Jan Piltz (1870–1930)

Excerpt

Born in Russian Poland (at that time Poland was partitioned by Russia, Austro-Hungary and Prussia), Jan Piltz (1870–1930) graduated in medicine from the University of Zurich in 1895. His internship was served with Eugen Bleuler at the famous University Psychiatric Clinic in Burghőlzli close to Zürich (‘Burghőlzli’), then headed by Auguste Forel. However, Piltz felt himself as being Polish and intended to practice medicine in his homeland, hence, he had his Swiss diploma at the University of Kazan in Russia approved, and in 1897 took a doctorate under Bekhterev in St. Petersburg. Nonetheless, when his friend Bleuler became director of the Burghőlzli and invited him to reorganize its internal structure, Piltz returned to Switzerland. He turned out to be such a flexible manager that after 2 years the cantonal government of Vaud appointed him as deputy director at the psychiatric clinic in Lausanne, at the time headed by Albert Mahaim [1] (Fig. 1).

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