcher Paul Flechsig succeeded him as professor of psychiatry, although not significantly contributing to the progress of this subject. His first assistant was Emil Kraepelin. Flechsig's successors, Oswald Bumke and Paul Schroder, included psychological as well as sociogenetic topics in their research. The latter did pioneering work for the institutionalization of child and adolescent psychiatry. The history of Leipzig psychiatry during the Nazi years has not yet been researched in depth. So far, however, no evidence has been found to prove the university hospital's involvement in German psychiatry's excruciating crimes on patients. It is true, however, that as elsewhere doctors of the Leipzig hospital were members of the Courts of Hereditary Health (Erbgesundheitsgericht) and that e.g. August Bostroem knew of the homicides. In 1943, during the directorship of Werner Wagner, the hospital was totally destroyed. Its reconstruction was mainly the work of Richard Arwed Pfeifer, who also made remarkable contributions to the study of the angiostructure of the brain. With Dietfried Muller-Hegemann, who had a major influence of East-German psychotherapy, the social psychiatric era began, and it was successfully continued under Berhard Schwarz, Klaus Weise and the hospital's present head, Matthias C. Angermeyer, Weise's theoretical and philosophical achievements in the foundation and his demand for an empirical verification of social psychiatric ideas in the whole of Germany are acknowledged until the present day. Last but no least it was him who from 1975 on first tried to implement these concepts into practice in Leipzig.

Abstract: This paper ventures to give insights into and evaluate HEINROTH's practical work as a doctor at Leipzig's Georgenhaus on the basis of primary sources found at Leipzig and other Saxony archives. The analysis shows that HEINROTH took up this post because of financial needs. Hence there arose a conflict between this job at the city's orphanage and madhouse and HEINROTH's real ambition of becoming a professor of psychiatry at Leipzig University. THis continued for the whole of his time there. HEINROTH undertook an extremely responsible role and worked energetically at St George's from 1814 until 1834; almost the entire medical care of the 600 inmate lay in his hands. HEINROTH cannot be held responsible for the failure to reform the mental health care system, though urgently needed. On the contrary, he made every effort to ease his patients' mental anguish and life at St George's. However, it must be pointed out that HEINROTH entrusted to his assistants a great part of his duties. HEINROTH did not always fulfil his duties at the local prison to the agreed extent. Increased tensions between him and authorities led to mutual recriminations which ultimately resulted in HEINROTH's dismissal at Christmas 1833. No final judgement can be made as to what extent the arguments propounded by both parties were justified.

Abstract: Throughout his work Johann Christian August Heinroth regarded sin to be the cause of mental illness. The present two-part paper investigates what exactly Heinroth understood by sin. Based on a thorough analysis of his own texts, this study shows that on the one hand Heinroth referred to sin in a Christian-Protestant sense. On the other, however, a moral-ethical code of conduct was also involved. Thus, Heinroth did not regard sin as a singular event, but rather as a life conducted in a wrong way for years or even decades, by which he meant a steady striving towards earthly, bodily satisfaction.

Abstract: This paper analyses the history of names for psychiatric institutions in the German language. When scientific, medical psychiatry came into being in the late 18 (th) century, names with negative connotations such as "Narrenhaus" or "Tollhaus" (approximating to the English word "madhouse") were substituted by the then neutral "Irrenhaus" and later in the 19 (th) century by "Irrenanstalt". Soon, however, this new term became associated with negative connotations, making it unsuitable as a reflection of the many improvements made both in the treatment and the public image of psychiatric service users. Changes in word form such as "Heilanstalt", "Pflegeanstalt" and "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt" better reflect the character of the institutions. Objections to the word "Anstalt" (institution) were not acknowledged until the 20 (th) century when the term "Fachkrankenhaus" ("specialist hospital") was introduced. Before then the German word "Klinik" was reserved for university hospitals, the first of which was founded in 1878. The history of names for psychiatric institutions reflects both changes in the treatment of the mentally ill and the attempts made above all by psychiatrists to face and overcome stigmatisation of their clients.

Abstract:

Abstract: The University of Leipzig boasts a long tradition in the field of psychiatry. In 1811 J.C.A. Heinroth was appointed as the first professor of psychiatry in Europe. In 1877 brain researcher P. Flechsig inherited his chair, but did not significantly contribute to the progress of this speciality. His first assistant was E. Kraepelin. Flechsig's successors, O. Bumke and P. Schröder, included psychological as well as sociogenetic topics in their research. The latter did pioneering work for the institutionalization of child and adolescent psychiatry. After the destruction of the hospital in 1943, R. A. Pfeifer re-organized its operation, and he also made remarkable contributions to the study of the angiostructure of the brain. With D. Müller-Hegemann, who had a major influence on German psychotherapy, the social psychiatric era began, and it was successfully continued under B. Schwarz, K. Weise and the hospital's present head, M. C. Angermeyer. Under Angermeyer the institutional basis of the clinic has been improved to include, among its other services, a day clinic and an optionally open-closed ward.