1960s

First initiatives for reform

The first initiatives suggested a comprehensive psychiatric reform that would rebuild psychiatric research in Germany and modernise psychiatric care. Initially, these were only individual local reform efforts. The first initiators from the 1950s onwards included Prof Dr Caspar Kulenkampff, who held the Chair of Psychiatry in Düsseldorf from 1966, and the Heidelberg Professor of Psychiatry, Prof Dr Walter Ritter von Baeyer.

PD Dr Dr Heinz Häfner, later founder of the ZI, also began developing his plans for a model institute in the 1950s. In addition to the existing Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, he envisioned a second, complementary research institution. It was to focus on the fields of social psychiatry, epidemiology and clinical research. It should also be closely linked to modern care facilities in order to develop new forms of care and monitor their quality.

In 1959, von Baeyer had agreed to the opening of the ward managed by Häfner. Until then, almost all wards in psychiatric hospitals had been closed. Care now slowly began to become more flexible. The first day and night clinics were set up.

Häfner attributed his reform efforts not only to the situation of mentally ill patients in the institutions in post-war Germany, but also to his generation's need for reparation after the Holocaust and the killing of mentally ill people in the Nazi system.  

Obituary of Caspar Kuhlenkampff by Heinz Häfner

On the significance of Prof Dr Walter Ritter von Baeyer