This book first appeared in Germany in 2004. In response to the great
amount of interest in the book expressed by colleagues from all over the
world, we subsequently decided to produce this English version. We have
also taken this opportunity to update the information on the Department
of Psychiatry since 1994 to include further developments up to the
present day (see Chapter 15). One can look at a hospital from all kinds
of different perspectives. For psychiatrists with the daily medical task
of dealing with the life histories of their patients, it is
understandable that they are interested in the development of their
hospital from a historical perspective. To do this for the University
Department of Psychiatry of Munich an introduction can be made by
reminding the reader of a date: just over 100 years ago, on November 7,
1904, the newly constructed »Royal Psychiatric Hospital of the
University of Munich« was inaugurated with a ceremonial act and handed
over to the public. Emil Kraepelin gave a ceremonial speech on the
occasion.