Psychol. Res. 42, 191-193 (1980)

© by Springer-Verlag • 1980

Foto: Klaus Franck

Wolfgang Metzger (1899 -- 1979)

Professor Dr. phil. Dr. paed. h.c. Wolfgang Metzger died in his home at Tiibingen/Beben- hausen on December 20, 1979, five months after the celebration of his 80th birthday.

Professor Metzger was acknowledged all over the world as an important scholar of the Berlin school of Gestalt theory, who dedicated his life to research in this field and the dissemination of the theory. As an editor of Psycbologiscbe Forscbung for many years he strengthened the excellent reputat ion of the journal that later was to become Psychological Researcb. While successfuly engaged in general experimental research on perception, thinking, and development, he also succeeded in "giving psychology away

to those who need i t" (as G.A. Miller put it) to teachers and pupils as well as to chil- dren and parents.

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192 Wolfgang Metzger (1899-1979)

Wolfgang Metzger was born on July 22nd, 1899, at Heidelberg. In 1920, after his military service and period of captivity as a prisoner of war, he began to study German literature, history, and history of art at the university there. He then moved to the uni- versities of Munich and Berlin. There he came in touch with the early Berlin school of Gestalt theory. At that time several world-famous researchers, such as Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Krhler, E.M. von Horbostel, and Kurt Lewin were all working and teaching at the Psychological Institute in the University of Berlin. Metzger was so impressed by their theoretical stringency that he decided to combine a career as a psychologist with the study of physics and mathematics. He received his Dr. phil. degree in 1926 for an experimental study on visual perception. In the academic year 1926/27 he visited the State University of Iowa as a research fellow. After several years of fruitful research activity as an assistant to Wolfgang Krhler - during that time he developed the famous investigations on the homogeneous Ganzfeld - Metzger followed Max Wertheimer, whom he recognized in a special way as his teacher, to Frankfurt, where he qualified in 1932 for admission to an academic teaching position (Habilitation) with his work on depth perception and phenomenal identity.

In 1933 the Nazi regime expelled nearly all the members of the Gestalt school. Most of them emigrated with Krhler, Wertheimer, Koffka, and Lewin to the USA. Only Metzger (and Kurt Gottschaldt) tried to keep up the Gestalt tradition in Germany. He took over Wertheimer's institute at the University of Frankfurt and became an Extra- ordinarius there in 1939. In 1942 he was offered a chair at Miinster, where he worked until 1977. At the University of Miinster he founded the Psychological Institute, which, under his direction, grew in size and importance from year to year and proved a source of inspiration to scientists in other German and foreign universities.

Among Metzger's scientific publications, numbering more than 230 and translated into many languages, at least three should be named: Gesetze des Seloens (19361, 19753), a standard work in visual perception, which is a classic not only for psycholo- gists but also for architects and designers; Psycbologie - die Entwicklung ibrer Grundan- nahmen seit der Einfiihrung des Experiments (19411, 19755), Metzger's principal work in theoretical psychology, which is at the same time an excellent synopsis of the empir- ical works of the early Gestalt psychologists. Finally, the book Scbdpferiscbe Freibeit (19491, 19622), an application of Krhler's theory of psychophysical Gestalten to edu- cational processes, has had much influence in the educational sector and recently in psychotherapy.

Professor Metzger was president of XVIth International Congress of Psychology at Bonn 1960, he was president or honorary president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Psychologie, the Alfred-Adler-Gesellschaft, and the Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications, and an honorary member of many scientific societies all over the world. He received an honorary doctorate at the University of Padua in Italy in 1965 and accepted honorary medals from the Universities of Louvain in Belgium, Trieste in Italy, and Prague in Czechoslovakia.

During the last two decades of his life Metzger cultivated a very special friendship with his colleagues in Italy, where he felt that more than anywhere else Gestalt theory had still a central importance in psychological research. At his advanced age he still stimulated much of the experimental work performed by his junior colleagues. At the same time he was always elaborating a humanistic image of man and he worked together

Wolfgang Metzger (1899--1979) 193

with teachers, parents and psychotherapists to transform his theoretical insights into practical application. He had the gift of talking in such a way that everyone could un- derstand him.

Wolfgang Metzger left behind five children, eight grandchildren and his wife Juliane, well known for her own research and her collection of children's toys and books.

Michael Stadler FB 6, Psychologie Universit~it Bremen Bibliothekstraf~e D-2800 Bremen Federal Republic of Germany