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XXVI International Congress of Psychology
July 31 - August 6, 1960, Bonn, Germany
The 16th International Congress of Psychology, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, 1960
The 16th congress was held in Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, from July 31 to August 6, 1960, under the presidency of Wolfgang Metzger, and the Honorary Presidency of Karl Bühler, who would have presided at the 12th congress if it had been held in Vienna in 1940 (Piéron, 1960 , p.620). Hans Thomae assumed the position of Secretary-General of the Congress, Udo Undeutsch acted as Treasurer, while Albert Wellek was in charge of the Program Committee.
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Wolfgang Metzger (1899–1979): President of the 16th International Congress of Psychology, Bonn, 1960.
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The sessions were held in the rooms of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and the Beethoven-Halle, in Bonn. Official governmental support was obtained from Gerhard Schroder, the Federal Minister of the Interior, from Werner Schutz, the Minister of Culture and Education of the Nordrhein-Westfalen State, from Max Braubach, Rector of the University of Bonn, and from the Lord Mayor of the City of Bonn, Wilhelm Daniels. The Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Education of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen also generously accepted to assume the costs of the publication of the proceedings of the congress, in collaboration with the IUSP. These proceedings were published in 1962 by North-Holland, but also as a special issue of the journal Acta Psychologica, similarly to the 15th congress.
Organization of the congress
The organization fell under the joint responsibility of the IUSP and the German Society of Psychology. Therefore the General Organizing Committee was composed of members appointed by both the IUSP and the German Society of Psychology, as can be seen in Table 8.1 .
The number of participants (1833, out of which 1116 were regular members) was greater than the number at the Brussels congress. For the first time in its history, the congress organization made use of modern technical facilities, such as simultaneous translation. All addresses, presentations, and discussions of the general meetings and, to some extent, of the individual meetings, were simultaneously translated into the three official languages of the congress—English, French, and German.
An informal welcoming ceremony by the Honorary President, the President, the Chair of the Program Committee, and the Secretary-General took place in the Beethoven-Halle on July 31, the night preceding the official opening, and it was followed by a reception. The opening ceremonies on the morning of August 1 began with the presentation of the well-known Toccata and Fugue in D-minor for Organ of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was followed by brief welcoming remarks from the President of the Congress, the Federal Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Education of Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Rector of the University of Bonn, the Lord Mayor of the City of Bonn, as well as the President and the Secretary-General of the IUSP. The President of the congress, Wolfgang Metzger, then read his opening address (“Homage to Gustav Theodor Fechner”) in recognition of the centennial of the publication of Fechner’s well-known book “Elements of Psychophysics”. He was followed by the Honorary President, Karl Bühler, who gave the presidential address (“Gestalt in the lives of men and animals”).
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