[Hermann Emminghaus. Founder of scientific child and adolescent psychiatry]

The discipline of child and adolescent psychiatry regards Hermann Emminghaus as one of those responsible for its becoming established as a separate branch of science. The monograph by Emminghaus entitled Die psychischen Störungen des Kindesalters (Mental Disorders of Childhood), which appeared in 1887 in the Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten, was the first overview in German of the emotional problems occurring during this phase of life. It represents, in the words of the American child psychiatrist HARMS (1967), the "cradle of child psychiatry." In 1984, to commemorate this pioneer in our specialty, the Hermann Emminghaus Prize was established. It is to be awarded every two years in recognition of outstanding contributions to scientific research in child and adolescent psychiatry.