From April 1904 until his premature death due to an accident in June 1905, Carl Wernicke was head of the Department of Psychiatric and Nervous Diseases at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. We report on Wernicke's work and activities during this short but influential period in the context of his biography and scientific development. Archive materials reveal some interesting details concerning Wernicke's appointment and his diagnostic practice in Halle. As the most outstanding representative of 19th century neuropsychiatry, Wernicke constantly strove to base his psychiatric doctrine on the brain research of the time. In Breslau, his former place of employment, his scientific working environment had dramatically deteriorated. In Halle, Wernicke found not only a well-functioning clinical institution but also an important neurobiological tradition inaugurated by Eduard Hitzig. He immediately resumed his research programme. Fields of interest included the implementation of his nosological system in clinical practice, the study of aetiological factors of mental diseases and the use of a new method of puncture for the localisation of brain tumours. Wernicke's biological research agenda was interrupted not only by his premature death but also by historical developments. Many aspects of this agenda, however, have been raised anew by today's psychiatry.