This paper examines the debate on psychological trauma in German psychiatry since 1889. A content analysis of five leading German psychiatric journals between 1889 and 2005 is realised. An organic concept of psychological trauma has been prominent in the professional debate until today. Psychiatrists frequently referred to physical traumatisation, constitutional factors and genetic predisposition, exogenous reaction types according to Bonhoeffer, and to biological markers in the context of the PTSD concept. The biological tradition in German psychiatry resulted in a specific adoption of concepts on psychological trauma. However, integrating various models of psychological trauma into a psychiatric tradition focusing on a biological model proved to be difficult and inconsistent.
