Abstract
Intellectually challenged heads of state have had a remarkable impact on the course
of history and the problem of age-associated impairment in politicians appears to
increase with growing life expectancy. Lenin, Paul Deschanel, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin
D. Roosevelt, Heinrich Lübke, Urho Kekkonen, Mao tse tung, Ronald Reagan, Pope John
Paul II., and Robert Mugabe were still in power while showing signs of cognitive impairment.
Margaret Thatcher, Walter Scheel, Helmut Kohl and many others developed dementia after
their resignation. Mild cognitive impairment in Paul von Hindenburg and in communist
sclerocrats (Andropow, Breshnew, Ceausescu, Honecker, Mielke and others) may have
contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the downfall of communist regimes, respectively.
Two prototypes of presidential dementia have to be distinguished: the tragic senile
King-Lear-form with cognitive deficits and the buffalo- and buffoon-like King-Ubu-type
with predominant behavioral disturbances.
Die tragische Gestalt des senilen König Lear einerseits [1] und die surreale Dreistigkeit des verhaltensauffälligen König Ubu andererseits [2] repräsentieren die beiden Extreme des Demenzspektrums. Sie finden sich in der Klinik
ebenso wie in der Politik.
Schlüsselwörter
Demenz - Lenin - Deschanel - Hindenburg
Key words
dementia - Lenin - Deschanel - Hindenburg
