Geschichte des wissenschaftlichen Films in der Nervenheilkunde in Deutschland 1895-1929

Abstract

Based on a systematic journal survey, an account is given of the history of research films in neurology and psychiatry in Germany in the era of the silent film 1895-1929. In 1897, Paul Schuster of Berlin was the first who filmed patients with a variety of movement disorders. Since 1927, Otto Löwenstein of Bonn developed the method of pupillography which was based on single-frame analysis and allowed quantitative evaluation of pupillary responses. Film recordings of epileptic fits proved to be of value in the scientific study of epilepsy. The few films copies that have survived the passage of time are valuable documents of medical history.

Arthur Van Gehuchten takes neurology to the movies

“…31 The pioneer was Paul Schuster, who used cinematography in Berlin as early as 1897. 5,31 Apparently, nothing of this Ger-man cinematographic output before World War I has survived (Podoll, personal communication). Schuster was followed by Kraepelin in Munich, Foerster in Breslau, and Westphal and Hennes in Bonn.…”