[1][2][3] The collection was founded by the psychiatrist Karl Wilmanns and his assistant, doctor Hans Prinzhorn, in the early 1920s.

[1][4] Between 1919 and 1921 the pair visited mental hospitals across Germany, initially collecting over 5000 works.

[5] Prinzhorn, a physician and art historian, was engaged by the hospital in 1919 specifically to improve and expand the collection.

[6] Works from the collection were included in Entartete Kunst, the famous 1937 Nazi exhibition of 'degenerate' art.

[6] Following the war, the collection, largely neglected, was stored in the attic of the hospital.