Viktor von Weizsäcker

Viktor von Weizsäcker (1886 to 1957) was a German physician and physiologist, born in Stuttgart, who studied at Tübingen, Freiburg, Berlin and Heidelberg and earned his medical degree at Heidelberg in 1910. In 1920 he became head of the neurological department at Ludolf von Krehl's clinic in Heidelberg, in 1941 he succeeded Otfrid Foerster as professor of neurology in Breslau, and in 1945 he returned to Heidelberg as professor of clinical medicine. He is known for pioneering work in psychosomatic medicine and for his theories of medical anthropology, above all the concept of the Gestaltkreis, in which perception and movement form one unit that is constantly repatterned through experience. He co-edited the journal Die Kreatur with Martin Buber and published Pathosophie in 1956.