did the child Wienke in Theodor Storms novella “Der Schimmelreiter” (1888) have phenylketonuria?
Urban M; Nieschlag A Institut für Medizinische Genetik, Universitätsklinikum Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. We report a probable case of phenylketonuria in a figure from “Der Schimmelreiter”, a novella by German author Theodor Storm (1817-1888), published in 1888. The child Wienke, daughter of the story’s protagonist, Hauke Haien, displays symptoms of phenylketonuria. Storm’s description of this child, its physiognomy, and increasing mental retardation, lead us to believe that Storm in fact described a case of phenylketonuria, a condition not reported until Flling’s description in 1934.
