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The essay delineates the professional evolution of the German surgeon Heinrich Helferich (1851-1945). Being of a learned family, Helferich embraced a medical career. He succeeded with strong scientific ambition and outstanding laboriusness and became professor in ordinary at Greifswald University in 1885, at Kiel University in 1899. In 1907, his career came to a sudden end, when he was discharged because of severe deficiencies and personal lapses in his administration. They were considered as consequences of nervous exhaustion. Helferich's life - looked upon as a case report - reveals both tendencies within the social group called "Bildungsburgertum" and characteristics of the contemporary illness "Neurasthenia".