Liepmann Family Collection

Louis Liepmann was the son of the businessman David Liepmann and his wife Adelheid née Friedlander, who lived in Berlin. Louis Liepmann married Fanny Plaut, and they had two sons: Paul and Hugo.

Hugo Carl Liepmann was born in Berlin in 1863, not far from Unter den Linden. He studied chemistry as well as philosophy at the Universities of Freiburg and Leipzig, and in 1885 received his doctorate, his dissertation on the "Leukipp-Democrit Atoms." The following year he returned to Berlin where he continued to study chemistry. From 1889-1890 he served in the army. After his return to Berlin, he found himself dissatisfied with philosophy, specifically the ideas of Neo-Kantians and decided to study medicine, with a concentration in psychiatry. In 1894 he completed his studies in medicine, and in 1895 became junior doctor at the psychiatric clinic at the University of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) under the psychiatrist Carl Wernicke. In 1896, on a vacation to Baden-Baden with his parents and other family members, he met Julius and Adelheid Bleichröder and two of their daughters, who were staying at the same hotel.

Julius Bleichröder was the younger brother of the influential banker Gerson von Bleichröder. Julius continued in the family business and eventually opened his own firm. In 1860 he married Adelheid Salomon. They had seven children, although two sons died early, and the family had an estate in Pankow, an outlying borough of Berlin.

Agathe Bleichröder was born in 1871. She enjoyed traveling, and first visited Italy in 1890. She would later travel to Egypt with her sister Gertrud (Trudchen) Arons. At the suggestion of her best friend, Annie Gossmann, Agathe joined the Ethical Society. In December 1896 Hugo Liepmann joined Agathe Bleichröder and a number of her friends to go ice skating and a relationship developed between them that led to their engagement.

Hugo Liepmann and Agathe Bleichröder married on March 21, 1897. They spent their first years in Breslau, where Hugo was assistant at the University of Breslau's psychiatric institution under Carl Wernicke. He was often required to stay overnight at the institution. Hugo and Agathe had four children: Kaethe (born 1898), Charlotte (born 1899), Dorothee (born 1900) and Hans (born 1902). In April 1899 the family moved to Berlin, where Hugo found a position at the Städtische Irrenanstalt zu Dalldorf (Municipal Asylum at Dalldorf, renamed in 1957 the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik). They had an estate in Pankow, near Agathe's parents, as well as a house in Berlin proper.

It was in 1900 that Hugo Liepmann first discovered the disorder apraxia, a condition involving miscommunication between the nerves in the brain and the limbs. In March 1900 he began giving lectures on these findings at the Psychiatric Society in Berlin, and would publish a number of papers on the topic. He also gave weekly lectures at the University of Berlin on the mentally ill in addition to smaller lectures at Dalldorf. In 1906 he became head physician at Dalldorf.

In 1905 Agathe Liepmann became extremely ill from influenza and on doctor's orders spent the winter in Aswan, Egypt with her daughters and other relatives, joined later by Hugo. In 1914 Hugo Liepmann accepted the post of director of the Städtische Irrenanstalt zu Lichtenberg (Herzberge) (Municipal Asylam at Lichtenberg (Herzberge) in Berlin. During World War I the family hosted refugees from East Prussia in their home and Agathe volunteered with the Charlottenburg Commision for Assistance, created to aid women whose husbands had been drafted. She used her own funds to set up a sewing workshop for such women, which created clothes out of surplus fabric. She later assisted in a committee of the Frauendienst. Hugo Liepmann's administration of the Herzberge institution became more difficult due to the wartime shortages. Their eldest daughter, Kaethe, became a nurse's assistant for the Red Cross. Hugo Liepmann died on May 5, 1925, Agathe Liepmann in 1933.