Krafft-Ebing, Richard, Freiherr von

PSYCHIATRIST (GERMANY)
BORN 14 Aug 1840, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg - DIED 22 Dec 1902, Graz, Steiermark (near): Maria Grün clinic
GRAVE LOCATION Graz, Steiermark: St. Leonhard-Friedhof (114-010-138-1)

Son of a civil servant whose family had been enobled by Maria Theresia and Franz II. His mother Klara Antonia (1820-1855) was a daughter of C.J.A. Mittermaier (1787-1867), a well known lawyer from Heidelberg. He studied in Heidelberg, Zürich, Vienna and Prague. In 1864 he was employed by the asylum in Illenau and in 1868 he started his own pratice. This ended during the War of 1870/1871.

After a year in Strasbourg he became a professor in Graz 1873. In that city he founded the private Maria Grün Clinicum. In 1874 he married Maria Luise Kißling (1846-1903). In 1889 he was called to Vienna where he became professor at the clinicum of the general hospital.

He did extensive research on sadism, masochism and hypnotism. He is best remembered for his work on homosexuality in a time that homosexuality was forbidden in the Austrian empire. He concluded that people that it was an iversion of the brain that people were born with and that homosexuality shouldn't be regarded as criminal or as a perversion. His conslusions were largely forgotten after Freud stated that homosexuality was a psychological problem and only in later years other specialists came to the same conclusions.

When his health detoriated he retired from Vienna to his clinic at Maria Grün. There he died only half a year later after several strokes.

Related persons
• influenced Schnitzler, Arthur

Images

The grave of Richard, Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing at the St. Leonhard-Friedhof, Graz.
Picture by Androom (15 Aug 2009)

 

Sources
• Aubert, Joachim, Handbuch der Grabstätten berühmten Deutscher, Österreicher und Schweizer, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München, 1973
• Gross, Eugen, Friedhofführer der Pfarre Graz-St. Leonhard, Wirtschaftsrat der röm.-kath. Pfarre Graz-St. Leonhard, Graz, 2004
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
Richard von Krafft-Ebing - Wikipedia


Kramm, Charlotte

Published: 21 Mar 2010
Last update: 10 Sep 2023