Zusammenklang

There has been much speculation about a possible connection between Leo Kanner (1894-1981) and Hans Asperger (1906-1980), who wrote about autism around the same time (1943/1944) in the United States and Austria respectively. In recent years, it has come to light that there indeed was a direct connection between the two pioneers: the couple Anni Weiss (1897-1991) and Georg Frankl (1897-1975), two Jewish colleagues of Asperger’s who fled to the United States in the 1930’s and became close colleagues of Kanner. Especially Frankl played an important role in the conceptualization of Kanner’s autism diagnosis. Th is article describes the life and work of Weiss and Frankl and refutes previous speculations about the possible connections between Asperger and Kanner.