Fonds G.A. Roemer  Bern UB Medizingeschichte: Rorschach-Archiv ; Fonds G.A. Roemer

Signatur: Rorsch GR

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1900-1972. - ca. 350 cm, Deutsch

Only on inquiry

Biographische Notiz:   Georg August Hermann Roemer (1892 - 1972), descended from an old Swabian family, was a fellow student of Ernst Kretschmer in Tübingen from where he graduated in medicine in 1916. Thereafter he gained practical experience at the university hospital in Göttingen and elsewhere, before going in late 1918 to Switzerland, where he worked for three months as a trainee at the general hospital in Herisau and there met Hermann Rorschach at a conference of the Herisau physicians. In 1919 from the beginning of March to the end of May Roemer worked as an intern at the asylum in Herisau where he became acquainted with Rorschach's test, about which he was so enthusiastic that he created his own inkblots, eight of which were found among Rorschach's papers. These were the eight inkblots which Roemer later improved to form his "Stammserie" or basic series. Following his time in Herisau Roemer was employed as physician by a children's relief organisation in the Bernese Alps, where he tested children using some new inkblots as well as those from Herisau. In September 1920 Roemer returned to Germany and worked as a scientific assistant at the university hospital in Göttingen where he continued his tests now on adults and particularly in the field of war neurosis. An intensive correspondence was established between himself and Rorschach, which continued till the death of the latter in April 1922.   In May 1921 Roemer entered service at the headquarters of the Deutsche Studentenschaft in Göttingen where he had the task of determining the adaptability of Rorschach’s test for the purposes of academic vocational guidance. In this function he had the opportunity of testing students and lecturers, the results of which he sent to Rorschach for interpretation. After Rorschach's death Roemer felt himself called to modify the Rorschach method: "First only the general direction was defined: the Rorschach test had to be liberated from its formal stiffness and to be reconstructed as a test of symbolic content…The first step in the new direction was already made with the reshaping of the test series." (Roemer 1939, p. 26)   The so-called “Tiefentest” (deep test) was the first modification, which led in turn to the “Symboltest” (symbol test). These developments resulted in quite radical changes to the basic Rorschach method. The “Symboltest” was later extended firstly with additional pictures and later, with continuous recording of the subject’s breathing, integrated into the so-called “Zentraltest” (central test) (Roemer 1931, p. 41). Over many years Roemer experimented with different techniques for the creation of his blots before finally deciding on the cutting and pasting of parts from different blots to form numerous new combinations. Roemer left the Deutsche Studentenschaft in October 1922 because of the financial limitations of that organisation, and in 1923 joined the Medizinische Poliklinik in Königsberg. The following year he was appointed director of the Institut für Persönlichkeitsforschung in Stuttgart, which had been founded by the industrialist Robert Bosch. The institute concerned itself with the psychodiagnostic testing of scholars and with selection tests for industry. The Gesellschaft für Persönlichkeitsforschung was established there in 1926.   Under the Nazi regime Roemer maintained close contact with the Deutsches Institut für psychologische Forschung und Psychotherapie in Berlin, loyal to the Nazi Government. He did become a member of the Nazi Party, but left after only one year. While in Stuttgart he worked with reputed psychotherapists such as Schottlaender, Graber, Meng, Speer and others. The institute there was closed in 1941 and the "Gesellschaft für Persönlichkeitsforschung" suspended. After the war Roemer travelled in France and Switzerland delivering lectures and seeking a publisher for his test method and for original documents (letters, test results, etc.) in his possession. He settled in 1953 in Tutzing where, besides a private practice, he established the Psychomedizinisches Institut. He never ceased working for the breakthrough for his test method, and to this end he contacted authorities such as Webb, Beck, Piotrowski and others in the USA, but his efforts were not to be crowned with success and he never found a publisher for his test. The test series he published finally in 1966 at his own cost consisted of eight blots similar to those of Herisau rounded off with parts cut from blots made using other techniques.   Inhaltsangabe:   The fonds is made up of, among other things, the extended correspondence between G. A. Roemer and H. Rorschach from 1919 until 1922. Roemer, having experimented for decades seeking new techniques for the preparation of test pictures, left an immense number of sheets, which are interesting for their aesthetic and artistic value. Complemented by some of the other papers and non-published literature of the time, the letters received and sent by Roemer are an important source of knowledge on the history of psychotherapy during the Nazi rule in Germany.

https://swisscollections.ch/Record/991170538911705501 (Katalogeintrag in swisscollections) 

Akzession: Herkunft: Assigned by the Salzburger Äbtekonferenz in December 2001.  Ordnungszustand: Organised in 6 series: 1) Biographical material 2) Correspondence 3) Scientific material 4) Institutes and societies 5) Test pictures 6) Photographs  

Weitere Findmittel:   Inventory not yet completed 

CH-002121-2-991170538911705501, http://kalliope-verbund.info/CH-002121-2-991170538911705501

Modifikation: 02.07.2021

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