Otto Selz and the Würzburg school

Theo Herrmann

Steffi Katz

pp. 225-235

in: Liliana Albertazzi (ed), The dawn of cognitive science, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

Otto Selz was and remains an outsider.¹ His scientific work, although of admirable quality, did not gain the acknowledgement granted to the work of many other psychologists which was, at most, only equally good. Even in the fifty years since the end of the Second World War he has been barely noticed in Germany. This has been somewhat different in other countries. Since 1945 he has found in the USA, the Netherlands, in France and the USSR to some extent, lasting acknowledgement.² For instance his work is represented in the history of cognitive science. The field of psychology in Germany has so far hardly considered him. Otto Selz led a wretched life after his professorship was taken from him at the outset of the Nazi regime, with his life in the ghetto and concentration camp and his murder en route to Auschwitz in August 1943.³

Cited authors

Selz Otto