Weltachse mit Haase
"Axel of the World, with Rabbit."
ca. 1919


Meine Augen zur Zeit der Erscheinungen
"My Eyes at the Time of the Second Coming"
ca. 1919

BIOGRAPHY

In an era when having a family member with a mental illness was an immense social stigma, it was common for psychiatrists to assign pseudonyms to their patients, to protect both them and their families. Neter was the code name for August Natterer who spent the last 26 years of his life as a mental patient. The son of a clerk, he was born in 1868 in Schornreute, near Ravensburg, Germany, the youngest of nine children. Natterer studied engineering, married, traveled widely, and had a moderately successful career as an electrical contractor for a number of years. In his mid-forties he was suddenly stricken with delusions and anxiety attacks. In 1907 he had a pivotal hallucination of the Last Judgment during which "10,000 images flashed by in half an hour." This led to a suicide attempt, and he was committed to the first of several mental asylums. Delusional and suspected of schizophrenia, Natterer thereafter maintained he was the illegitimate child of Emperor Napoleon I and "Redeemer of the World." He died in 1933 in the St. Vincent insane asylum near Rottweil.

BOOKS

The End is Near! Roger Manley. Illustrated. Bio.