The development of the concept of Pick's disease can be divided into three periods. From 1892 on Arnold Pick reported a series of patients presenting cognitive disturbances, personality changes and focal symptoms such as aphasia and apraxia. Pick, however, like his contemporaries, did not conceive of a new nosological entity. The major event during the second period was the outline of histological characteristics like argentophilic inclusion bodies by Alois Alzheimer. During the 1910s however, Alzheimer's extremely important observation remained unnoticed. Further historical research is necessary to clarify why Alzheimer's subtype of dementia was hurriedly regarded as a disease, whereas Pick's was not. Political factors such as Kraepelin's strategic considerations seem to have played an essential role. In accordance with major research criteria of German neuropsychiatry, Pick's atrophy was constructed as a full-blown disease entity in the 1920s. This concept gained acceptance in the German and Anglo-American scientific community and was the starting point for further investigations in the 1950s and 1960s.