1950s

Loss of trust and deplorable conditions

Up until the 1920s, the German-speaking countries played a leading role in psychiatric, psychotherapeutic and psychosomatic research. After the end of the National Socialist dictatorship and the Second World War, both psychiatric research and patient care in Germany found themselves in a serious crisis. The trust of the population had been deeply shaken by the murders of people deemed ‘unworthy of life’, including those with mental illness. Sick people continued to be cared for in large hospitals outside the cities and were often more detention than treatment. There was hardly any effective medication, few psychotherapies and little outpatient care. People with mental illness often remained in their living environment for a long time without treatment, so that their suffering became chronic. There was a severe shortage of qualified doctors and carers. The conditions in the large psychiatric hospitals with their hospital wards were often unacceptable. Many of those affected remained in the institutions for years.

More about psychiatry under National Socialism.