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by Ingo-WolfKittel, Augsburg
 In the Gannuschkin Institute: | He shared the lot of many and he choose an end of his life,that has been chosen by not a few other people. Arthur Kronfeld was 55years old when he and his wife committed suicide in Moscow on the 16th.of October in 1941. His motives for this action are unknown and will probablyremain unknown, even though some circumstances of his death could meanwhilebe resolved. |
Immediately after the end of the second world war, Johannes R. Becherreported, Kronfeld committed suicide in fear of Hitler. Immediately afterthis statement was expressed conflicting opinions arouse challenging thisstatement made by Becher. In this way a conceivable rebellion was expressedabout the fate of many Germans living in exile, who had disappeared underthe rule of Stalin. Kurt Hiller, who has been a friend of Kronfeld in earlieryears, could at that time only imagine - and did so decades later in hismemoirs - that Kronfeld could have committed suicide in anticipation ofpersecution by Stalin. The information that is available today, seems ratherto support the statement of Johannes R. Becher than that of Kurt Hiller.
Kronfeld had already earned a very high reputation in Germany as a theoristof psychiatric medicine. He was a known representative and supporter ofa school independent psychotherapy. From the very beginning he receivedgreat recognition in the Soviet Union and preserved this recognition untilhis death. Today he is known as one of the "classics" in the Soviet psychiatry.
Since 1936 he has been a professor in Moscow at the Gannuschkin Institutefor scientific research in the field of neuropsychiatry. As a close colleagueof M. Serejskij he was in charge of the "department for experimental therapies".He introduced the newly developed insulin coma therapy for patients sufferingfrom schizophrenia to the Soviet Union. During his Swiss exile he had learnedthat method and was now able to do further scientific research.
The co-operation that he experienced in Moscow is remarkable. His arrivalin Moscow on the 15Th. June 1936 was an event mentioned in the newspapercalled “Deutsche Zentralzeitung”. In spite of the general lack of roomin the Soviet capital he and his wife received a flat with 2 large rooms.He had also been able to bring along his furniture as well as his extensivelibrary from Berlin. Not much later he even received a flat with 3 roomsin a newly constructed building for the staff of the Gannuschkin institute.In this building he lived among others with Andrej V. Sneznevskij and ErichSternberg. Sternberg was on of his former students in Berlin who had emigratedalready in 1935 into the Soviet Union and had supported Kronfeld´sappointment for a professorship at the Gannuschkin Institute.
His first public appearance in the Soviet Union has been on the all-sovietcongress for psychiatrists and neurologists in December 1936. He explainedthe first results of his research, and described later this congress asa large success for himself. Within the next year he and his wife becamecitizens of the soviet union. His skills speaking the russian languagemust at this time been already far advanced and he was delegated to holdlectures about psychotherapy at the university in Charkow. In the followingtime he worked as well as a psychiatrist and consultant at the “Sokolniki”clinic, at the “Preobashenskij” hospital in Moscow and at a clinic in Kostroma,about 200 km northeast of Moscow.
The first russian Publication by Arthur Kronfeld has been a great overviewabout the current problems within the theory of schizophrenia. This publicationhas been the introductory volume of the works of the Gannuschkin lnstitutein 1936. From the year 1938, he was a member of the editorial staff. Hewas also an editor of publications of the Preobashenskij-clinic, also called"Moscow´s first psychiatric clinic“. In the late of the thirtieshe advanced also to one the directors of this clinic.
At the end he was director of the “Department for experimental therapyof psychosis“ at the Gannuschkin lnstitute. In this function, he was incharge of 120 beds and as he wrote proudly in a letter on the 15th June1939, had "a good library, auditorium and - above all - excellent laboratories".Until 1940, different, partially extensive works of Kronfeld were published.In the beginning of August 1941 he still expressed confidence about hisfuture plans in a letter to Karl Balthasar, another of his former studentsin Berlin.
After the invasion of German troops into the Soviet Union, Kronfeldco-operated repeatedly in propaganda radio transmissions in Moscow. Hewrote also a little pamphlet about his personal experiences with Hitler,Himmler and Göring published simultaneously in Moscow and Krasnojarskand reprinted in Magadan and Sverdlovsk under the title Degeneraty u vlasti(degenerated men at power).
Such a political engagement was not unusual for him. In Germany, Kronfeldhad often taken the opportunities to express his opinions in public. In1918 he was a member of the press committee and a delegate of the historicallysignificant “Soldatenrat” in Freiburg/ Breisgau, later in the 'Societyof socialistic physicians' (VSÄ) in Berlin, which he had joined 1926as a member of the Social Democratic Party in Germany (SPD). He had runfor office together with Alfred Döblin at a “trade union list“ forthe physicians chamber elections in 1931. In 1932 he signed an "urgentappeal“ of the “Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund” (ISK - InternationalSocialistic Battle Society) together with Albert Einstein and the philosopherLeonard Nelson. This appeal called for a coalition of all left wing partiesto oppose a success in the elections by the Nazis.
Leonard Nelsons for the parliament elections in 1932. Signed by Kronfeld,Albert Einstein
and Franz Oppenheimer and well known artists like Kurt Hiller, ErichKästner, Karl and
Käthe Kollwitz, Heinrich Mann, Ernst Toller and Arnold Zweig.
Kronfeld died during the autumn offensive by the German forces againstMoscow, called “operation typhoon". Shortly after that, the Soviet armysuffered devastating losses in the battles at Brjansk and Vjaz' ma. Thequickly advancing German troops conquered on the 13th. and 14th. October1941 Kalinin and Kaluga, two important cities of the defence line of theSoviet capital. On the 15th. October evacuation of the diplomatic corps,government, military and party organizations to Kujbysev near by the riverVolga was announced. When on the 16th. October all departments left Moscow,panic broke out.
The transfer of the Gannuschkin-lnstitute to Kasan has been prepared.Erich Sternberg reported after the war, Kronfeld was pushing him to providethe necessary papers for leaving, but he came to late.
Arthur Kronfeld was born on the 9th. January 1886 in the capital ofthe still young German Kaiserreich. His father, a graduated lawyer, wasthe son of a Jewish choirmaster from Thorn (today Torún). 1884 hestarted a law office in Berlin. During this time, also called the 'founderyears' (Gründerjahre), he became a council member for justice (Justizrat)and council member of the royal court (Hofrat) as well as a royal notary.For years he was also engaged in the commission for the poor of the Jewishcommunity in Berlin.
There are only a few information about the childhood and youth of Kronfeldaveilable. He was the 'firstborn' out of four children. His sister, bornshortly after his graduation examination became an actress and debutedat the Burgtheater in Vienna. He went to school at the Sophiengymnasiumin Berlin and studied medicine between 1904 and 1909 at the universitiesof Jena, Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1909 he was an assistant ofFranz Nissl, who was the director of this famous psychiatric universityclinic and the successor of Emil Kraepelin and Karl Bonhoeffer. In Heidelberghe earned also his medical Doctorate degree under Nissl.
Kronfeld really started his career in 1910 as an assistant of FranzNissl and his assistant medical director Karl Wilmanns. One year earlier,Karl Jaspers the best known of his colleagues at that time, had begun hisscientific career in the same institute.
 | 1912 Kronfeld published an extensive criticism of psychoanalysis,that made him well known at once in Germany and other European foreigncountries. In the same year, he earned an additional Doctorate degree inphilosophy under the philosopher and psychologist August Messer from Gießen.Incidentally it should be mentioned that Kronfeld published poems in theexpressionistic periodicals Der Sturm and Die Aktion. He was also publishedin the anthology the Kondor by Kurt Hiller along with works by famous namesas Ernst Blass, Max Brod, Salomon Friedländer, Ferdinand Hardekopt,Georg Heym, Else Lasker-Schüler etc. |
At the end of the year 1913 he began to work at “Irrenklinik Dalldorf“(Madhouse Dalldorf, the current Humboldt-Klinikum, formerliy Karl-Bonhoefferclinic for nervous diseases) in Berlin-Wittenau as an assistant of HugoLiepmann, who has been a research scientist about aphasia. But at the 2nd.August 1914 he was for the first time thorn out of his career with an orderof mobilisation for World War I. During the first world war, he was stationedmainly at the western front at Verdun and Douaumont. He received militarymedals as the “Eiserne Kreuz” (Iron Cross) I. and II. Class, the “Kriegsverdienstkreuz”of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a medal for the wounded. These honours showhis enormous efforts under these circumstances. After he was lightly injuredat the head by a splinter of a grenade at Reims in spring 1917, he wastransferred to manage the construction of a ward for nervous diseases inan infirmary of war in Freiburg/Breisgau. He got married in Freiburg atthe 8th. August 1918. Three month later he became a member of the councilof soldiers (Soldatenrat) who organised the conversion of the communityinto a republic after the breakdown of the monarchy.
 | When Kronfeld returned to Hugo Liepmann in Berlin, he couldagain |
This 'Institute for Sexual Science' was founded by Magnus Hirschfeldand especially unpopular in conservative and Nazi circles. In 1933 theNazis destroyed this pioneer achievement of Magnus Hirschfeld thoroughly.During the following seven years was Kronfeld obviously the “right hand”of Hirschfeld and head of the “department for mental and sexual sufferings“in partnership with other physicians. In the March 1926 he opened a privatepractice as an psychiatrist, neurologist and psychotherapist in Berlin-Tiergarten.
During these years, he acquired an excellent reputation as an expertin sexology, but it seems that for him this was only a secondary occupationwithin his broad scientific activities. His most important publicationsin this time were rather of fundamental, theoretical, psychological, psychopathological,forensic-psychiatric and above all psychotherapeutical nature. Becauseof his thorough, weighed as well as definite attitude in favour of an epistemologicalclarified psychological foundation within psychopathological research inthe psychiatric field he could give himself a clear image as a prominentrepresentative of a new “psychological way of thinking“ in the psychologicalmedicine. This “new way of thinking“ has been at that time the main topicat many psychiatric congresses.
Kronfeld received his greatest recognition as a school of thought independentpsychotherapist. He was engaged for a broad movement in the medical field,that began to form itself in 1925 by
organising a “First general medical congress for psychotherapy“. Since1926 this movement established a “Medical society for psychotherapy“. Kronfeldwas together with his friend Ernst Kretschmer one of the founders and anexecutive committee. From 1930 he was together with J. H. Schultz chiefeditor of the influential “Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie”, a periodicalread all over Europe. Beside this he supported research in Parapsychologytoo, that interested him personally. Kronfeld and Albert Einstein participatedby the way together at an experimental parapsychological session.
Kronfeld was habiltated for psychiatry and neurology under Karl Bonhoefferin 1927. He was the first lecturer at the Charité in Berlin whoheld lectures about modern psychotherapy. From 1931 he held an extra ordinaryprofessorship at the Charite. But from 1933, when the Nazis claimed powerin Germany he was driven out of the scientific life and his basis of livingwas simultaneously robbed by new laws. After Hitler seized power, Kronfeld,like all other Jews in the third empire, had to retreat from all publicactivities immediately. A new law from 7th. April 1933 (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellungdes Berufsbeamtentums) could not yet dismiss him form his office as anuniversity lecturer, because it contained an exceptional regulation concerningformer frontline soldiers. Another law followed at the 1st. April 1934and expelled him from getting his bills reimbursed by health insurancecompanies. With the decree of the Reichshabilitationsordnung” at13th. December 1934 he had to withdraw from his office as professor atthe 1st. February 1935. Hubert Kester, a relative of the psychiatrist andpsychotherapist Matthias Heinrich Göring, a cousin of Hermann Göring,exulted with joy that Kronfeld finally was overthrown.
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Finally he emigrated into Switzerland and was firstly employed in aprivate sanatorium called “Les Rives de Prangins” and run by the son ofAugust Forel. However the Swiss authorities did not grant him asylum. Thereforehe applied for the already mentioned research-professorship in Moscow.An offer from Moscow really came into being and he had to accept this offerunder the pressure of an ultimate expulsion order by the Swiss police departmentdealing with aliens.
His death on the 16th. October 1941 was scarcely noticed as a resultof the war events. An obituary was published nowhere. Also after the endof the second world war was he not publicly thought of, until he was rediscoveredduring the sixties while reviewing literary expressionism in the Germany.Within the field of psychiatry, his actual specialty, the memory of himwas lost in the darkness of a repressed history. Today he is not even knownas an early colleague of the famous “Heidelberger Schule", (“Heidelbergschool”) whose program was inaugurated by Karl Jaspers as a phenomenologicalresearch of psychopathological phenomena. Kronfeld had been one of thefew psychiatrists outside of Heidelberg who supported this program andtried to develop it furthermore while including efforts of contemporaryresearchers.
In this manner Arthur Kronfeld suffered the same fate as many otherJewish scientists, who emigrated from German. After expulsion and deathfalling finally into oblivion as their “second exile”. Also his extensivescientific work of more than two hundred publications, eight books as wellas fifteen littler monographs are forgotten.
Kronfeld showed from the very beginning many and diverse interests forart, philosophy and science. In a literary circle, he made, just 18 yearsold, the acquaintance of Kurt Hiller. During the same time, a first paperof Kronfeld was published. It was a flattering comparison between “Goetheund Haeckel” (1905), and intended as an present for the 70th. birthdayof the latter. He dedicated also his first published book, at 20 yearsof age to him: an treatise based on the therory of evolution about Sexualiätund ästhetisches Empfinden (Sexuality and aesthetic perceiving, Strasbourg1906). This early work of Kronfeld could be the reason he made the acquaintancewith Magnus Hirschfeld, since Hirschfeld used in 1908 a summary of thetheses of this book under the title Das Divergenzprinzip und die sexuelleKontrektation as “a contribution to the sexual theory“ next to works ofSigmund Freud and other psychoanalyst in his periodical for sexual science.
The remaining works of Kronfeld are based on a explicit philosophicalposition, influenced by philosopher Leonard Nelson. Since 1907 he belongedit to Nelsons circle of friends. Nelson called this circle “Neue Fries´scheSchule" to mark the resumption of an epistemological tradition interruptedin the 19th century. The members studied in regular meetings, in additionto their actual studies, systematically the critical works of ImmanuelKant and his philosophical successor Jakob Friedrich Fries.
It can be referred here only that Kronfeld became due to this circleclose friend with the later noble prize winner for medicine Otto Meyerhofand was contact to o important mathematicians as Paul Bernays and KurtGrelling. Through the latter he became acquainted with at that time intensivelydiscussed problems of the mathematics and the consequences of the theoryof relativity by Albert Einstein. Kronfeld was, as a 21-year-old student,confronted with the most current scientific questions of the 20th century.These questions were the reason for the development of the "Philosophyof science" in the modern philosophy.
Kronfeld tried to use these stimulations for his specific subject. Hisfirst steps into this direction were extensive reviews of the publicationby Nelson in the “Archiv für die gesamte Psychologie”. In 1910 heconcerned himself, together with Meyerhof and his friend Otto Warburg,who won later the Nobel Prize for medicine too, but also with Karl Jaspers(who never mentioned this detail of his life) – with the problem of epistemologyin psychoanalysis and reported about his results at a yearly conferenceof the Nelson-circle. The results were completed in 1911 and publishedas the already mentioned work about the Über die psychologischen TheorienFreuds und verwandte Anschauungen (About the psychological theories ofSigmund Freud and related views, Leipzig 1912).
This first independent epistemological publication of Kronfeld causedat that time a considerable sensation and was translated into Russian atonce. Freud registered this echo with surprise and ordered the printingof an extensive reply by Gaston Rosenstein; during the same time some otherpsychoanalysts were also discussing the work of Kronfeld. Though this successwas only of short duration, since it was based mainly on the negative resultsKronfeld presented in respect to the scientific quality of the largelydisputed hypotheses of Freud. His way of analysing the hypotheses in alogical and methodical order did not gain any greater attention. Becauseof that Karl Jaspers appeared, based on his own methodical writings, lateras the founder of the scientific methodology in psychiatry.
These historical effects must be referred to because an intention ofKronfeld was to establish psychiatry and psychology with theoretical foundationsas a 'strict science'. To this purpose he extended his studies to the analysisof all logical and methodological prerequisites of psychology and psychiatry.Because of the First World War he was not able sum up his results for along time. In 1920 he published his results as a collection of differenttreatises. He presented under the title Das Wesen der psychiatrischen Erkenntnis(The Nature of the psychiatric knowledge, Berlin 1920) nothing less thanthe fundament of a complete “philosophy of science of the psychologicalsciences“.
He tried to find a systematic unity between psychology, psychopathologyand psychotherapy and clarify their relationship towards each other. Kronfeldsighted the different professional philosophical and sychological opinionsof his time and determined their value. He analysed in detail the methodologicalstatues by Jaspers, above all his concept of "understanding“ (Verstehen)and his opinions about the “type concept” (Typenbegriff) by Max Weber.The discussion of the status of psychoanalytical hypotheses and the principlesof testing their validity was continued by Kronfeld. Yet his explanationsfound in the time after the First World War only isolates echoes.
In his profession he published again about sexological subjects. Hisbest known work at that time would be his large collected papers calledSexualpsychopathologie in the Handbuch der Psychiatrie by Gustav Aschaffenburg(Vienna and Leipzig 1923). Kronfeld began an apprenticeship psychoanalysisand studied hypnosis. At the same time and with consciousness towards theprimacy of practice, he tried to grasp the practical work as a psychiatristand psychotherapist also theoretically. Within the school of individualpsychology by Alfred Adler, he found the best therapeutic strategies. Thatis why he joined his organised group in Berlin for a while. Yet he demandedthroughout a differentiated view and theoretical integration of all effectiveelements within the psychotherapeutic work.
 | Under the name "Psychagogik“ he published for the first timehis psychotherapeutic introductory courses held at the Magnus Hirschfeld- institute (Psychotherapie, Berlin 1924 / 25) This book established thefoundation of his reputation as one of the most exceptional school of thoughtindependent psychotherapist of the Weimar Republic. His views were publishedmore detailed under the title Psychagogik - oder psychotherapeutische Erziehungslehrein a collected work published by Karl Birnbaum (Die Psychischen Heilmethoden.Leipzig 1927). |
This handbook contribution represents factually the outline of his comprehensivepsychotherapeutic teachings. Kronfeld was not able to complete this conceptto its end. His energetic efforts to establish a institutional specialisttraining for physicians during the roaring twenties were due to the diverginginterests of different psychotherapeutic schools not successful.
Practically and journalistically he was just able to spread his psychotherapeuticknowledge and practical skills. He had to take a finished manuscript aboutthe Technik der Psychotherapie with him when emigrating from Germany. Hewas only able to print a little prepublication of this manuscript. In hishabilitation-paper Die Psychologie in der Psychiatrie (Psychology in Psychiatry,Berlin 1927) he described once again, even though from another point ofview, the methodical foundation for the science of psychiatry. He showedreasons for his thesis, already first presented before the First WorldWar, that it was necessary to use psychological means when analysing psychopathologicalsymptoms to achieve a scientific understanding of those psychopathologicalphenomena, rather than just creating a classification of mental illnesses.
Kronfeld tried to prove his thesis by using an example. In his bookPerspektiven der Seelenheilkunde (Perspectives in mental medicine, Leipzig1930) three years later he showed his program giving the example of schizophrenia.By discussing all the points of views presented by contemporary psychology,he struggled to give the problem of schizophrenic phenomena a theoreticalframework. He tried to describe them as “primary disturbance of intentionality“(primäre Störungen der Intentionalität) and used the "fundamentalanthropological“ works created by Martin Heidegger and Sören Kierkegaardas a foundation.
Above all this book seemed most important for Arthur Kronfeld, but thereception was slowly and hesitantly. The circumstances prevailing at thattime prevented any greater effects. - The same fate met his as purely reportingconceived Lehrbuch der Charkterkunde (Textbook of charakterology, Berlin1932). This publication fell shortly before the national socialists seizedpower over Germany. After 1933, he made a last courageous attempt to publishand extend the periodical Psychoanalytische Praxis by Wilhelm Stekel asan alternative to the periodical Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie.The Zentralblatt was at that time under the patronage of C. G. Jung butimmediately influenced by “German psychotherapists“ and misused for politicalpropaganda purposes. However his efforts proved to be useless.
The work of Kronfeld written in the Soviet Union are not known in Germany,nor is any translation into German available. Analysis and scientific estimationof those publications must remain as a task for the future.
As mentioned before, Kronfeld had not only affect in Germany by meansof his publications. He was also an engaged member in a dozen of scientificsocieties and partially also a member in their boards. Next to his activitiesas a neurologist, psychiatrist and psychotherapist he was an expert witnessin court, held lectures at the university, worked as publisher and editorand organised conferences and exhibitions. In the year of his eliminationfrom the German intellectual life he received a last distinction: he wasincluded in the Biographische Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte derletzten fünfzig Jahre (Biographical lexicon for outstanding physiciansof the last fifty years, Berlin und Wien 1933), the until now last volumeof the Biographisches Lexikons der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeitenund Völker (Bographical lexicon of outstanding physicians of all timesand peoples).
It is a remarkable historic fact, that Kronfeld was not remembered untila long time after the second world war of and first of all only in memoirsof some of his personal friends like J. H. Schultz, E. Kretschmer, M. Müller,K. Hiller an others. He was mentioned also in the autobiographies publishedlater and biographies of Otto Meyerhof, Leonard Nelson, the psychoanalystKaren Horney, Werner Kemper and Walter Schindler as well as the psychiatristLothar Kalinowski. Yet even in these there is rarely mentioned more abouthim than just his name. Even his publications are quoted only sporadicallyin psychiatric, psychotherapeutic and sexological literature. The nameof Kronfeld and his work possess at present no longer any authority inthe psychiatric medicine.
But even at his time did his books invite only a few to contradictionand discussion. The reception of his detailed and broad discussions, basicreflections and careful considerations required time and energy as wellas a level of understanding that only a few could provide. - To explainthe historical similar ineffective philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries, onwhose works Kronfeld so strongly supported himself, it was be stated amongother things that he was free of one-sidedness and egoism and placed thephilosophy of Immanuel Kant that much into the foreground, that his characteristicoriginal thoughts faded into the background. The thoroughness and severityof the teachings of Fries require hard work by the student or reader: itseems similar things could be said about the works of Kronfeld. Kronfeldslarge publications - and far over 500 reviews – show his very wide readingsand have an almost encyclopaedic width of knowledge when discussing opinionsof different authors. Above all his books form therefore a treasure-housefor psychiatry and the history of psychotherapy, especially since theycontain multiple explanations when reviewing the history of ideas and theoreticalefforts in the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic medicine.
In his books Kronfeld does develop his own views when discussing opinionsof other authors. He allows their ideas to stay next to his, even whenhe sometime polemically differentiates himself from their theories. Yeteven at those times the style of his scientific discussions keeps theiressential feature of defending or rejecting opinions by showing exact reasonsand explaining his way of deriving. This open dialogic way of writing isalways a very good example and model of a scientific conviction in a medicalspeciality where clarity of thinking and precise argumentation is essentialabove all.
The work of Kronfeld is practically unused today and neither historicallyreviewed nor seriously scientifically considered. Especially today werewe live in a time of uncertainty about the foundation in psychiatric medicine,his works remain unused for the great task to convert and extend psychiatryinto a science, an effort that has once been the primal goal of Kronfeldswork.
Glossary and notes
IP-GIPT (English).
Überblick Geschichte der Psychologie, Psychopathologie,Psychotherapie
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