Karl Robert Sommer (19 December 1864, in Grottkau – 2 February 1937, in

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

) 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 genealogist born in Grottkau. He is remembered for his work in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

. He coined the term „Psychohygiene“ in 1901 and founded the „German Association for Psychohygiene“ and the „Society for Experimental Psychology“ (since 1929 „German Society for Psychology“). He is remembered for his work in

. He also published on genealogy, philosophy, and forensics. He was also an active inventor and involved in local politics.

Early life and career

Sommer was the youngest of six children of the lawyer Karl Friedrich Adolf Sommer (1824-1903) and his wife Anna, née Lange (1831-1872). Actually, Robert Sommer wanted to become a naval officer, but his nearsightedness did not allow it. He studied medicine and philosophy in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

and Leipzig, relocating in 1885 to Berlin, where he composed a work on the philosophy of

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

in relation to René Descartes. In 1887, he received his doctorate of philosophy, afterwards working as an assistant in the laboratory of

Wilhelm Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and ...

(1832-1920) at Leipzig. From 1889, he was an assistant at a psychiatric hospital in Rybnik, earning his habilitation at Würzburg in 1892. In 1895, he became an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Giessen, where, during the following year, he established a "centre for psychiatry". In 1904, he was a co-founder of the ''Gesellschaft für experimentelle Psychologie'' (Society for experimental Psychology).Gestalt Psychology in German Culture, 1890-1967
By Mitchell G. Ash In 1904, Sommer, together with his colleagues Georg Elias Müller,

Hermann Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 185026 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describ ...

, Oswald Külpe, Ernst Meumann and Friedrich Schumann, convened the first "Congress for Experimental Psychology" in Giessen, at which the Society for Experimental Psychology was founded. Sommer died in 1937 of pneumonia contracted during a six-hour winter hike. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Giessen Psychiatric Clinic, the Robert Sommer Award Symposium was established, at which international scientists have since presented and discussed research results on schizophrenia, and the Robert Sommer Medal has also been awarded for special services in schizophrenia research. In addition, a street in Giessen is named after Robert Sommer.

Written works

* ''Lockes Verhältnis zu Descartes'' (Locke's relationship to Descartes), (1888) * ''Grundzüge einer Geschichte der deutschen Psychologie und Aesthetik von Wolf - Baumgarten bis Kant - Schiller'' (History of German psychology and aesthetics of

Wolff Wolff is a variant of the Wolf surname which is derived from the baptismal names Wolfgang or Wolfram. List of people surnamed Wolff A * Albert Wolff (disambiguation), several people * Alex Wolff, American actor * Alexander Wolff, American writ ...

Baumgarten Baumgarten (german: tree garden) may refer to: Places *Baumgarten, Burgenland, Austria *Baumgarten, Vienna, Austria *Baumgarten an der March, Austria (the natural gas hub) *Baumgarten, Germany, a municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Oth ...

to Kant-

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

), (1890) * ''Diagnostik der Geisteskrankheiten'' (Diagnostics on mental illness), (1894) * ''Lehrbuch der psychopathologischen Untersuchungsmethoden'' (Textbook on research methods of

psychopathology Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

), 1899) * ''Kriminalpsychologie und strafrechtliche Psychopathologie,'' (1904) * ''Familienforschung und Vererbungslehre'' (Family studies and genetics), (1907) * ''Goethes Wetzlarer Verwandtschaft'', (1908) * ''Goethe im Lichte der Vererbungslehre'' (1908) * ''Öffentliche Ruhehallen'', (1913) * ''Krieg und Seelenleben'' (War and spiritual life), (1916) * ''Die körperliche Erziehung der deutschen Studentenschaft'', (1916) * ''Über Familienähnlichkeit'' (On family resemblance), (1917) * ''Die Schweizer Soldan-Familien,'' (1921) * ''Familienforschung und Vererbungslehre'', (1922) * ''Tierpsychologie'' (

Animal psychology Comparative psychology refers to the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior. Research in this area addr ...

), (1925) * ''Die Nibelungenwege von Worms über Wien zur Etzelburg'' (A German hiking book), (1929)

References

Zeno.org
translated biography @ Pagel: Biographical Dictionary, last accessed: 5 January 2023 * Translations from german wikipedia

Robert Sommer Robert Sommer (April 26, 1929February 27, 2021) was an internationally known Environmental Psychologist and held the position of Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

*
Zum Schiffenberg, der Gießener Psychiater Robert Sommer und sein Engagement für die heimische Region
' (PDF; 806 kB), Lecture by Ulrike Enke, Wettenberg, last accessed: 5 January 2023
Deutsche National Bibliothek (German National Library)
last accessed: 5 January 2023 * Written works copied from the Polish Wikipedia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sommer, Robert German psychiatrists Academic staff of the University of Giessen 1864 births 1937 deaths German genealogists German male non-fiction writers