Friedrich Meggendorfer (June 7, 1880 – February 12, 1953) was a German

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

Life

Born in

Bad Aibling Bad Aibling () is a spa town and former district seat in Bavaria on the river Mangfall, located some southeast of Munich. It features a luxury health resort with a peat pulp bath and mineral spa. History Bad Aibling and its surroundings ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, he was intended to take over the local colonial goods store of his ancestors. He enjoyed an excellent international education aimed at preparing him for this role. However, his life's goal has always been to become a physician, and finally, he had persuaded his father to agree and to sponsor medical studies. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was stationed in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

as a medical assistant of the

German imperial navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaiser ...

. There he learnt much about the Turkish culture and was able to translate ancient Arabic medical works into German and the

bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

to Turkish, an effort that was lost later, when he narrowly escaped a sinking

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

.C. Riemeling
Professor Dr. Friedrich Meggendorfer. 7. 6. 1880–12. 2. 1953
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde. Volume 170, Number 1, I-II, DOI 10.1007/BF00218433,

Scientific Work

Meggendorfer was an assistant to

Emil Kraepelin Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's ''Encyclopedia of Psychology'' identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychi ...

(1856–1926) in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Max Nonne Max Nonne (13 January 1861, Hamburg – 12 August 1959, Hamburg) was a German neurologist. Biography Max Nonne received his early education at the ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' in Hamburg, and later studied medicine at the universities of ...

(1861-1959) in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and later worked at the Friedrichsberg Psychiatric Hospital in Hamburg. From 1934 to 1945 he was a professor and director of the psychiatric department at

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

. His scientific activities were very versatile, ranging from

moral insanity Moral insanity referred to a type of mental disorder consisting of abnormal emotions and behaviours in the apparent absence of intellectual impairments, delusions, or hallucinations. It was an accepted diagnosis in Europe and America through the sec ...

and

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

, progressive

paralysis Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

and

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is a neurodegenerative disease that is mostly inherited. The earliest symptoms are often subtle problems with mood or mental abilities. A general lack of coordination and an unst ...

. Additionally, he was a recognized expert in

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...

. Meggendorfer was a pioneer in

electroconvulsive therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatry, psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroco ...

and introduced this treatment method in Germany in 1939. Secondary

psychosis Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...

was an additional focus of his scientific work. As early as 1916 he described neurologic and psychiatric sequelae of pituitary neoplasms. In 1930 he provided an early description of familial

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), also known as subacute spongiform encephalopathy or neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease, is an invariably fatal degenerative brain disorder. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, ...

in the "Backer family" of northern Germany. The case had already been reported in 1924 by Kirschbaum, but it was Meggendorfer who showed that the subject described by Kirschbaum was a member of a large kindred.Gambetti P, Kong Q, Zou W, Parchi P, Chen SG
Sporadic and familial CJD: classification and characterisation.
Br Med Bull. 2003;66:213-39. .

Selected publications

* ''Gerichtliche Psychiatrie'' (Judicial Psychiatry), Carl Heymanns Verlag, Berlin 1931. DNB I
58068489X
* ''Elektrokrampfbehandlung der Psychosen.'' In: ''Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift.'' 66, 1940, S. 1155–1157. * ''Allgemeine und spezielle Therapie der Geistes- und Nervenkrankheiten'' (General and Special Treatment of Mental and Neurological Health), Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1950, DNB I
453283039

Notes

References

* ''The original version of this article is based on a translation of an article from the Polish Wikipedia.''
Oxford Journals
Familial prion diseases: Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and fatal insomnia * F. Flugel. In memoriam Friedrich Meggendorfer. Med Monatsschr. 1953 Sep;7(9):614-5.

External links

Author profile at Open Library

References at AuthorMapper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meggendorfer, Friedrich 1880 births 1953 deaths People from Bad Aibling German psychiatrists German neurologists Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg