Alzheimer biography

1. Alois Alzheimer: Pioneer of Neurodegenerative Research
2. Clinical and Research Career
3. Alzheimer's Disease
4. Influence on Psychiatry
5. Later Years
6. Legacy

Alois Alzheimer: Pioneer of Neurodegenerative Research

Alois Alzheimer was born in Marktbreit, Germany, in 1864.

One year later, after he had passed the state examinations successfully, he worked as assistant doctor in Frankfurt for Emil Sioli at the “Municipal sanatorium for psychotics and epileptics”.

The work in this field awakened Alzheimer´s interest in human brains and made him dedicate his time to research the histological and histopathological studies of the cerebral cortex; in 1895 he became a Senior physician in Frankfurt.

His meticulous research transformed our understanding of these devastating conditions and paved the way for further advances in their diagnosis and treatment.

Who is Alois Alzheimer?

In June of 1903, a researcher and pathologist by name of Alois Alzheimer (born Aloysius Alzheimer in 1864) was invited to open up a psychiatric clinic in Munich, Germany as a research assistant alongside another doctor by the name of Emil Kraepelin.

In his talk, Alzheimer stated that he had identified an ‘unusual disease of the cerebral cortex’, which had affected a woman by the name of Auguste D. The disease had caused symptoms of memory loss, disorientation, and hallucinations up until Auguste’s death, which at fifty years of age, was atypical.

In the post-mortem autopsy, Auguste’s brain showed various abnormalities.

He also played a pivotal role in establishing the "Journal of General Neurology and Psychiatry," which remains a leading publication in the field.

Later Years

From 1912 until his death in 1915, Alzheimer served as the ordinary professor of psychiatry at the University of Breslau.

Seven years later he resumed his studies under Emil Kraepelin in Heidelberg and subsequently in Munich. The following year, he began work at the state asylum in Frankfurt am Main, becoming interested in research on the cortex of the human brain. It wasn’t until 1910 that Kraepelin would name the disease as ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ in the 8th edition of the ‘Handbook of Psychiatry’.

Das Leben eines Arztes und die Karriere einer Krankheit. convention of south-west-German alienists and described for the first time the “strange symptoms”, which he discovered in Auguste Deter. By doing so he noticed that the cerebral cortex was thinner than in healthy brains and moreover he found deposits (plaques).

At November 3th 1906 Alois Alzheimer discoursed a presentation at the 37.

However, his most famous work revolves around a degenerative brain disorder. This is remarkable compared with the development of investigative methods for other diseases, and it speaks volumes about the quality of Alzheimer’s discovery.

* June 14th, 1864, Marktbreit (Bavaria)                                             † December 19th, 1915, Breslau

1884      Began medical studies in Berlin, Würzburg and Tübingen
1888      Assistant doctor in Frankfurt
1895      Senior physician in Frankfurt
1901      First meeting with Auguste Deter
1902      Medical assistant at the Psychiatric University Hospital Heidelberg 
1912      Professorship in Breslau

The Universitätsarchiv Würzburg’s Alumnus of the Month for April 2020 is Alois Alzheimer.

Up to that time this quantity of disorientation was just observed by older people and Alzheimer wanted to consider her brain again. Her case became interesting again for Alzheimer, after Deter died in 1906 at the age of 56. Unfortunately, the exact cause of his untimely demise remains unknown.

Legacy

Alois Alzheimer's legacy in the field of neurodegenerative disorders is immense.

While also working as a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, it was in 1906 that Alzheimer gave a now famous talk to the 37th Congress of Psychiatrists of Southern Germany. The cerebral cortex was thinner than normal and senile plaque, previously only encountered in elderly people, was found in the brain along with neurofibrillary tangles.

The work was finally published between 1907 and 1918.

During his time working at the asylum, Alois married Cecilie Simonette Nathalie Wallerstein, with whom he had two children, Gertrude and Hans.