Psychiatry in Germany in the early 20th century

The evolution of psychiatry in the early stages of the 20th century is characterized by numerous ambivalences. As thousands in the asylums fell victim to war-induced starvation, the survival and well-being of psychiatric patients was weighed against the necessities of wartime. The efforts to find new therapies for the mentally ill contrasted sharply with the ambiguous stance of many leading psychiatrists, and the developments of the time foreshadowed the gruesome realities of psychiatry in the Third Reich.