, courtyard of the
University of Vienna Background and education Richard von Krafft-Ebing was born as the eldest of five children to Friedrich Karl Konrad Christoph von Krafft-Ebing, a high-ranking official in the
Grand Duchy of Baden. His mother Klara Antonia Carolina was a daughter of the renowned Heidelberg legal scholar and defense attorney
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier. His paternal lineage was ennobled in the year 1770 by Empress
Maria Theresia and elevated to the
Baronial status in 1805 by Emperor
Franz II (as Franz I, Emperor of Austria). Due to his father's professional relocation, the family moved initially to various locations in
Baden and eventually to
Heidelberg. In Heidelberg, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, after passing his
university entrance exam at the
University of Heidelberg, where his grandfather taught law, turned to the study of medicine. He passed the state examination in 1863 "
summa cum laude" with his work on "Sensory Delusions" and earned his Doctorate in Medicine. During his studies, he became a member of
Burschenschaft Frankonia Heidelberg in the winter semester of 1858/59.
Early medical career Recovery from a bout of typhoid led him to spend a summer in
Zürich, where he became acquainted with
Wilhelm Griesinger's
brain anatomical studies. He observed practices in
Vienna,
Prague, and
Berlin. In the subsequent years from 1864 to 1868, he worked as an assistant at the Baden mental hospital
Illenau—chiefly under
Christian Roller and
Karl Hergt—gaining practical experience in the extensive field of treating and caring for the mentally ill and those suffering from neurological disorders. Since that time, he maintained a lifelong friendship with his colleague
Heinrich Schüle (1840–1916), who later became the director of this institution (from 1890). In 1868, von Krafft-Ebing set up his own practice as a neurologist in
Baden-Baden. At the beginning of his career, he looked after his younger, severely ill brother Friedrich for several months. After losing the battle for his brother's life, who was just 24, a restorative and art-focused journey, coupled with visits to psychiatric and neurological institutions, took him several weeks through southern Europe. During the
Franco-Prussian War (1870/71), he first served as a field doctor with the rank of captain in the
Baden Division and was then transferred as a hospital doctor to the
Fortress Rastatt. His observations, especially regarding patients suffering from
typhus, were compiled in a special treatise. After the end of the war, he was put in charge of the
electrotherapeutic station in Baden-Baden, mainly for the neurological follow-up treatment of wounded soldiers.
Professor of psychiatry in Strasbourg and Graz Already boasting an impressive number of scientific publications, von Krafft-Ebing was eager to pursue an academic career. After a trial lecture in
Leipzig under the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Wunderlich, a decision on his habilitation was expected soon. However, on 13 May 1872, von Krafft-Ebing was able to inaugurate his psychiatric clinic in
Strasbourg. After a one-year stint at the newly established Psychiatric Clinic of the
University of Strasbourg—the university clinic consisted of two beds in a room for men, another two-bed room for women, and two rooms for clinic management—the now 32-year-old university professor had to tolerate these limitations only for a short time. Through the mediation of his teacher Roller, he was appointed in 1873 as the director of the newly established Styrian State Asylum
Feldhof near Graz, and simultaneously awarded the Chair of Psychiatry at the
University of Graz. The following year, his wife Maria Luise Kißling (1846–1903), who was originally from Baden-Baden, joined him there. On 22 May 1874, he opened the clinic in Graz and led it until 1880. After years of effort, he was finally relieved from the burdens of his dual role in such a way that he could give up the administration of the Feldhof institution. With appropriate modifications to the clinic and his appointment to a full professorship in 1885, he was solely a Professor of Psychiatry.
Rising fame and major works A part of his research was focused on examining the relationships between psychiatry and criminal law. Already during his time in Strasbourg, he published his
Fundamentals of Criminal Psychology, followed in 1875 by his first major work,
Textbook of Forensic Psychopathology. Of the many publications he released, some of which saw multiple editions and became widely known, notable are his
Textbook of Psychiatry (1st ed. 1879) and his most famous work
Psychopathia Sexualis (1st ed. 1886), which through numerous, constantly expanded new editions, became the standard textbook on sexual pathology (see also:
Sexology) of the 19th century. Krafft-Ebing spent thirteen years in the Styrian capital. He was aware that separating psychiatry from neurology would be incompatible with fruitful effectiveness in both fields, and following constant efforts in this direction, his professorship was expanded to include both psychiatry and neurology. During his work at Feldhof and in the Graz clinic, Krafft-Ebing laid the foundation for his global fame. Within a few years, his name spread across the entire world. Patients came to him from many countries. For the increasing number of patients from wealthy families, he built a state-of-the-art
Private clinic in Mariagrün for the time. His book
Psychopathia Sexualis later became a widely published standard work. In the same year, 1886, he was elected a member of the
Leopoldina.
Activities in Vienna Given the reputation that Richard von Krafft-Ebing had meanwhile established in the professional world—as he was also frequently consulted abroad (Italy, France, Russia, etc.)—it was inevitable that he was first appointed in 1889 to Vienna at the
I. Psychiatric Clinic of the Lower Austrian State Asylum following
Maximilian Leidesdorf, and he became a professor of psychiatry at the
University of Vienna. In 1892, after the death of
Theodor Meynert, he was called to the psychiatric university clinic of the
Vienna General Hospital. Several professional publications appeared from his pen, including his well-known 1894 monograph
Die progressive allgemeine Paralyse on
progressive paralysis—a disease he also highlighted in 1897 at the International Medical Congress in
Moscow in a highly regarded lecture. According to Volkmar Sigusch, he adopted the degeneration theories of his French research colleagues and borrowed the term
Sadism used in France since 1834 (Dictionnaire universel de Boiste, eighth edition) as the name for a pathology. The now well-known technical term "
Masochism" was coined by him. He also dealt extensively with
Hypnotism and was one of the first to apply it clinically. Increasingly, he was called in as a forensic expert. For the subsequent generation of researchers around
Magnus Hirschfeld, Krafft-Ebing's findings and his strict empirical method formed the starting point for their own research.
Later years in Graz At the age of sixty-two, Krafft-Ebing retired for health reasons to Graz, to the
private clinic in Mariagrün he had created—after having previously celebrated his thirtieth anniversary as a university professor in Vienna; and just half a year after his retirement, multiple strokes ended his life on 22 December 1902. He was buried at the
St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz and left behind his wife, two sons, and a daughter. "He was an utterly noble nature," reads the obituary in the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, "toward his patients he was of touching kindness and friendliness. Nothing could disturb his calm; he possessed perfect self-control and proved himself equal to any situation. His tall figure, his firm stride, his calm gaze, his intellectual countenance had often a marvelous effect on the most agitated patients." == Study of homosexuality ==