Dr. Friedrich Leppmann

Born at Raudten, Silesia, Germany (now Rudna, Poland), 4 August 1872; died at Holland, Michigan, USA, 28 March 1952; son of Joachim Hermann and Charlotte (Feigenblatt) Leppmann. Married at Raudten, 30 May 1898, Agnes Schlockow (see below). At birth, Friedrich was given the name Friedrich Salomon Isaak Leppmann, but, to all intents and purposes, he never used the middle names. Particularly in earlier life (including on his M.D. dissertation and diploma), he was called Fritz. After elementary education in his home town, he attended a Catholic secondary school in nearby Glogau. He had later secondary education at the St. Elisabeth Gymnasium in Breslau. He earned an M.D. summa cum laude from the University of Breslau in 1895. His dissertation was entitled “Experimental and Clinical Investigations on the Problem of Ether Narcosis.”
Early in his career, he established a collaborative relationship with his brother Arthur Leppmann (1854-1921), who had a distinguished reputation in neurology and psychiatry. After living and working for a few years in Düsseldorf, Friedrich and Agnes moved to Berlin in 1900. His medical practice there included private practice in psychiatry; extensive consultation in forensic psychiatry (determination of sanity in criminal cases, among other responsibilities); and supervision of medical services at the prison at Moabit. In 1909, he published Der Gefängnisartzt (Berlin: Richard Schoetz; 210 pp.), perhaps the first freestanding book-length monograph on what nowadays is called correctional medicine. He and Arthur co-edited the Aertzliche Sachverständigen Zeitung (Journal of Forensic Medicine), and he continued the editorship after Arthur’s death. Both of them published many articles in that and many other journals and contributed chapters in reference works.
Soon after the beginning of the National Socialist regime in 1933, he was deprived of his government appointments, such as his prison work and consultancy for the courts. His ancestry, so far as it can be determined, was entirely Jewish, but during his childhood the family had lived in a community with a minimal Jewish population, and the family had not been observant in Jewish practice. He and Agnes made formal conversions to Christianity before marrying in the Lutheran church in Raudten, evidently with unqualified support of both of their families. Their children were baptized and raised in the Lutheran faith.
They remained in Berlin until June 1939, when they emigrated to Malmö, Sweden. By the time they were able to move on from there to the United States, World War II made it impossible for them to get to the United Kingdom and from there to the American east coast. They traveled by train to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok (via the Trans-Siberian Railroad), and from there by ship to Yokohama and San Francisco, and by land to Chicago, where their son Ulrich was living.
Friedrich, lacking an American medical license, officially had to be considered a medical student when he took a job at Chicago State Hospital, a huge psychiatric facility run by the State of Illinois. His official title worked its way up through intern and resident, although his knowledge and talents were used at a far more advanced level. (He wrote at least one article in English for an American scholarly journal.) Finally, around 1951, the State of Illinois awarded him an honorary medical license. Shortly thereafter, he and Agnes retired to Holland, Michigan, where their daughter and her family lived. Friedrich’s retirement there was cut short by a fatal heart attack.