Vogt, Oskar

Born Apr. 6, 1870, in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein; died July 31, 1959, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. German neurologist. Honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.

Vogt studied biology and medicine at the universities of Kiel and Jena. In 1897 he worked in J. Déjerine’s clinic, and in 1898 he founded a neurobiological institute in Berlin. In 1925, upon invitation of the government of the USSR, Vogt helped set up an institute for brain research in Moscow. He founded an institute for brain research and general biology in Neustadt, and from 1937 he served as the institute’s director.

Vogt’s major works were on the morphology of the central nervous system—the architectonics of the cerebral cortex and the structure of the extrapyramidal system and thalamus. He carried out joint studies with his wife, C. Vogt, on the myelo- and pathoarchitectonics of the brain, and he was one of the first to use the architectonic method for the localization of functions. Another of Vogt’s contributions was his proposed classification for diseases of the striopallidal system.

Vogt and his wife were joint recipients of the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (1950). Vogt was a member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists, and the Academy of Sciences of Italy; he was a foreign corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1924).