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Heinrich Obersteiner

Born  1847
Died  1922

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Austrian neurologist, born November 13, 1847, Vienna; died November 19, 1922, Vienna.

Biography of Heinrich Obersteiner

Heinrich Obersteiner, the son and grandson of Vienna physicians, studied in his native city, and already whilst a student concerned himself with scientific work in Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke’s (1819-1892) laboratory. Before receiving his doctorate he published his first neurological work, contributions to the knowledge of the fine build of the Kleinhirnrinde. He obtained his doctorate in 1870, was habilitated for anatomy and pathology of the nervous system in 1873, becoming ausserordentlicher Professor in 1880, titular ordentlicher professor in 1898. From 1872 he was head of the private mental asylum (Privatirrenanstalt) in Ober-Döbling near Vienna.

Despite severe shortages of funding, he began the establishment of the nurological institute, later called Österreichisches Interakademisches Zentralinstitut für Hirnforschung, which attracted pupils from all over the world, and which occasioned a large numebr of works. These works made up the major work Arbeiten aus dem Neurologischen Institute, which up to his death filled 22 volumes. It was published in Leipzig and Vienna from 1892.

Bibliography

  • Der Hypnotismus. Klinische Zeit- und Streitfragen, Vienna, 1887.
  • Anleitung beim Studium des baues der nervösen Centralorgane im gesunden und kranken Zustande.
    Leipzig and Vienna, 1888; 5th editon, 1912.
    Translated English, French, Italian, and Russian.
  • Die Lehre vom Hypnotismus. Leipzig and Vienna, 1893.
  • Funktionelle und organische Nervenkrankheiten.
    Grenzfragen Nerv. Und Seelenleben. Wiesbaden, 1900.
  • Zur vergleichenden Psychologie der verschiedenen Sinnesqualitäten.
    Wiesbaden, 1905.
  • Die Krankheiten des Rückenmarks. With Emil Redlich.
    In: Wilhelm Ebstein (1836-1912) and Gustav Albert Schwalbe (1844-1916), publishers: Handbuch der praktischen Medizin, in Verbindung mit Zahlreichen Gelehrten. Stuttgart, 1906. This may be wrong and it was published in Wiesbaden fra 1899.

  • Die progressive allgemeine Paralyse. Vienna and Leipzig, 1908.
  • Die Sinnestäuschungen.
    Handbuch der ärztlichen Sachverst. Tätigkeit, volume 4, Stuttgart, 1910.
  • Makroskopische Untersuchung des Zentralnervensystems.
    In Emil Abderhalden (1877-1950), publisher: Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden, part 8, T. 1; Berlin and Vienna, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1924.
We thank Rudolf Kleinert, Bad Reichenhall, Germany, for information submitted.

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