Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer was born in Prague, Germany, in 1880. His parents wanted him to become a musician, but he chose psychology. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Würzburg in 1904. He taught at several universities in Germany until Hitler came into power. Then he fled to the United States and became a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he remained until his death in 1943.
Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler was born in Revel, Estonia, in 1887 and grew up in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1909 and then went to the University of Frankfurt, where he met Wertheimer and Koffka. In 1913 he went to the Canary Islands, where he was the director of a research station on ape behavior. Köhler applied the Gestalt principles to study insight learning by chimpanzees. In 1921, he went to the University of Berlin. In the 1930s he fled to the United States and became a professor at Swarthmore College. Köhler died in 1967.
Kurt Koffka
Kurt Koffka was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1886. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1908, and then went to the University of Frankfurt, where he met the other Gestalt founders in 1910. In 1927 he became a professor at Smith College in the United States. Koffka was especially interested in studying the laws that govern our perceptions of the environment. He was the chief spokesman for the Gestalt movement. Koffka died in 1941.
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