[Anorexia nervosa in German medical literature 1900 to 1945. The role of anorexia nervosa in the origin of psychosomatic medicine].

German-language publications on anorexia nervosa and Simmonds' disease from between 1900 and 1945 are reviewed in order to trace factors inherent in medical thinking which have mostly hindered German-language medicine in understanding anorexia nervosa. It is demonstrated that a) the few German-language physicians who did describe central and possible characteristics of a.n. (weight-phobia, overactivity, bulimia, self-induced vomiting) were enabled to do so by valuing detailed clinical description, also of psychic characteristics, and an interest in the neuroses; b) the concept of anorexia nervosa was better known than previously assumed, though largely misunderstood; c) typical diagnostic misinterpretations led to typical biases in the description of the syndrome; d) in Germany more than in other countries a.n. was confounded with Simmonds' disease; and e) in addition to other factors, one reason for this lay in the 'holistic' ideal of psychosomatic medicine in the 1930s.