Kallmann Syndrome: Eugenics and the Man behind the Eponym

Benbassat, Carlos

doi:10.5041/rmmj.10242

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…This was due in part to the recent Nazi atrocities disguised under the premise of genetic differences and was only later accepted in the 1960s, shortly before his death. 2 Although Kallmann is credited with reporting his eponymous syndrome, it was Spanish physician-scientist, Aureliano Maestre de San Juan, who first discovered in 1856 what would later be described as Kallmann syndrome. 30 Maestre de San Juan had described in his autopsy report a man with an underdeveloped penis and testes, anorchia, and absent olfactory bulbs with subsequent anosmia.…”

Section: Franz Josef Kallmann (1897-1965)mentioning

confidence: 99%

History of cerebral localization and the emigration plight of three neuroscience giants from Nazi Germany: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann

Fana

Smith

Gable

et al. 2019

Neurosurgical Focus

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The Nazi regime held power for well over a decade in Germany and were steadfast in their anti-Semitic agenda. Among the massive cohort of immigrants to America were approximately 5056 Jewish physicians, including several highly esteemed neurologists and neuroscientists of the time. Emigrating to a new world proved difficult and provided new challenges by way of language barriers, roadblocks in medical careers, and problems integrating into an alien system of medical training and clinical practice. In this article, the authors examine the tumultuous and accomplished lives of three Jewish German and Austrian neurologists and neuroscientists during the time of the Third Reich who shaped the foundations of neuroanatomy and neuropsychology: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann. The authors first examine the successful careers of these individuals in Germany and Austria prior to the Third Reich, followed by their journeys to and lives in the United States, to demonstrate the challenges an émigré physician faces for career opportunities and a chance at a new life. This account culminates in a description of these scientists’ eponymous syndromes.Although their stories are a testimony to the struggles in Nazi Germany, there are intriguing and notable differences in their ages, ideologies, and religious beliefs, which highlight a spectrum of unique circumstances that impacted their success in the United States. Furthermore, in this account the authors bring to light the original syndromic descriptions: Gerstmann discovered contralateral agraphia and acalculia, right-left confusion, and finger agnosia in patients with dominant angular gyrus damage; Wallenberg described a constellation of symptoms in a patient with stenosis of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery; and Kallmann identified an association between hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia based on family studies. The article also highlights the unresolved confusions and international controversies about these syndromic descriptions. Still, these unique cerebral syndromes continue to fascinate neurologists and neurosurgeons across the world, from residents in training to practicing clinicians and neuroscientists alike.

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Section: Franz Josef Kallmann (1897-1965)mentioning

confidence: 99%

History of cerebral localization and the emigration plight of three neuroscience giants from Nazi Germany: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann

Fana

Smith

Gable

et al. 2019

Neurosurgical Focus

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Facing Our History—Building an Equitable Future

Jackson

Turner

June

et al. 2023

The American Journal of Human Genetics

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Eugenics ideals, racial hygiene, and the emigration process of German-American neurogeneticist Franz Josef Kallmann (1897–1965)

Pow¹,

Stahnisch

2016

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences

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Biological psychiatry in the early twentieth century was based on interrelated disciplines, such as neurology and experimental biology. Neuropsychiatrist Franz Josef Kallmann (1897-1965) was a product of this interdisciplinary background who showed an ability to adapt to different scientific contexts, first in the field of neuromorphology in Berlin, and later in New York. Nonetheless, having innovative ideas, as Kallmann did, could be an ambiguous advantage, since they could lead to incommensurable scientific views and marginalization in existing research programs. Kallmann followed his Dr. Med. degree (1919) with training periods at the Charité Medical School in Berlin under psychiatrist Karl Bonhoeffer (1868-1948). Subsequently, he collaborated with Ernst Ruedin (1874-1952), investigating sibling inheritance of schizophrenia and becoming a protagonist of genetic research on psychiatric conditions. In 1936, Kallmann was forced to immigrate to the USA where he published The Genetics of Schizophrenia (1938), based on data he had gathered from the district pathological institutes of Berlin's public health department. Kallmann resumed his role as an international player in biological psychiatry and genetics, becoming president (1952) of the American Society of Human Genetics and Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute in 1955. While his work was well received by geneticists, the idea of genetic differences barely took hold in American psychiatry, largely because of émigré psychoanalysts who dominated American clinical psychiatry until the 1960s and established a philosophical direction in which genetics played no significant role, being regarded as dangerous in light of Nazi medical atrocities. After all, medical scientists in Nazi Germany had been among the social protagonists of racial hygiene which, under the aegis of Nazi philosophies, replaced medical genetics as the basis for the ideals and application of eugenics.

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Kallmann Syndrome: Eugenics and the Man behind the Eponym

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

History of cerebral localization and the emigration plight of three neuroscience giants from Nazi Germany: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann

History of cerebral localization and the emigration plight of three neuroscience giants from Nazi Germany: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann

Facing Our History—Building an Equitable Future

Eugenics ideals, racial hygiene, and the emigration process of German-American neurogeneticist Franz Josef Kallmann (1897–1965)

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