Köhler, Wolfgang

Wolfgang Köhler

[Portrait of Wolfgang Köhler]

Bio: * 1887, Tallinn, Estonia; † 1967, Enfield, New Hampshire, USA
Career: 1905/06 studies of philosophy, history and natural sciences at the University of Tübingen; 1906/07 psychology, mathematics and philosophy in Bonn; 1907-09 studies of psychology, philosophie and natural science under Carl Stumpf, Max Planck and Walther Nernst at the University of Berlin; received a doctorate in 1909 with the dissertation Akustische Untersuchungen; 1910 assistant besides Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Adhémar Gelb and Kurt Goldstein at the Psychological Institute of Frankfurt am Main, where Köhler and Koffka served as subjects in a crucial experiment of Wertheimer, all cofounders of the Gestalt school of psychology; habilitation in 1911; 1913-1920 director of the Anthropoid Research Station of the Prussian Academy of Sciences on Tenerife; 1921 professor of experimental psychology and philosophy and director of the Psychological Institute at the University of Göttingen in succession to G. E. Müller; 1922-35 professor and director of the Psychological Institute at the University of Berlin in succession to Stumpf (until 1929 with Wertheimer and until 1932 with Kurt Lewin); 1934/35 visiting professor at Harvard University; resignation of his positions in Berlin and emigration to the USA; 1935-1948 professor of psychology and philosophy at Swarthmore College, 1946-1958 research professor; co-founder and co-editor of Psychologische Forschung (1921-38); several visiting professorships (Clark University in Worcester, Chicago, Edinburgh, Princeton); 1959 president of the American Psychological Association; 1959 Emeritus Professor, Free University of Berlin.
Degrees: Ph.D. in psychology, University of Berlin, 1909