Psychiatric governance, völkisch corporatism, and the German Research Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (1912-26). Part 2

Hist Psychiatry. 2016 Jun;27(2):137-52. doi: 10.1177/0957154X16629579. Epub 2016 Feb 11.

Abstract

This is the second of two articles exploring in depth some of the early organizational strategies that were marshalled in efforts to found and develop the German Research Institute of Psychiatry (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie). The first article analysed the strategies of psychiatric governance - best understood as a form of völkisch corporatism - that mobilized a group of stakeholders in the service of higher bio-political and hygienic ends. This second article examines how post-war imperatives and biopolitical agendas shaped the institute's organization and research. It also explores the financial challenges the institute faced amidst the collapse of the German financial system in the early Weimar Republic, including efforts to recruit financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and other philanthropists in the USA.

Keywords: 20th century; Emil Kraepelin; German Research Institute of Psychiatry; James Loeb; Kaiser-Wilhelm-Society; Rockefeller Foundation; Weimar Republic; psychiatric research institutes.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Academies and Institutes / economics
  • Academies and Institutes / history*
  • Financial Support*
  • Foundations / history
  • Germany
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans
  • Political Systems / history
  • Psychiatry / history*
  • United States