Development of neurology in Germany after 1960

Abstract

The still continuing accelerated development of neurology in Germany is described in this article by a contemporary witness who was active in this field from 1965 to 2005. The personal experiences of the author are obviously only reflected over these 40 years so that the glorious antecedents in the period up to 1933, the era in which our predecessors were the world leaders in neurology, is not sufficiently covered. This dominance was lost by the anti-Semitism during the era of National Socialism and the sequelae of World War II. As a result of the war, German neurologists became effectively isolated and their participation in international congresses was forbidden so that a gradual reestablishment of alignment only became possible after 1960. In this brief description no attempt at completeness has been made and only subjectivity and brevity have been considered. An attempt is made to retrospectively convey what essentially happened. An exact dating of advances over the period was sometimes difficult. The readership will have the opportunity to share the surprise of the author on how meagre the neurological knowledge and diagnostic methods were 50 years ago, how rapidly the subsequent development happened, how rapidly things became obvious which 20 years ago nobody was aware of and despite the progress how pleased we were to find ourselves at the most recent state of error and probably still find ourselves nowadays. In particular, how powerless and untested the therapeutic efforts were at that time. The progress can only be measured by a comparison between then, 50 years ago and the present. A projection of the future based on these experiences is not attempted but it seems to be certain that many conceptions, diagnostic advances and therapy options are still undiscovered and that further exciting times can be expected.