Hermann Oppenheim

Hermann Oppenheim (January 1, 1858, Warburg - May 5, 1919, Berlin) was one of the leading neurologists in Germany. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Bonn. He started his career at the Charité-Hospital in Berlin as an assistant of Karl Westphal. In 1891 Oppenheim opened a successful private-hospital in Berlin.

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Oppenheim wrote a book about nervous diseases in 1894 titled Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten für Ärzte und Studierende, which soon became a standard in his profession. It was published in several editions, and is considered one of the best textbooks on neurology ever written. He also published important works on tabes dorsalis, alcoholism, anterior poliomyelitis, syphilis, multiple sclerosis and traumatic neurosis.

In 1889 he published a treatise on traumatic neuroses that was harshly criticized by eminent physicians such as Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and Max Nonne (1861-1959). Oppenheim maintained that trauma caused organic changes which perpetuated psychic neuroses. Oppenheim was also interested in physiology and published articles on metabolism of urea with the aid of Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920).

With Fedor Krause (1857-1937), Oppenheim is credited with performing the first successful removal of a pineal tumor. Also, he coined the term dystonia musculorum deformans for a type of childhood torsion disease he described, which was later to became known as the Ziehen-Oppenheim syndrome (named along with psychiatrist Theodor Ziehen (1862-1950). Also, another name for amyotonia congenita is Oppenheim's disease.