Dr. Oskar Felix Kohnstamm (13 April 1871, in Pfungstadt – 6 November 1917, in Frankfurt am Main) was a German neurologist and

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 ...

. Initially trained in internal medicine 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 ...

and

Strassbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

he received his doctors degree in Berlin in 1894. Kohnstamm then began as a general practitioner in

Königstein im Taunus Königstein im Taunus () is a health spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Owing to its advantageous location for both scenery and transport on the edg ...

, a small town in Hesse. There, he became more and more interested in neurology and psychiatry. The phenomenon of muscle tension he observed is named after him with the name Kohnstamm's phenomenon. At the beginning of the 20th century, Oskar Kohnstamm founded a sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus which was intended to appeal to a group of intellectually high-quality patients, and which became internationally known.

Life and work

His father was Moritz (Moses) Kohnstamm of Sephardic descent and his mother was Pauline Wilhelmine Kohnstamm, née St. Goar. His wife, Eva, daughter of

Johannes Gad Johannes Wilhelm Gad (30 June 1842 – 1926) was a German neurophysiologist who was a native of Posen. He was father-in-law to psychiatrist Oskar Kohnstamm (1871-1917). Life He was an assistant to Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896) at the ...

- one of Kohnstamm's Berlin professors, agreed to have occasionally depressive patients as guests in the house, who then got chores assigned in housekeeping, gardening or minding the children. Gradually, the idea ripened to build a small sanatorium for treating clinical depressions. The house, build in Jugendstil style, opened in 1905 and was expanded in 1912. Kohnstamm was no follower of Sigmund Freud but worked often with hypnosis. Among his patients were three young men who would become world-famous: the painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), the actor

Alexander Moissi Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

(1879-1935) and the conductor Otto Klemperer (1885-1973). Even the playwright

Carl Sternheim Carl Sternheim (born William Adolph Carl Francke; 1 April 1878 – 3 November 1942) was a German playwright and short story writer. One of the major exponents of German Expressionism, he especially satirized the moral sensibilities of the emergi ...

(1878 – 1942) has been in medical treatment in Kohnstamms sanatorium during the First World War. The poets Stefan George,

Karl Wolfskehl Karl Wolfskehl (17 September 1869 – 30 June 1948) was a German Jewish author and translator. He wrote poetry, prose and drama in German, and translated from French, English, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Old/Middle High German into German. Bio ...

, the archaeologist

Botho Graef Franz Botho Graef (12 October 1857, Berlin – 9 April 1917, Königstein im Taunus) was a German classical archaeologist and art historian. His father was painter Gustav Graef, and his sister, Sabine Lepsius, was also an artist of some note. ...

and the architect Henry van de Velde have been friends of him. Gertrude Kingston was a cousin of him, Phyllis Konstam a niece. The tale

Peter and Anneli's Journey to the Moon ''Little Peter's Journey to the Moon'' (German ''Peterchens Mondfahrt'') is a fairy tale written by German author and playwright Gerdt von Bassewitz. It was first performed as a play in Leipzig in 1912 and appeared in 1915 as a storybook for chil ...

, which was written by a former patient

Gerdt von Bassewitz Gerdt Bernhard von Bassewitz-Hohenluckow (4 January 1878 in Allewind, Kingdom of Württemberg – 6 February 1923 in Berlin) was a lieutenant in the Prussian militia, a playwright, and an actor. He had his only great success with '' Peter and Anne ...

, was playing in his sanatorium with his children as the main character.

References

*Kohnstamm, Oskar (1927) ''Erscheinungsforme der Seele.'' Munich: Ernst Reinhardt Verlag. *Laudenheimer, R. (1927) ''Oskar Kohnstamm, eine biographische Skizze.'' In Kohnstamm,O. ''Erscheinungsformen der Seele''. *Heyworth, Peter (1983) ''Otto Klemperer, his life and times, Vol. 1.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Grisebach, Lucius (1996) ''Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938.'' Cologne: Benedikt Taschen Verlag. *Grossmann-Hofman, B.(1992) ''Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in Königstein.'' Königstein: City archive. *Kohnstamm, Peter (1994) ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen - Erinnerungen an vergangene Zeiten'', Königstein im Taunus * http://www.geni.com/people/Gertrude-Angela-Kingston/6000000020871659167 * http://www.geni.com/people/Phyllis-Konstam/6000000016171975409 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohnstamm, Oskar 1871 births 1917 deaths 19th-century German Jews German neurologists German psychiatrists

Life and work

See also

References