He worked as a medical practitioner in
Velden, and in 1844 visited various mental institutions in England, France and Germany (
Siegburg, Illenau,
Heidelberg and Winnenthal). In 1846 he began work at the district mental hospital in Erlangen as an assistant to
Karl August von Solbrig, and three years later, was named director of the mental hospital at Kloster
Irsee near
Kaufbeuren. In 1859 he succeeded Solbrig as director of the district mental hospital in Erlangen, and during the following year, was appointed professor of psychiatry at the University of Erlangen.
King Ludwig II Along with fellow psychiatrists,
Bernhard von Gudden,
Hubert von Grashey and Max Hubrich (1837–1896), he was tasked with determining the sanity of King
Ludwig II of Bavaria. On 8 June 1886, the four doctors unanimously ruled that Ludwig was most likely mentally unfit to govern. Incredibly, up to that point in time, none of the four had ever personally examined the king as a patient. ==Personal life==