Hermann Carl Albert Gutzmann, Sr. (29 January 1865 – 4 November 1922) was a German physician. He is considered the founder of

phoniatrics Phoniatrics or phoniatry is the study and treatment of organs involved in speech production, mainly the mouth, throat ( larynx), vocal cords, and lungs. Problems treated in phoniatrics include dysfunction of the vocal cords, cancer of the vocal ...

as a medical discipline.

Early life and education

Hermann Gutzmann was born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Bütow Bütow is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Geography Bütow is located in the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau, to the east of the source of the Elde river. It is a hilly area, with the ...

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

, in 1865. His father, , was a prominent teacher for the

deaf and dumb Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...

. He graduated from the in 1883, and went on to study medicine in Berlin under Ernst von Bergmann, Carl Gerhardt, and others. He received the degree of

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in 1887, with the dissertation ''Über das Stottern'' ("On Stuttering").

Career

From 1889 Gutzmann practised as a specialist in diseases of the vocal organs, and, together with his father, he founded in 1890 the journal ''Medizinisch-pädagogische Monatsschrift für die gesamte Sprachheilkunde''. In 1891 he established an outpatient clinic for the speech-impaired in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, which was moved to the Medizinische Poliklinik in 1907 and affiliated with the Charité Hospital in 1912. From 1896 Gutzmann also directed a private clinic and sanatorium for the speech-impaired in Zehlendorf. He completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1905 on the basis of his work ''Über die Atmungsstörungen beim Stottern'' ("On Respiratory Disorders and Stuttering"). In his , he outlined the close relationship of speech therapy to other areas of medical practice. 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 ...

, Gutzmann ran a treatment centre for

traumatized Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical. ...

soldiers who had developed speech and voice disorders. Gutzmann published 13 books and over 300 scientific papers in his lifetime. He was a member of the Prussian State Health Council, an honorary member of the Austrian Society for Experimental Phonetics, secretary of the Berlin Laryngological Society, and a member of various learned societies. He died of

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

in November 1922 after suffering a stab wound from a

gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

needle.

Selected bibliography

* * * * With

Theodor Simon Flatau Theodor Simon Flatau (4 June 1860 – 1937) was a German physician. Flatau was born in Lyck, East Prussia (today Ełk, Poland), where he attended school. He passed his Abitur at the Graues Kloster in Berlin and studied medicine at the Univer ...

. * * * * * * Translated by M. Ménier. * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gutzmann, Hermann 1865 births 1922 deaths People from Bytów Physicians from the Province of Pomerania 19th-century German Jews 20th-century German Jews 19th-century German physicians 20th-century German physicians German medical writers German pathologists Jewish German scientists Jewish physicians Speech and language pathologists Physicians of the Charité Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Deaths from sepsis in Germany