["Impossible to be part of this system any longer": the expulsion of neuroscientists from Frankfurt am Main (1933-1939)].

In the 1920s, the situation of neuropsychiatry in Frankfurt was characterized by the rivalry between two institutions (Edinger Institute and University Neurology Clinic), two subdisciplines (neurology and psychiatry), and the physicians Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965) and Karl Kleist (1879-1960). After the National Socialists' assumption of power, university neuropsychiatric institutions in Frankfurt showed the highest number of dismissed university teachers and personnel in the German Reich. In neurology and psychiatry alone the university lost almost 50% of the personnel. Among those persecuted on racist grounds was Leo Alexander (1905-1985), who carried out genetic studies before 1933, prepared the "Alexander Reports" on behalf of the Allies after the Second World War, and was one of the prosecution counselors in the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial. His colleague Walther Riese (1890-1976) fled via France also to the USA and dedicated himself to the historical and ethical principles of neurology. Alice Rosenstein (1898-1991) was the first woman to specialize in neuroradiology and neurosurgery. In contrast to her male colleagues who were also dismissed in 1933, she committed herself to psychiatry after her arrival in North America and belonged to the early campaigners for the rights of homosexuals. Ernst (1905-1965) and Berta (1906-1995) Scharrer finally left Germany because of the prevailing political climate in the country. They excelled as co-founders of neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology on the other side of the Atlantic.