Alois Alzheimer: A Hundred Years after the Discovery of the Eponymous Disorder

The familiar term “Alzheimer’s disease” was coined by Emil Kraepelin to honour his pupil, Alois Alzheimer. However, little is known about the life of the man after whom this important and well-known disease was termed. On the centennial of the discovery of Alzheimer’s disease, it is appropriate to report some aspects of the life and scientific work of Alois Alzheimer. The authors contacted all the libraries of the Universities where Alzheimer studied and/or worked to receive any original material regarding Alois Alzheimer. This review is based for a most part on an original biography written by Konrad and Urlike Maurer after the interviews to Alzheimer’s nieces, Hildegard Koeppen, Ilse Lieblein, Bärbel Lippert, Karin Weiβ, and his nephew, Rupert Finsterwalder. The authors obtained this biography from the Central Library of Medicine in Koeln.