Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915): Lest We Forget

Professor Alois Alzheimer (14th June 1864 - 19th December 1915), the great German physician-psychiatrist whose name is synonymous with senile dementia (viz. Alzheimer's disease), passed away precisely a century ago. This video chronicles his memorable life and important achievements, and hopes to make more widely appreciable, the distinguished legacy of this early pioneer in neuropathology.

We dedicate this video to Professor Konrad Maurer, whose biography of Alzheimer has been indispensable in the production of this work. We used the translated version of his work for our research:

Maurer K. Maurer U. Alzheimer: The Life of a Physician and the Career of a Disease, Translated by Neil Levi, with Alistair Burns. New York: Columbia University Press; 2003.

The biography was first published in German in 1998:

Maurer K. Maurer U. Alzheimer: Das Leben eines Arztes und die Karriere einer Krankheit. München: Piper Verlag; 1998.

Images sourced from:
- Professor Maurer's biography
- The online Internet Archive
- The National Library of Medicine
- Jucker M, Beyreuther K, Haass C, Nitsch RM, Christen Y, editors. Alzheimer: 100 Years
and Beyond. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer; 2006.
- Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Bildersammlung
- Alzheimer A. über die Ohrenschmalzdrüsen [On the earwax glands]. Inaugural-
Dissertation [Medical doctoral thesis], Wuerzburg: Druck Und Verlag Der
Stahel’schen Uni.-Buch-und Kunsthandlung; 1888.
- Nissl E. Alzheimer A. Histologische und histopathologische
Arbeiten über die Großhirnrinde mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der pathologischen
Anatomie des Geisteskranken. Fischer: Jena; 1909.
- Kraepelin E. Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. II. Band, Klinische
Psychiatrie. [Psychiatry. A textbook for students and doctors. II. Volume, Clinical
Psychiatry]. Verlag Johann Ambrosius Barth: Leipzig; 1910.
- Google images
- Wiki-images
- Getty images
- Alamy images

The sound track is ‘The Olmedreca’ by Evening Star (Marcus Warner).

We gratefully acknowledge anyone else who directly or indirectly contributed to the consummation of this project and encourage our viewers to share the video freely for the purposes of education and wider distribution.

[saiduabubakar]

Thank you for this video. Not only educative but really sensitively and beautifully done. Easily gives the message Dr Alzheimer was not just a great doctor and scientist but also a nice, humble and well-liked gentleman.

[SemperFratres]

Great work. Had to write e eulogy for my PSY class. Decided to do it on Alzheimer. Found this video while researching, and it helped a lot. Thank you.

[CLi-fthk]

I like the music in this short video very much. Thanks for your nice introduction of Dr. Alzheimer's life. Keep up the good work.

[vmrivas]

was he the one who first discovered dementia? I'm doing a group project for school about dementia I got history of dementia. did he first discover it?