Felix Plaut

Who was Felix Plaut?

Felix Plaut was a German psychiatrist who was director of the Department of Serology at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in Munich. In 1935 he was removed from this position by the Nazis, and subsequently emigrated to London.

Plaut is remembered for his research on the syphilitic origin of general paresis, as well as his work with August von Wasserman in the development of a serological test for syphilis. Plaut performed extensive research of syphilis and its correlation to psychiatric disorders, and conducted early studies in neuroimmunology involving the brain's immune reaction to syphilitic infiltration.