Hermann Ebbinghaus - Professional Career

Professional Career

After acquiring his PhD, Ebbinghaus moved around England and France, tutoring students to support himself. In England, he may have taught in two small schools in the South of the country (Gorfein, 1885). In London, in a used bookstore, he came across Gustav Fechner's book Elemente der Psychophysik (Elements of Psychophysics), which spurred him to conduct his famous memory experiments. After beginning his studies at the University of Berlin, he founded the 3rd psychological testing lab in Germany (3rd to Wilhelm Wundt and G.E. Muller). He began his memory studies here in 1879. In 1885, the same year that he published his monumental work, Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology, he was made a professor at the University of Berlin, most likely in recognition of this publication. In 1890, along with Arthur Konig, he founded the Psychological journal Zeitschrift für Physiologie und Psychologie der Sinnesorgane (The Psychology and Physiology of the Sense Organs).

In 1894, he was passed over for promotion to professor at Berlin, most likely due to his lack of publications. Instead, Carl Stumpf received the promotion. As a result of this, Ebbinghaus left to join the University of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), in a chair left open by Theodor Lipps (who took over Stumpf's position when he moved to Berlin). While in Breslau, he worked on a commission that studied how children's mental ability declined during the school day. While the specifics on how these mental abilities were measured have been lost, the successes achieved by the commission laid the groundwork for future intelligence testing. At Breslau, he again founded a psychological testing laboratory.

In 1902, Ebbinghaus published his next piece of writing entitled Die Grundzuge der Psychologie (Fundamentals of Psychology). It was an instant success and continued to be long after his death. In 1904, he moved to the Halle where he spent the last few years of his life. His last published work, Abriss der Psychologie (Outline of Psychology) was published six years later, in 1908. This, too, continued to be a success, being re-released in eight different editions. Shortly after this publication, on February 26, 1909, Ebbinghaus developed pneumonia and died, at the young age of 60.