"Illness as an expression of disturbed functions" is a concept which was firstly described by the psycho-social oriented internist Dr Gustav von Bergmann (1878-1955). With his theory of a functional pathology (1932) he postulated a dynamic course of disease, which can be related to severe affects and the individual live situation of the person in question. The author analyses the contributions of Gustav von Bergmann with regard to his influence on the psychosomatics in German speaking countries and puts them in relationship to his biography. Here, it becomes clear that he as a teacher of Thure von Uexkull set fundamental ideas for a still relevant psychosomatics.