Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum by Dr. Ewald Hecker (1899)

The chaotic psychiatric nosology of the late nineteenth century needed a strong and new foundation, but when Kahlbaum died in 1899, some German psychiatrists realized that a great opportunity had been missed: his proposal to classify psychiatric disorders according to their course and cross-sectional symptomatology had largely been ignored by the psychiatric establishment. Kahlbaum died in coma diabeticum without the official recognition for his academic achievements that he longed for: the award of the professorship which was granted a few years later to his disciple Ewald Hecker.