Wolfgang Köhler

Wolfgang Köhler (; 21 January 1887 – 11 June 1967) was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.

During the Nazi regime in Germany, he protested against the dismissal of Jewish professors from universities, as well as the requirement that professors give a Nazi salute at the beginning of their classes. In 1935 he left the country for the United States, where Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania offered him a professorship. He taught with its faculty for 20 years and continued research. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Köhler as the 50th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Early life Köhler was born in the port city of Reval (now Tallinn), Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire. His family was ethnic German, and shortly after his birth, they moved to Germany.

Education In the course of his university education, Köhler studied at the University of Tübingen (1905–06), the University of Bonn (1906–07) and the University of Berlin (1907–09). While a student at the latter, he focused on the link between physics and psychology, in the course of which he studied with two leading scholars in those fields, Max Planck and Carl Stumpf, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. thesis (titled Akustische Untersuchungen [Acoustic investigations]) in 1909. His dissertation addressed certain aspects of psychoacoustics; Köhler had Stumpf as his advisor.

Gestalt psychology In 1910–13, he was an assistant at the Psychological Institute in Frankfurt, where he worked with fellow psychologists Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka. He and Koffka functioned as subjects for Wertheimer's now-famous studies of apparent movement (or the phi phenomenon), which led them in turn to conclusions about the inherent nature of vision. They collaborated on the founding of a new holistic attitude toward psychology called Gestalt theory (from the German word for "shape" or "form"), aspects of which are indebted to the earlier work of Stumpf (Köhler's teacher) and Christian von Ehrenfels (whose lectures at the University of Prague Wertheimer had attended).

In an introduction to the book, The Task of Gestalt Psychology, Carroll Pratt emphasizes Köhler's irritation at misinterpretation of his famous quote, "The whole is different from the sum of its parts". Though perhaps a simple error made in translation, many lectures in textbooks of modern-day psychology refer to Gestalt theory by saying "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". When the word 'different' is used, as Köhler originally stated, it implies that the whole bears no resemblance to the parts creating it. Most psychologists, however, understand "greater" to mean that the relationship between the parts is itself a significant part of the whole, something that is not present in the other parts if simply summed up. Example: if all the parts of a car are laid out on the floor of a garage, they do not make up a car. Only when the factor of assembly is added to the parts, do they become a car.

Problem solving In 1913, Köhler left Frankfurt for the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where he had been named the director of the Prussian Academy of Sciences anthropoid research station. He worked there for six years, during which he wrote a book on problem solving titled The Mentality of Apes (1917). In this research, Köhler observed how chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of retrieving bananas when positioned out of reach. He found that they stacked wooden crates to use as makeshift ladders, in order to retrieve the food. If the bananas were placed on the ground outside of the cage, they used sticks to lengthen the reach of their arms. Köhler concluded that the chimps had not arrived at these methods through trial-and-error (which American psychologist Edward Thorndike had claimed to be the basis of all animal learning, through his law of effect), but rather that they had an insight, in which, having realized the answer, they proceeded to carry it out in a way that was, in Köhler's words, "unwaveringly purposeful."

This is one of the prominent findings from the research done on apes. Köhler's work on the mentality of apes was seen as a turning point in the psychology of thinking. He believed that people underestimated the influence of a number of external conditions on such higher animals. In his book, The Mentality of Apes, Köhler explains that he was inspired to work with the chimpanzees for two main reasons. The first was because the "structure of their brains is more closely related to the chemistry of the human body and brain-structure than to the chemical nature of the lower apes and their brain development". He was intrigued that human traits could be observed in the everyday behaviours of this animal. Secondly, he wanted to study the chimps to gain knowledge of the nature of intelligent acts.

In the early stages of observing chimps, it was clear that the examinations should not be considered characteristic for each member of this species. Köhler recognized that, as in humans, chimpanzees demonstrated considerable differences in the intellectual field. Chimps demonstrated that they were able to grasp the objects around them in a variety of fashions. This is incorporated in their everyday playing behaviours. For this reason, it was not necessary to use experimental tests to introduce chimps to handle matter. In his book, The Mentality of Apes, Köhler describes how the apes use their hands, saying "large, powerful and flexible hands are natural links between himself and the world of things, and he attains the necessary amount of muscular force and co-ordination at an earlier age than the human child".

Köhler did not make a public stand against the Nazi regime until the end of April 1933. During the beginning of that month, he still expressed ambivalence as to how serious a threat was posed by the regime. He was wary, but did not become more active against the Nazis until they forced the dismissal of Karl Planck, another well-known experimental physicist. On April 28, 1933, Köhler wrote an article titled "Gespräche in Deutschland" (Conversations in Germany). It was written for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and is officially the last published article that openly attacked the Nazi Regime during their reign.

After the article was published, Köhler expected immediate arrest. But, the Nazis did not come for him. Even four months after the article was originally published, reprints were still being distributed. Köhler received numerous letters from Jews and non-Jews, expressing their gratitude and admiring his courage. To strengthen his stance against the Nazis, Köhler also sought assistance from his colleagues. To his disappointment, many of his colleagues refused to become involved in the anti-Nazi movement. Some suggested the Nazis would not be able to take over the large and complex German political system. In addition, some colleagues argued that Köhler's resistance fell outside their particular spheres of influence. In turn, they could contribute nothing.

On November 3, 1933, the Nazi government demanded that professors begin their lectures by giving the Nazi salute. Köhler thought this was a violation of his own beliefs and told his students that he was unable to engage in such an act. His explanation was met with applause, from both Nazi sympathizers and rebels alike. His situation at the institute began to deteriorate more quickly after this statement. In December 1933, Nazi officials stood outside Köhler's seminar room. As students left, the officials stopped them and examined their student cards. Although Köhler did not interfere, he later contacted the institute rector, Eugen Fischer, complaining that an unannounced raid had occurred. After much disagreement and several more unannounced inspections of his students, Köhler took the situation further since his wishes were not being considered nor respected. He requested retirement from the institution in May 1934. This drew the attention of the Ministry and they would finally intervene in July 1934 by running an investigation of the interactions between Köhler and the rector as well as the personal attacks he received from the German student organizations.

Later life After being left out of important decision making of the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin and losing important assistants, who represented new points of view, Köhler found it impossible to continue his work.

Family life Köhler married the painter and sculptor Thekla Achenbach in 1912. They had two children in Germany (Claus, born 1912 and Marianne, born 1913) and two more when they lived in Tenerife (Peter, born 1915 and Martin, born 1918). This marriage ended in divorce and in 1927 he married Lili Harlemann by whom he had a daughter, Karin (born 1928).

Legacy and honors 1928, elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1939, elected member of the American Philosophical Society 1947, elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1956, Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award of the American Psychological Association. In 1967 the Association planned to give him its gold medal, but he died before it could be awarded. The Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center was established at Leipzig Zoo as a project of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, directed by Michael Tomasello and Josep Call.