Maximilian Leidesdorf

Maximilian Leidesdorf (27 June 1818 – 9 October 1889) was an Austrian psychiatrist born in Vienna.

In 1845 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna, afterwards visiting asylums in Italy, Germany, England and France.

In 1872 he became head of the department of mental illness at Vienna General Hospital, followed by an appointment in 1875 as director of the Landesirrenanstalt (State Lunatic Asylum).

One of his famous assistants was Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940), winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

With Theodor Meynert (1833-1892), he was co-founder of the quarterly psychiatric journal Vierteljahresschrift für Psychiatrie.