„Brandstiftung, ‘seniler Marasmus‘ und Delinquenz“

This research project compares and analyses documents from Swabian psychiatric institutions (the ‘District Mental Hospital’ in Irsee, 1849; the ‘Sanatorium for the Mentally Ill’ in Kaufbeuren, 1879; “Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Günzburg 1915) during their respective early years and in specific times of crisis throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, the aim is to carry out a selective comparison with the “Bukowina State Sanatorium and Nursing Home Czernowitz” (founded in 1902), the only psychiatric institution in Bukowina, the outermost province of the Habsburg Monarchy, with whose successor institutions there is now close cooperation with Swabia.

The history and analysis of patient records and psychiatric documents represent an area of research that has been neglected, as they have been under-documented and have not yet been studied. Firstly, this study employs a qualitative-quantitative methodology to focus on the socio-economic environment of the patients, thereby opening up new perspectives on historical group and gender dynamics as well as societal perceptions. Secondly, it examines the question of changing diagnoses and medical treatment methods in this context.

The analysis is based on a unique corpus of sources, the majority of which has already been catalogued, 70% of which has been digitised, and which is thus already prepared for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The compiled patient records provide information on, amongst other things, the patients’ occupations, places of residence, religion and gender. They also document diagnoses, discharge dates and (pre)medical histories. In addition to the medical records themselves, the patient files contain administrative documents and often private correspondence from the patients, such as letters and drawings. Administrative documents, such as annual reports, also make it possible to evaluate further economic and macro-historical contexts and to relate them to the data.

The aim is to organise the collected data into various social frameworks in order to show who the patients were and for what reasons they were admitted to which institutions and for how long. This will enable us to paint a more accurate picture of everyday life in hospitals in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Against this backdrop, the study also examines the time-bound structures within different political power structures (the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Bavaria, parliamentary democracy and the Nazi dictatorship) in order to gain new insights into the development of the welfare and psychiatric systems. These insights can shed light on how economic, social and socio-political developments were perceived within the state apparatus.

The supplementary comparative analysis of a case study from south-eastern Europe highlights how value judgements and interpretative frameworks have varied regionally and what differences can be identified. It also illustrates the national and regional influences that shaped the diagnosis and treatment of patients. Clinical presentations changed not only as a result of medical advances and scientific achievements, but also due to social norms and moral concepts that varied from region to region.

The findings of the doctoral research will be published in a monograph. This will make it possible – particularly through its comparative and international perspective – to identify points of reference and present socially relevant analyses, even 50 years after the Psychiatric Enquiry in Germany, and to contextualise these within the broader social developments to date.