Friedrich Meggendorfer (June 7, 1880 – February 12, 1953) was a German psychiatrist and neurologist.
Life
thumb|Friedrich Meggendorfer's parents' house in Bad Aibling (right)
Born in Bad Aibling, Bavaria, he was intended to take over the local colonial goods store of his ancestors.
He enjoyed an excellent international education aimed at preparing him for this role.
However, his life's goal has always been to become a physician, and finally, he had persuaded his father to agree and to sponsor medical studies.
During World War I he was stationed in Turkey as a medical assistant of the German imperial navy.
There he learnt much about the Turkish culture and was able to translate ancient Arabic medical works into German language and the bible to Turkish, an effort that was lost later, when he narrowly escaped a sinking submarine.C. Riemeling.
Professor Dr. Friedrich Meggendorfer.
7. 6. 1880–12.
2. 1953.
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde.
Volume 170, Number 1, I-II, DOI 10.1007/BF00218433, Scientific Work
Meggendorfer was an assistant to Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926) in Munich and Max Nonne (1861-1959) in Hamburg, and later worked at the Friedrichsberg Psychiatric Hospital in Hamburg.
From 1934 to 1945 he was a professor and director of the psychiatric department at Erlangen.
His scientific activities where very versatile ranging from moral insanity and dementia to epilepsy, progressive paralysis and Huntington's disease.
Additionally, he was a recognized expert in forensic psychiatry.
Meggendorfer was a pioneer in electroconvulsive therapy and introduced this treatment method in Germany in 1939.
Secondary psychosis was an additional focus of his scientific work.
As early as 1916 he described neurologic and psychiatric sequelae of pituitary neoplasms.Meggendorfer F: Über Vortäuschung verschiedener Nervenkrankheiten durch Hypophysentumoren.
Deutsche Zeitschrift f Nervenheilkunde 1916, 55(1-3):1-28.
In 1930 he provided an early description of familial Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in the "Backer family" of northern Germany.
The case had already been reported in 1924 by Kirschbaum, but it was Meggendorfer who showed that the subject described by Kirschbaum was a member of a large kindred.Meggendorfer F.
Klinische und genealogische Beobachtungen bei einem Fall von spastischer Pseudokosklerose Jakobs.
Z Neurol Psychiatry 1930; 128: 337–41.
Gambetti P, Kong Q, Zou W, Parchi P, Chen SG.
Sporadic and familial CJD: classification and characterisation.
Br Med Bull.
2003;66:213-39. .
Selected publications
Gerichtliche Psychiatrie (Judicial Psychiatry), Carl Heymanns Verlag, Berlin 1931.
DNB ID 58068489X
Elektrokrampfbehandlung der Psychosen.
In: Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift.
66, 1940, S. 1155–1157.
Allgemeine und spezielle Therapie der Geistes- und Nervenkrankheiten (General and Special Treatment of Mental and Neurological Health), Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1950, DNB ID 453283039
Notes
References
The original version of this article is based on a translation of an article from the Polish Wikipedia.
Oxford Journals Familial prion diseases: Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and fatal insomnia
F. Flugel.
In memoriam Friedrich Meggendorfer.
Med Monatsschr.
1953 Sep;7(9):614-5.
External links
Author profile at Open Library
References at AuthorMapper
