RITTMEISTER,JOHN 100TH BIRTHDAY - LIFE AND WORK

John Rittmeister was born in Hamburg in 1898 as a son of an upper clas s family. After studying medicine he worked in the fields of neurology , psychotherapy and psychiatry in Switzerland. During this time he was in connection with socialist students and workers. In 1937 he returne d to nationalsocialist Germany. He worked as the head of Policlinic of the Institute for Psychotherapy in Berlin and founded a group of youn g women and men mainly belonging to the left wing of the opposition ag ainst Hitler. Later on this group went together with the groups of Sch ulze-Boysen and Harnack. In 1942 he was put in prison, condemned to de ath and killed on May 13, 1943 in Berlin-Ploetzensee. In his professio nal work he was dedicated to evidence and scientific based psychothera py and the psychic illnesses of the poor people.