Two hundred years of psychiatry at Leipzig University: an overview

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.