Oswald Bumke
| Oswald Bumke | |
|---|---|
| Born |
25 September 1877 Stolp, Pomerania |
| Died | 5 January 1950 (aged 72) Munich |
| Nationality | German |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychiatry, neurology |
Oswald Bumke (25 September 1877 – 5 January 1950) was a noted German psychiatrist and neurologist.
Oswald Bumke's parents were solidly middle class. His father, Albert Bumke (1843-1892) was the son of a brewer, and his mother Emma (1850-1914) was the daughter of a factory owner. Bumke's father was a physician and an assistant to Rudolf Virchow but did not pursue a scientific career. He died when Oswald Bumke was 15 years old. One of his three brothers was born without a left hand and died in a swimming accident, another brother, Erwin Bumke, became a noted jurist.
Bumke studied at the universities in Freiburg, Leipzig, Munich and Halle. On 1 August 1901 he became an assistant physician at the psychiatric clinic and mental hospital in Freiburg, working under the noted psychiatrist Alfred Hoche, one of the most vocal critics of the "natural disease entities" classification of Emil Kraepelin. As is the custom in German universities, in order to be eligible for a professorship Bumke researched and wrote a second thesis or Habilitation. Published in 1904, Bumke's extensive literature review of the evidence for eye-pupil abnormalities in neurological and psychiatric conditions was an attempt to identify potential biomarkers that might be of diagnostic and research significance. Research on eye-movement abnormalities and the abnormal behavior of the pupils was widely researched at that time on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as strong candidates for pathognomonic findings that could be discerned through a routine neurological examination that could confirm a diagnosis of Dementia praecox
From 1906 to 1913 Bumke served in Freiburg clinic at the higher rank of senior physician. His first appointment as a professor was in Rostock, where he taught and conducted research from 1914 to 1916. Upon the death of Alois Alzheimer in 1915, Bumke replaced him at Breslau in 1916. He turned down an invitation for a position in Heidelberg in 1918. From 1921 to 1924 he worked with Paul Flechsig in Leipzig.
Doctoring Lenin in Moscow
When V.I. Lenin became ill in Moscow, Bumke was invited to be part of a team of visiting neurological specialists to evaluate and treat —if possible— the ailing leader. Although the plan was for him to be at Lenin's bedside for 3 days in May 1923, Bumke stayed for 7 weeks. Otfrid Foerster, the noted neurologist from Breslau, remained for 7 months. During this period Bumke made the acquaintance of Leon Trotsky and Karl Radek and had favorable impressions of these two men.
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