THE LIFE OF MAX WERTHEIMER

(1880-1943)

1890-1898: attends the Neustädter Gymnasium in Prague

1898-1901: studying jurisprudence at the University of Prague; attending lectures in psychology, musics, philosophy, physiology, history of arts

1901-1904: studying philosophy and psychology at the universities of Prague (Ehrenfels, Marty), Berlin and Würzburg

1905: received his doctorate (his dissertation: "Tatbestandsdiagnostik", supervisor: Külpe)

1905-1912: private university studies at psychological institutes in Berlin, Würzburg, Frankfurt, at physiology institutes in Prague and Vienna, at psychiatric hospitals in Prague, Frankfurt, and Vienna, at the ethno-music institute in Berlin

1906: controversy with C.G. Jung about word association technique

1910-1914: working on the fundamental ideas of Gestalt theory and decisive experiments on Gestalt laws with Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka in Frankfurt

1912: Habilitationsschrift at the Handelsakademie Frankfurt: "Experimentelle Studien über das Sehen von Bewegung"

1912-1916: Privatdozent in Frankfurt

1916-1922: Privatdozent in Berlin; first contacts with Albert Einstein

1921: co-founder of the journal "Psychologische Forschung" (with Köhler, Koffka, Goldstein, Gruhle)

1922: appointed ausserordentlicher Professor of psychology

1922/1923: "Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt"

1923: Max Wertheimer marries Anna Caro (four children: Rudolf, born 1924; Valentin, born 1925; Michael, born 1927; Lise, born 1928)

1929-1933: professor of psychology at the University of Frankfurt

1933: emigrates to the United States via Czechoslowakia

1933-1943: faculty member of the New School for Social Research, "The University in Exile," New York City

1943: finishes his work on "Productive Thinking"

12.10.1943: dies in New Rochelle, New York.