Although Germany was a center of neurological research during the 19th century institutionalisation of clinical neurology was delayed in comparison to other countries. The establishment of neurology in Germany is characterised by a conflict between internists, psychiatrists and neurologists that lasted nearly a hundred years. The present study describes and analyses the motives and the course of development of this dispute. The conflict could not be solved by means of objective arguments because on the one hand nervous disease were part of internal medicine, while on the other hand the postulated identity of mental and nervous disease was the central paradigm of the academic psychiatrists. As a professional group the entry of the neurologists into the dispute was very late at a time point when the historical development was already in favour of the psychiatrists. By taking into account not only intrascientific but also political and economic factors, the dynamics of the historical process becomes comprehensible.