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This thesis describes the beginnings of the first clinic for children's psychiatry in Zurich which was at the same time the first one in Switzerland. A historical part shows how (mostly) doctors influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment started developing specialized theories about mentally handicapped children. At the beginning of the 19th century these theories led to the new professions known as therapeutic pedagogy (Heilpädagogik), child and developmental psychology, pediatry as well as to the psychiatry that demanded the treatment of children to be different from the one of adults. Due to socially motivated thinking, the development of the welfare system was highly influenced by the industrialization. Changing the national law (Schweizer Zivilgesetzbuch) in 1907 was one consequence, more public welfare another. This very complex evolution led to a widely held discussion about the need of specialized institutions to observe and treat children psychiatrically. People engaged in the field of psychiatry as well as welfare supported these ideas. In 1921 such an institution was founded as an outstation of the psychiatric clinic of the university of Zurich ("Burghölzli"), the "Kinderhaus Stephansburg", a house for 25 children up to the age of 14. A teacher was emploied being responsible for the special education during the children's hospitalization.