Amnesia in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Statistical Mechanics

I read today that Elon Musk said that “memory loss is a thing of the past”. It was an advert for a drug. True or not, in the past I’ve had severe memory loss. At the age of 22 I had Amnesia as a result of a ski accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria in Germany. But I remember it as if it was yesterday. So, in my case you can say that “memory loss is a thing of the past”.

Image showing a disintegrating brain
I had what is called post traumatic amnesia, which fortunately is temporary. Shutterstock ID: 1685660680 by MattL_Images

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a beautiful Bavarian town, and it is one of the most famous German ski resorts. Zugspitze Germany’s highest mountain is nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen providing for an impressive scenery. I was there with a large group of Swedish friends, and we stayed at a youth hostel. As is typical for a youth hostel men and women were separated. What was a bit unusual were all the loudspeakers.

Photo of Zugspitze
Zugspitze Germany’s highest mountain. Photo by op23 on Pexels.com

Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig.

At 10:00PM on our first evening at the youth hostel the loudspeakers came on and someone started shouting “Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig. Alle Gäste müssen gehen und sich die Zähne putzen. Musik ist verboten. Die Lichter beginnen zu dimmen.” We had to be quiet and go brush our teeth. The lights started dimming and women and men had to go to their quarters. The loudspeaker came on every now and then barking orders at us in German and all windows and doors were locked electronically. Being from Sweden we followed orders, but we were laughing about it. Suddenly new voices started shouting in the loudspeaker. It was younger sounding voices. It was still in German but this time we were told to rebel against the hotel management, we were told to refuse to go to bed, and they started singing fighting songs in German. Then, suddenly the loudspeakers went quiet. The hotel management was back. We all had to go to bed. Well, it was budget lodging after all.

The town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photo by op23 on Pexels.com

The Ski Accident

What happened the next day I do not remember myself, but this is what I have been told. I decided to go down an icy double black diamond slope despite the sign saying that the conditions were dangerous. I fell badly, hit my head (I had no helmet), and I got a severe shoulder displacement. My arm was hanging on my back. I went looking for my skis and tried to put them back on, but some Germans came down to stop me. They were screaming at me and calling me crazy. An ambulance was called, and they sent snowmobiles to pick me up. However, the snowmobiles were unable to get there so they got a pist-machine to get me instead. I had no pain, but I was confused, and I discovered my severe shoulder displacement about 10 times before I got to the hospital. I was equally shocked every time I noticed the condition of my arm. I had no short-term memory, and I had forgotten my friends and most other things.

Me standing in the ski slope in Breckenridge leaning on a sign that says “Caution”
This is me in the ski slope when I was young. This is not Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it is Breckenridge, Colorado, but I don’t have any photos of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

My memories come back

The next 2-3 days after the accident are essentially gone. However, I remember my friends coming into my room asking me questions such as “what’s my name?”, “do you remember where we are?”. I kind of liked all the attention I got but I understood that something was not right. No one knew whether I would ever get my memory back and going though immigration and customs might be an issue when you are, well out of it. The leader and organizer of the trip was very upset. However, my memories came back very quickly within just a few hours on the second or third day of amnesia. I have to admit I was happier when I couldn’t remember anything. I can add that my left arm was in a cast.

Photo of a brain, a lightbulb, on purple background
My memories and my brain came back to normal. Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

A shocking discovery of what’s under my bed

Under my bed I found a thick book on Statistical Mechanics. At first, I did not know what it was, but then I unfortunately remembered. I had a final exam in Statistical Mechanics after our vacation. Statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. More specifically, you do statistical calculations over large sets of atoms and molecules to figure out the macro condition of the corresponding gas or material. For example, temperature corresponds to the average kinetic energy of atoms, entropy is the natural logarithm of the number of real microstates corresponding to the gas’s macrostate, often loosely referred to as the disorder of the system.

Picture showing molecules of various sizes moving fast
In 1905 Albert Einstein proved the existence of molecules and atoms using statistics and an observed phenomenon called Brownian motion. Shutterstock ID: 2334052703

Statistical Mechanics includes classical Statistical Mechanics as well as its Quantum Mechanical counterpart, which is a lot more abstract and complicated. The class I was taking covered both. Some important scientists in the field are James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein, and Satyendra Nath Bose. If you love statistics and complicated mathematics, then Statistical Mechanics might be for you but more likely it will just kill your enthusiasm.

Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.
The epic opening of the first paragraph in David L. Goodstein’s States of Matter, a textbook on Statistical Mechanics.

My Exam

Once I was back in Sweden, I went to see my professor, and I explained the situation to him: “hello professor, I had a ski accident, hit my head, and I lost my memory. My amnesia made me forget statistical mechanics.”. He could also see that my left arm was in a cast. I said, “could I take the exam a little later?” He asked me “are you right-handed or left-handed?” I said, “I am right-handed”. The professor answered, “well then you take the exam on time like everybody else”. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear but I took it and I passed but not with flying colors.

Have you had Amnesia?

If you were a teacher, would you accept amnesia as an excuse for postponing an exam?

Unknown's avatar

Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

73 thoughts on “Amnesia in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Statistical Mechanics”

  1. Thomas, first glad you were okay in the end but what a frightening experience and it is scary to lose one’s memory even if just for the short term. Your lodgings had me chuckling and I am impressed all the young people followed the instructions – although there was a short-lived rebellion. 😀 Your profession sounds most unsympathetic but good you passed anyway.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Annika. It was post traumatic amnesia as opposed to from severe brain damage so it was going to be temporary, but we did not know that. Yes I thought I had a pretty good excuse with amnesia, but maybe he’d heard that one before.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  2. That was a fun trip that turned into a lot of pain and trouble!

    Interesting, because I’ve been there to Garmisch when we were stationed in Germany. If I remember it was 1972? We walked out on a frozen lake, and also took the cable car up to the top of some mountain. Not sure if it was the tallest, but I have souvenirs that say it was. I have a few photos. We stayed in some big hotel that a lot of service people stayed in. One thing I remember is that there were people in bathing suits getting a sun tan up there on the mountain and it was so cold! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. That’s very interesting, and thank you for your service. I understand it was probably your husband who served there but so does the wives who follow, so thank you for your service. I think I remember that cable car. It is too bad that I don’t have any pictures. Tanning on a glacier or a ski slope is very effective with all that sun light reflection.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. “Glad there were no long” – well something people would contest that, but thank you. Interestingly I am currently watching a movie about a guy who’s got amnesia. The exam was difficult and I was not prperly prepared for it. Because of my accident I had not studied sufficiently as well as forgotten some stuff. However, I had the classical part of the topic downpacked, which probably saved me.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Well, the first 2-3 days I did not remember my friends and absolutely nothing about the Statistical Mechanics or that such a thing even existed. After that those things started coming back including what I knew about my friends as well as a substantial portion of the statistical mechanics. I could not remember much of the quantum physics part, for example, the Bose-Einstein statistics because I had read it right before the vacation. The stuff further back was easier to remember.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. What an experience, and I’m glad you are okay! No, I never had any memory loss but can imagine the confusion. I would think your accident would have been a very good excuse to postpone your test. There was not much empathy in that Professor.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Yes I have had amnesia. I was in an auto wreck and when I got to the hospital I had no memory. It was a very confusing time. I had crushed my vertebrae so I did have a lot of pain. The blow to my head did not create a severe wound but did cause brain swelling. The amnesia lasted only a couple of days which out of the seventy I was kept in the hospital seemed a rather short time.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I am sorry to hear about your car accident. A crushed vertebra is a big injury. It sounds like you had the same type of amnesia I did, post traumatic amnesia. It last for a few days or maybe weeks. The one associated with severe brain injury takes years to recover from. Seventy says in the hospital is a long time but I am glad you eventually recovered.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. I’m having problems with WordPress today – but I wanted to reply to John’s comment about residual paralysis and say how sorry I am to hear that.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

    3. That must have been terrifying, John. Seventy days in hospital points to the severity of the situation and it must have been an anxious time on top of the pain. Hope you’ve not had any severe aftereffects.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  8. I think if I were a teacher, I would take it case by case. In your instance, you obviously were in an accident of some sort, so I would have accepted that excuse, I think.

    I’ve never had amnesia, but February 22 was the 10 year anniversary of my niece’s horseback riding accident. She and her horse were entering the barn when an icicle fell from the roof and spooked the horse. My niece was thrown from the horse and she hit her head pretty hard. Even though she was a very experienced rider and was wearing a helmet, she suffered a bad concussion. While she could remember her childhood, she could not remember the past two years of her life. Eventually, the memories returned.

    I think that must’ve been such a scary experience for you, Thomas.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Kymber. The funny thing is that while it lasted it was not scary because I did not know what was going on. However, it was scary for the organizers of the trip. They were not happy to bring someone home who had lost their memory.

      Your niece’s horse riding accident sounds like a bad accident. What I had, post traumatic amnesia typically don’t last long, days, weeks but not more than that. The one associated with severe brain injury can take years to recover from. The professor was not very sympathetic but I’m sure if he took my amnesia seriously.

      Like

      Reply

  9. I’m so glad your memory came back so quickly, it would be awful if it hadn’t. I’ve never had amnesia myself, thankfully so. Usually when we asked our professors for extensions etc we were usually granted them. And for much less serious reasons than a broken arm and short-term amnesia. But there’s always a few professors that say no even when they should give you an extension. Which I feel like you should have gotten for this.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Pooja. What I had was post traumatic amnesia, which is temporary, a few days, a few weeks maximum. People with severe brain injury can have amnesia for years. With regards to my head I had a concussion but that’s all. The fact that I had no pain sensation was part of the post traumatic situation too. I was a bit surprised that the professor did not take my situation more seriously but I am speculating that he had heard the amnesia excuse too many times. Statistical mechanics was the kind of exam people would have creative excuses for to postpone.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. That makes a lot of sense. Maybe he had just heard a lot of excuses in general and was firm about his boundaries with the exam.
        Glad it wasn’t anything severe or permanent like a brain injury.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

    1. Thank you so much Sally. The funny thing is I was not frightened because I did not know what was going on and I had no pain. I had a severe shoulder displacement, it was totally out, I tore some stuff, crushed some glands but I felt nothing for a whole day. That’s what I was told.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. Hi Thomas, you are lucky you weren’t killed by the sounds of it. Typical of a 22-year-old young man to disregard the warnings. A dislocated arm puts huge stress on your central nervous system and can cause memory loss and other brain misfunctions. I know this because when my husband had a seizure last January due to a blood clot on the brain, he dislocated his arm. We didn’t know for two days and during that time, his speech and mental status was significantly impaired. As soon as the fixed the shoulder, he improved hugely. It was a massive relief.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do and it was partially peer pressure, trying to show off. I am sorry about your husband’s blood clot. It is an interesting theory about the dislocation. In my case I don’t know if it was the concussion or the initial pain from the dislocation that caused the amnesia, but all my pain sensation was gone.

      Like

      Reply

  13. What a post! So happy that your amnesia was only temporary. I can’t believe your professor didn’t let you postpone!! 😮And that hostel sounds like quite the experience – they locked the doors and windows automatically?! Sounds a bit like the start of a horror movie!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Yes they locked the doors and windows automatically. We weren’t ready for that so one couple stayed out after 10:00PM. We heard the loudpeaker stating that the windows would be locked so we opened a window on the bottom floor for them. It was a strange hotel. Afterwards I was thinking maybe it was a false memory because of the amnesia and everything but I asked my friends and that really happened.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  14. What a fascinating post! First off, the loudspeaker story was hilarious. I’m sorry about your accident, but I’m glad you recovered. I think the teacher was being too hard, but when a person has a stroke, a lot depends on which side of the brain was affected. Maybe he somehow felt that made a difference for you, too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Dawn. I don’t know what the professor was thinking but a lot of people tried to get out of that exam, that probably had something to do with it. Maybe he even questioned my cast but did not say so. It was a required physics course that a lot of people struggled with. About half the class failed the exam. I was so happy while my memory was gone. Then I saw the book and I started remembering and as I began realizing what it was I started panicking. Now it is a story I laugh about.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. Wow, what an experience. I’m glad all came out okay. I think if I were the teacher, I would have given you a little more time to recover and study. You may have gotten a higher score. It’s spilled milk now — just pray your good memory will keep up through your golden years. lol 😆

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Carol. A lot of people were trying to postpone that final exam because it was a difficult one with very difficult math, so I think he had heard too many excuses to be sympathetic. Yes I hope my memory will will keep up through my golden years. I have two aunts with Alzheimers and I hope that doesn’t happen to me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  16. Wow, Thomas. What an experience. I’ve never actually heard from a “real” person about what the experience of amnesia is like. (Only movie versions which I figure aren’t very accurate). You were lucky that you weren’t in worse shape, but those days no one wore helmets. 

    The mountain is beautiful and the hostel sounds very weird – right out of a movie! Lol And I’m glad you passed your test. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Diane. Yes, that youth hostel was weird, and we did not expect that. After the vacation I was wondering whether maybe I had a false memory considering the amnesia etc. I asked my friends who told me that really happened.

      I think you are right about the movies. An example of an unrealistic movie portrayal is when someone gets amnesia for months or longer but is perfectly normal otherwise. That’s not how it happens. I think what people don’t realize is that there are two kinds of amnesia, the post traumatic amnesia and the one from severe brain damage. If you have the latter the memory can take years to come back if ever, but you are not in a good shape otherwise either, and you are missing a lot of other abilities. It is like a severe stroke. That’s really bad. The post traumatic amnesia could look like the one in the movies, because you may  seem normal otherwise, but it does not last long. The memory will come back typically within days, even hours, because you don’t really have the brain damage that would cause the memory loss. That one looks bad at first but is no worse than a regular concussion in the long run. It is a shock response.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  18. Pingback: Smorgasbord Blogger Weekly – March 10th 2024 – #lions Robbie Cheadle, #Writing Jacqui Murray, #Selfsabotage Brenda Marie Fluharty, #GreenKitchen Carol Taylor, #Amnesia Thomas Wikman, #AIfiction Nicholas Rossis | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

    1. Yes you are right. The problem was that the accident happened in Germany and the Swedish doctor did not have any first hand experience of my amnesia and there was no internet back then. It was a bit complicated because the amnesia was also essentially gone by then. But I lost a few days forever. What I was lacking was what I had studied right before the accident, which was the second part of the book, the quantum mechanical statistical mechanics, plus the amnesia made me forgot all about the test so I did not study and I had to recover. Explaining that really sounds like an excuse. I guess skiing is not entirely safe. I’ve also broken a finger, in Breckenridge, and when we were there somone died in a ski accident.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  21. What an experience Thomas. Fascinating how the brain shuts down when in a very traumatic experience. Aside from an uncompassionate professor, I’m happy it all worked for you, and that you recovered. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Debbie. Yes you are right. It could have been worse. The memories and the pain, both vanished after the accident. That’s interesting. But at least I don’t have any bad memories of excruciating pain.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  22. When I took my fall 10 years ago now, I didn’t have amnesia, but it has deeply affected my short-term memory. People can tell me stuff and I don’t remember it later. I was never like that before. It’s frustrating and having health care professionals dismiss my frustration about it is even more frustrating.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I am so sorry that happened to you. Long term effects are unfortunate. I’ve noticed that sometimes doctors don’t want to take things seriously if they don’t have a way of addressing the problem. But it’s better to take the patient seriously and just admit that you don’t have a solution.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  23. That hotel experience is almost as frightening as the accident – locking down like that and then the hijacking of the tannoy system! However, I’m not making light of your accident as it was clearly a serious one and borne out by the amnesia. I hope the arm is okay now – several in my family have hypermobility which means that they’re prone to dislocations and each one makes another more likely to that injured joint. As for the exam, well done on passing when others who hadn’t been affected by your issues failed. It must be frustrating to know that you would have done better given more time, but you’ve clearly a sound grasp of statistical mechanics that I suspect has been of good use to you!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. It was a strange youth hostel. They had a lot of young people but that is not how you treat paying guests. Locking doors and windows and ordering them to brush their teeth and faces and go to bed at 10:00PM. The organizer of the trip did not expect this and was disappointed but we stayed. It was a bad shoulder displacement with some torn ligaments and crushed glands as well but luckily I have not had any long term effects. My uncle got hypermobility in an accident but I didn’t.

      About the exam, thank you Alex. What saved me was that I had a good grasp of the first half, the classical / Ludwig Boltzman statistical mechanics, and since I learned that part a few weeks before the ski trip I did not lose much. The second part, statistical mechanics with quantum mechanics was fuzzy. However, doing really well on the first half and succeeding with just some of the second part was good enough to pass. I should say that this class was for my masters in physics or engineering physics which I later I converted into a degree in electrical engineering and later I continued with robotics and computer science. I did get a lot of use for my physics professionally, especially robotics, but not really statistical mechanics. But what the statistical mechanics gave me was an understanding for how the motion and states of atoms and particles relate to concepts like temperature, entropy, structures of matter, condensates, stuff related to matter in general, which made it easier for me to understand topics in general science. I read a lot of science articles as a hobby and topics related to statistical mechanics pop up everywhere, even biology.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  25. You know you’re in for a good time when you hear the words, “Musik ist verboten” 😦

    It sounds absolutely terrifying; I’m glad you managed to get back home in one piece – and to pass those exams! As for your question, I’ve taught for many years and would definitely cut you some slack and ask you to come back when you were up for it. But that’s just the Greek in me, I guess 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Nicholas. It is nice of you to be willing to cut students some slack when they have been unfortunate. I think this professor was frustrated that everyone was trying to get out of the exam. About the music, the hotel management wanted silence after 10:00PM, well except for the orders they were barking through the loudspeakers. If we had known we would never have stayed there.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a reply to D.L. Finn, Author Cancel reply