Hans Asperger

Hans Asperger
Asperger performing a psychological test on a child at the University Pediatric Clinic, Vienna during the Third Reich c. 1940.
Born	18 February 1906 Hausbrunn, Austria-Hungary
Died	21 October 1980(1980-10-21) (aged 74) Vienna, Austria
Education	University of Vienna
Known for	Writing on “autistic psychopathy” Eponym of Asperger syndrome
Medical career
Profession	Physician
Institutions	University Children’s Hospital, Vienna
Specialism	Pediatrics
Research	Autism

Hans Asperger (18 February 1906 – 21 October 1980) was an Austrian pediatrician, medical theorist, and medical professor. He is best known for his early studies on mental disorders, especially in children. His work was largely unnoticed during his lifetime except for a few accolades in Vienna, and his studies on psychological disorders only acquired world renown posthumously. He wrote over 300 publications, mostly concerning a condition he termed autistic psychopathy (AP). There was a resurgence of interest in his work beginning in the 1980s, and due to his earlier work on autism spectrum disorders, Asperger syndrome (AS), was named after him. Both Asperger's original paediatric diagnosis of AP and the eponymous diagnosis of AS that was named after him several decades later have been controversial.

Hans Asperger was born and raised on a farm outside Vienna, Austria. The elder of two sons, Hans had difficulty finding friends and was considered a lonely, remote child. He was talented in language; in particular, he was interested in the Austrian poet Franz Grillparzer, whose poetry he would frequently quote to his uninterested classmates. He also liked to quote himself and often referred to himself from a third-person perspective.

Asperger studied medicine at the University of Vienna under Franz Hamburger and practiced at the University Children’s Hospital in Vienna. He graduated doctor of medicine in 1931 and became director of the special education section at the university children’s clinic in Vienna in 1932. He married in 1935 and had five children.

During World War II, he was a medical officer, serving in the Axis occupation of Croatia; his younger brother died at Stalingrad. Near the end of the war, Asperger opened a school for children with Sister Viktorine Zak. The school was bombed and destroyed, Sister Viktorine was killed, and much of Asperger’s early work was lost.