author
Wolfgang Köhler
1887–1967
A pioneering figure in Gestalt psychology, Wolfgang Köhler changed how scientists understood perception, problem-solving, and animal intelligence. His studies of chimpanzees helped introduce the idea that insight—not just trial and error—can drive intelligent behavior.
1 Audiobook
Gestalt psychology
by Wolfgang Köhler
About the author
Born in 1887 in Reval, now Tallinn, Estonia, Köhler became one of the central founders of Gestalt psychology alongside Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka. His work emphasized how people experience patterns and organized wholes rather than isolated sensations.
During the 1910s, Köhler conducted influential studies of chimpanzees in Tenerife, documenting their ability to solve problems through insight. His findings were published in The Mentality of Apes and became an important contribution to comparative psychology.
Köhler later directed the Psychological Institute at the University of Berlin, where he openly opposed Nazi interference in academic life. In 1935 he moved to the United States and joined Swarthmore College, continuing his research and writing until his death in 1967.