[Early Psychiatric Patient Registration and the Case of Wuerttemberg]

This article provides both an analysis of the impact of medical statistics on psychiatric research as well as biographical information on one of its central protagonists, Württemberg medical doctor Wilhelm Weinberg. Against the background of the assumption of genetic inheritance of mental illnesses, a paradigm shift took place in the sense of a further development of so-called statistics for the insane. In addition to innovative diagnostics and nosology of the Kraepelin school, the study of human genetics was expected to become a promising step towards the predictability of mental illnesses. In particular, psychiatrist and racial hygienist Ernst Rüdin did thus integrate Weinberg's research findings. Weinberg became the founding figure of a central patient register in Wuerttemberg. During National Socialism, however, usage of this register shifted from being an instrument for research to one of establishing a hereditary biological inventory.