Professor Dr. Helmut Coper
December 30, 1925–August 30, 2013
Professor for Neuropsychopharmacology, FU Berlin (1967–94)

Helmut Coper was one of the 6 founding editors of Pharmacopsychiatry. The journal has been published since 1968.

Since the middle of the 1950s the exchange between basic scientists and clinicians in the field of neuropsychopharmacology was difficult. Their studies were published in journals whose main topics were either pharmacological or clinical.

Therefore K. Heinrich suggested in 1968 to the publisher of the Georg Thieme Verlag, G. Hauff, the foundation of Pharmakopsychiatrie, later called Pharmacopsychiatry. K. Heinrich recommended the pharmacologists A. Herz and H. Coper and the clinicians M.-P. Engelmeier (1921–1993), H. Hippius and P. Kielholz (1916–1990) as co-editors, who accepted their nominations.

The work to realize this idea was a very stimulating experience for all 6 editors. We remember with gratitude the active and very harmonious cooperation with Helmut Coper, especially in the pioneer years of the journal. We benefited of Coper’s extensive dedication to university affairs in which he was involved for the Freie Universi­tät Berlin since its founding 1948. We knew of his personal fate during the Nazi-time – as the son of a Jewish lawyer he was forced to leave high school and to work in factories of the Organisa­tion Todt. After the war, he was a student at the Humboldt Universität, East Berlin. He left its Marxist atmosphere with some other students. Helmut Coper was one of the responsible initiators to establish the Freie Universität in the western part of Berlin.

Professor Dr. Helmut Coper. (Photo: Bernd Wannenmacher, FU Berlin)

Exceptional personal courage, dedication to others and single-mindedness combined with high diplomacy and humour and his ability to compromise – these qualities distinguished Helmut Coper during his whole life. But as a modest man he never emphasized his historical role.

During the cooperation for our journal we got to know Helmut Coper as an outstanding persona­lity. He deserves our respect and appreciation.

Prof. Dr. Kurt Heinrich, Düsseldorf
Prof. Dr. Albert Herz, Munich
Prof. Dr. Hanns Hippius, Söchtenau