ABSTRACT
Max Wertheimer's research and animated teaching style inspired several young psychologists, such as Gabriele Grafin von Wartensleben, to pay serious attention to Gestalt theory. During the years from 1902 to about 1912, Vittorio Benussi must have felt that he was in the position of a pioneer battling with the old-fashioned view that perception begins and ends with the study of sensation elements. In 1914, the Frankfurt Academy was formally granted the status of a university, and the University of Frankfurt was officially founded. Dramatic events occurred in the same year southeast of Frankfurt that would culminate in the First World War. By 1915, the promise of armistice appeared more remote than ever and, for the first time, the war directly impacted Wertheimer's career as several university researchers were commissioned as civilian scientific experts by the Austro-Hungarian army. Wertheimer's native country underwent substantial upheaval in the period following the First World War.
