Content area
Full Text
J Neurol (2014) 261:22492250 DOI 10.1007/s00415-013-7227-1
PIONEERS IN NEUROLOGY
Hugo Karl Liepmann (18631925)
Behnam Dalfardi Golnoush Sadat Mahmoudi Nezhad
Received: 24 November 2013 / Revised: 11 December 2013 / Accepted: 18 December 2013 / Published online: 3 January 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Hugo Karl Liepmann was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who is best remembered for his investigations of apraxia (Fig. 1).
Originally from Berlin, Liepmann was born on April 9, 1863 to a rich and cultivated Jewish family [2, 6]. During high school, philosophy and ancient languages were his main topics of interest [5]. After high school, in 1880, Liepmann began his studies in philosophy and natural sciences (mainly chemistry). He studied these subjects in Berlin, Leipzig, and Freiburg [2, 5]. With a thesis entitled Die Mechanik der Leucipp Democritschen Atome u.s.w. (The Mechanics of Leucippus-Democritus Atoms and so forth), he earned a PhD in Philosophy in 1885 [2, 4, 6]. Liepmanns knowledge of philosophy made a basis for his further studies of psychophysical concepts and ideation [10]. The study of philosophy did not satisfy Liepmann; therefore, in 1889, he again entered university to study medicine. In 1895, at the age of about 31, Liepmann graduated from the medical university at Berlin [2, 5].
For a period of time, Liepmann studied anatomy under the guidance of Karl Weigert, a German pathologist [10]. From 1895 until 1899, he practiced as an assistant to Carl Wernicke (German neurologist and psychiatrist) in Breslau (now in Poland) [5, 6]. During this 4-year period, Liep-mann studied topics like pure word deafness and conrmed at postmortem examination Ludwig Lichtheims (German physician) anatomical predictions. Lichtheim predicted the
lesion responsible for pure word deafness, and Liepmann validated his idea through autopsy [4]. In 1900, he returned to Berlin and took a position with the...