Ernst Simmel: 1882–1947

Another member of the early, great generation of psycho-analysts has passed away in Los Angeles, California. On November 11, 1947, Ernst Simmel died of a coronary occlusion.

He was only sixty-five years old. His friends had earnestly hoped that his span of life might have been prolonged to permit him to complete the several undertakings in research and institutional work he had charted, and to enjoy an old age free from worry about the exigencies of daily life. In addition to the physical suffering caused by his heart ailment, adversity made his last few years increasingly bitter. These undeserved trials sprang, ironically, from Simmel's idealistic and trusting character.

Nowhere has Ernst Simmel, the man, been more appositely described than in the paper read by Frances Deri at the Memorial Meeting1 in Los Angeles, California, on December 13, 1947. She pointed out that Simmel was possessed of personality qualities that made him more than an average man, traits that raised him to eminence among analysts, to the status of leader, of pioneer, gifts that produced a physician at once intellectually and intuitively perceptive, a helper in the broadest possible sense. His integrity of character; his absolute fearlessness (which did not fail him even when he was in the clutches of the Gestapo); his brilliant wit were familiar not only to his close friends, but also to the larger circle who learned to know him at the annual meetings of the International Psycho-Analytic Association.

His friends were aware of his shortcomings, most of which were merely shadows of his virtues. His ethical code kindled in him a constant readiness to assist others in every way, whether their problems were professional, economic or personal. In his unselfish giving, he disregarded his own interests to such an extent that his last year of illness was an unmerciful struggle for survival in every respect.

Ernst Simmel was born in Breslau, the youngest of nine children, and grew up in Berlin. His