Florian Schmaltz. Kampfstoff-Forschung im Nationalsozialismus: Zur Kooperation von Kaiser-Wilhelm- Instituten, Militär und Industrie.Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm- Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005. 676 pp. Illustrations. EUR 39.00 (paper), ISBN 9783892448808.

Wolfgang Schieder and Achim Trunk, eds. Adolf Butenandt und die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft: Wissenschaft, Industrie und Politik im Dritten Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2004. 456 pp. Table of contents. EUR 34.00 (paper), ISBN 9783892447528.

Reviewed by Avraham Barkai, Leo Baeck Institute. Published by H-German (January,2007)

Belated Confrontation

Tw o generations after the fall of the "Third Rürup and Wolfgang Schieder.InJune 2001, the Reich" at the hands of the Allied victors, German president of the Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG), public opinion, as far as reflected in the media, Hubert Markl, announced its first publications, seems to have faced the uneasy recognition that before an audience that included survivors of Hitler and his regime, its policy, its war and its Auschwitz as invited guests, in a remarkable atrocious crimes were based not only on broad speech, stating: "For way too long, manyquestions consent but also on the willing cooperation and were not asked; for way too long manyquestions welcome of its "benefits" by the greater part of the remained uninvestigated and only dealt with by German people. Since the early 1990s outsiders; ... For too long, colleagues supported governmental, municipal and other public agencies each other by remaining silent and not asking have created commissions that have unearthed questions instead of opening the door to honest proof of such acceptance and have broadened our investigation that was needed. Too manyhad knowledge of this complicity in all venues of collaborated with the Nazi dictatorship, either German society during the darkest period in its actively or passively,tothe point where theywere known history.Business corporations have happytohide their own joint responsibility or even followed the trend, opening their archivesand complicity so that, undisturbed and unburdened, financing the historical research of their past and theycould be part of the new, democratic post-war the uncensored publication of its results. In the era society." The MPG is the successor of the former of economic globalization theymay have been Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, founded in 1911, motivated, at least partly,bymaterial which became the most important and outstanding considerations, but the knowledge gained and scientific foundation in Germanyduring the last broadly discussed in the media is nevertheless of years of the Wilhelmine Empire, the Weimar great importance. Strangely,howev er, the role of Republic and the National Socialist period. elites in the temples of learning and science during Defining the MPG as a "newinstitution, a the National Socialist regime has been among the democratic organization for research in a newand last to be investigated by the honorable Zunft of democratic ,"Markl stressed its German historians. continuity with the KWG and the tradition of its The volumes here under revieware part of "scientific heritage.... Taking possession of an this belated confrontation. The "Presidential inheritance, however, means accepting Committee for the Investigation of the History of responsibility for everything, both the positive ... the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG) in the and the negative,which means, if need be, Period of National Socialism" was established in admitting guilt."[1] 1998 under the co-chairmanship of Reinhard H-Net Reviews

So far the committee has published fourteen Butenandt and the National Socialists and his of eighteen planned volumes in the series on the alleged involvement in its war crimes. Butenandt, KWG’shistory under National Socialism, the rest head of the KWI for biochemistry between 1936 of which will be published in 2007. What appears and 1972, was "without doubt one of the most at first sight as a pretentious, costly venture is prominent figures of the German natural sciences justified by the fact that the KWG was actually a in the twentieth century ... unquestionably the most kind of "holding society" of no less than twenty- successful Wissenschaftspolitiker,not only inside twoKaiser Wilhelm Institutes (KWI). Following the but in German science the guidelines of its initiator Adolf von Harnack, generally" (p. 7). Butenandt headed this KWI until who served as its president from its foundation in his retirement in 1972. Between 1960 and 1972 he 1911 till 1930, each institute was founded served as president, and from then until his death "around," and headed by,aprominent, outstanding in 1995 as honorary president, of the renamed Max scientist, who conducted basic theoretical research Plank Gesellschaft. This long-lasting continuity in his field of expertise. The natural sciences and was, as we know, not extraordinary in postwar their application in the service of medical therapy Germany, and was evident not only among and the development of newtechnologies for Butenandt’scolleagues in the MPG and other industry and warfare were at the epicenter of the scientific institutions, but also among German KWI’sresearch. It was several years before any elites in the economic, cultural, administrative and institutes for the humanities were added. The ev enpolitical spheres. guidelines of election and decentralization plus the Nonetheless, the "Presidential Committee" massive financial subsidies by governments, the felt obligated to devote this volume to a detailed military,industry and financial corporations and differentiated scrutinyofButenandt’sdeeds enabled these often-brilliant scientists and their and alleged misdeeds in the service of the National staffs to concentrate on research, free from Socialist regime. As a scientist he had been in teaching obligations. This structure explains the close contact with military authorities during the impressive numbers of Nobel and other short-livedWeimar Republic. The applications of distinguishing prizes amassed by scientists his research had also resulted in close and working under the auspices of the KWG. profitable contacts with industrial interests, The same combination of promotion and especially with the IG-Farben chemical complex. financial backing also created an environment in The editors of the series reopened because, in which some of the KWIs became the functional 1984, scholarly publications raised questions about meeting point of scientific and political, military his involvement in experiments performed by Josef and industrial interests. One of the first institutes to Mengele on inmates of Auschwitz. In the opinion be founded was that for physical chemistry and of Schieder and Trunk, Butenandt could easily electrochemistry in -; its director have refuted these accusations, but the fact remains between 1911 and 1933 was .In1918 that instead of openly confronting them he Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry preferred, with the backing of the managing board for developing a method for creating synthetic of the MPG, to prevent the publication of detailed ammonia. During World War I he played a major evidence (pp. 8f). After his death in 1995, however, role in the development of chemical warfare, these claims were resurrected and, according to the including not only the manufacture of gas masks editors, extremely exaggerated by a number of with absorbent filters, but also of chlorine and authors. Butenandt’sexposed and honored position other deadly gases for use in trench warfare.[2] seems to have motivated the chairmen of the While Haber,aconverted Jew, emigrated in 1933, commission to a more detailed investigation of his the tradition of harnessing scientific genius for activities in the years 1936 to 1945 and his economic profit and military exploitation successful navigation on the wav esofthe proliferated under the Nazi regime in his, as well "Persilscheinkultur" of the late 1940s. This term as in several other KWIs--the central theme of the wasused in an earlier publication by Carola twobooks under review. Sachse, one of the contributors to this volume In volume 7 of the series, edited by (cited on p. 9). Here she deals in detail with Wolfgang Schieder and Achim Trunk, the authors Butenandt’sinv olvement in Mengele’snotorious try to clarify the relationship between Adolf experiments and his efforts to justify,oratleast play them down, after 1945. Her conclusion is

-2- H-Net Reviews clear: he and his colleagues have "excused "vorauseilende Gehorsam" of the proud, self- unquestionably amoral transgressions of scientific confident society.Asearly as May 6, 1933, its decencybytheir political ignorance.... Over president Max Planck, then and nowassessed as decades theyfoiled the clearing up of historical having been above suspicion of being a Nazi or truth, practicing a policyofobscuring, ev enasympathizer,assured in a downplaying and twisting explanations" (p. 318). personal audience of the society’ssubmissive As noted in the editors’ introduction, the loyalty.Schmaltz contests Planck’slater contributors were not "fixed on a uniform historical explanation that the meeting was an ineffectual evaluation" of their protagonist, but continually effort to rescind the dismissal of the Nobel laureate discussed their results and opinions. In the process Fritz Haber (p. 69f). theyare said to have arrivedatacommon standard Schmaltz’sargument is born out by the of value. Remaining differences can easily be rushed "cleansing," initiated early in 1933, of detected, but a detailed reviewofthem all would twenty-six Jewish or "non-Aryan" scientists from be too excessive.Readers not specifically of the KWI für physikalische Chemie und interested in the personal biographyofButenandt Elektrochemie (KWIpCh), which had been headed and the day-to-day routine of his and his by Haber,who has been termed the "father of gas colleagues’ scientific achievements will, however, warfare," since 1912. Haber’sinstitute worked in gain from reading this carefully edited and secret cooperation with the army in the Weimar balanced work full of important information about Republic and openly with the chemical industry. the role of German scientific elites in the Third Schmaltz regards the dismissal of its "non-Aryan" Reich, their possible role in its war crimes and and politically suspect employees as "a decisive their attitudes after the war.The editors’ turning point that enabled a group of Nazi ’Old conclusion about Butenandt himself is, in my Fighters’ to takethe institute under their control opinion, a balanced résumé of this readable work: and turn it into a research center for chemical he evolves "neither as a specially monstrous figure, warfare, as in the First World War" (p. 45). nor as a shining hero of the natural sciences, but Afterwards, emerged as the rather as a standard case of state of the art research most prominent figure of this group, and he led the [ Normalfall naturwissenschaftlicher institute between 1935 and 1945.[3] At the Spitzenforschung ]inthe Third Reich [whose] establishment of a central research council on war problematic historical role cannot be forgotten" (p. preparation in 1937, Thiessen was nominated 22). However, being a "normal case" in this context director of its chemistry department. The president is hardly exculpatory. of the council, Rudolf Mentzel, was another This judgment is verified by volume eleven NSDAP "Old Fighter," was made a member of of the series. As the dissertation of its author, Heinrich Himmler’spersonal staff, and became Florian Schmaltz, it is, as inevitable at a German vice president of the KWG in 1941 (p.127). During university,meticulously researched and heavily the late 1930s and the war years research on poison footnoted. Somewhat tiring to read, at least for gas, improvements in its use and defenses against it laymen, the voluminous book offers important became the central project of the KWIpCh. Some insights into the six KWIs directly involved in murderous experiments in its employment were research on chemical warfare. This volume also performed on concentration camp inmates in exposes the internal functioning of the KWG Sachsenhausen and later in Flossenbürgand generally and some of the machinations of its Plaszów,where incarcerated Jewish scientists were brilliantly inventive members in what the author also forced to work for the institute (pp. 176ff). defines as the "cooperative relations between Mentzel was sentenced in 1949 to two-and-a-half science, the military,industry and the NS-state" (p. years in jail by a German court.[4] 6), which served the regime as well as their After dealing briefly with some marginal personal portfolio. For an example of this projects at the KW-Institutes on the "Physiology of cooperation, readers should consult Schmaltz’s Labor," "Research of the Brain," "Leather- discussion of Christoph Grundmann (pp. 387ff). In Research" and "Marine Observation," the author his detailed narrative,Schmaltz describes the allocates about one-third of his voluminous book astoundingly rapid evolution of what in recent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für medizinische German Zeitgeschichte has become known as the Forschung in Heidelberg. This institute was, beside

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the KWIpCh, one of the twoKWIs where research where he gained experience he later exploited in on chemical weapons and their effects was the construction of gas chambers in Poland. continuously pursued in specially established Brandt, as Himmler’sunderling, was in charge of departments during the Nazi regime (p. 413). This all experiments on humans and was sentenced by state of affairs explains whythe KWI for medical the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg research and its "Kampfstoffabteilung" were, of all and hanged in 1948 (p. 540).[6] the institutes of the KWG, the most deeply Iwas surprised that Otmar von Verschuer, involved in the notorious experiments on humans who according to Brandt, was a close colleague (pp.455f, 521ff). Its Austrian-born director, and collaborator,"the leading Rassenhygieniker " Richard Kuhn, one of the field’stwentieth-century in the Third Reich, and Mengele’s Doktorvater, leaders, receivedthe Nobel Prize for Chemistry in wasmissing from Schmaltz’snarrative.[7] Both 1939 and studied in Munich. He advanced in his Verschuer and Mengele are absent from Schmaltz’s career as a protégé of Richard Willstädter,the book, though repeatedly mentioned in the director of the KWI for chemistry from 1912 to Butenandt volume. Is it due to a "need to know" 1915, who in 1925 felt compelled to resign from departmentalization of these secret matters, or to his post in Munich and move toSwitzerland under the high degree of specialization in the KWG, that the pressure of antisemitic tumults. Apparently theyremained unmentioned in the files of the Willstädter then appointed Kuhn to teach at the institutes that were the specific project of the prestigious Swiss technical university (ETH) in author’sstudy? That Mengele performed Zurich. Kuhn neverofficially joined the NSDAP, experiments and took "specimens" from living and butdifferent party agencies declared him reliable dead inmates in Auschwitz is widely known. repeatedly.Inthe spring of 1933, Kuhn complied Verschuer’sinv olvement in "processing the without protest with the exclusion of "non-Aryan" specimens" in Berlin, sometimes with the scientists from his institute and denounced assistance of Butenandt’sinstitute, was a major colleagues who tried to keep some of them at their issue in the "inconveniences" both faced after the posts. Later he called for stricter adherence to Nazi war. Bethis as it may,this volume is a highly laws and pressures in all KWG institutes (p. 368f). informative addition to our knowledge on the However, the author’sassumption of a "structural involvement and complicity of the mandarins of connection between the ousting of Jewish scientists science in the crimes of the Third Reich. and ... the research on chemical weapons" in the institute may be hard to prove.The case of Fritz Iwill end this reviewbyciting the summary Haber mentioned in this context is not convincing of the studies published so far by one of the evidence (p. 432). committee’schairmen: "The sufficiently safe conclusion is that the KWG and its scientists were There can be little doubt, however, about the in their great majority partners in power of a involvement of Kuhn and the KWI for medical totalitarian regime to its very end, and not the research in the often deadly "medical" experiments victims one liked to think of them having been in on concentration camp inmates (pp. 521ff). Not all retrospect. As such, theyshared responsibility for of the scientists and physicians accused in the terror and racist persecution in Germany, for an Nurembergtrials were employees of this or a ny aggressive foreign policyand the unleashing of the other KWI, but their connection with Kuhn and his war, for the crimes against Jews, the Roma and Heidelberginstitute are meticulously documented Sinti, the civil population of the occupied lands and referenced in this volume. Kuhn’sposition as and Soviet prisoners of war."[8] director of the chemical department in the made him responsible for Notes financing these experiments and links him to some [1]. Speech givenbythe president of the of the most condemnable individuals involved in Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Nazi medical research, such as August Hirt, who Science, Hubert Markl, on the occasion of the performed and supervised murderous poison gas opening of the symposium entitled "Biomedical experiments in the Natzweiler concentration camp Sciences and Human Experimentation at Kaiser and elsewhere. He killed himself to escape trial in Wilhelm Institutes--The Auschwitz Connection," 1945.[5] Kuhn is also linked to Karl Brandt, who Berlin, June 7, 2001, quoted in Francis R. Nicosia wascommissioned by Hitler to organize the killing and Jonathan Huener,eds., Medicine and Medical of the mentally ill in the T4 euthanasia program, Ethics in : Origins, Practices,

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Legacies (NewYork: Berghahn Books, 2002), 129f. [2]. S.v."Vater des Gaskriegs," in Ernst Klee, Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach1945,(Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer, 2003), 214. [3]. Thiessen, professor of chemistry in Göttingen, joined the NSDAP and the SA in 1922. After 1945 he volunteered to perform atomic research in the USSR at the head of a group of German scientists, and was awarded the Stalin Prize (Klee, Personenlixikon,623). [4]. Klee, Personsenlexikon,404. [5]. Ibid., 259. [6]. Ibid., 71f. [7]. Ibid., 639; see also the manyreferences to both in the indexofthe other volume under review. [8]. Reinhard Rürup, "Kontinuität und Neuanfang. Die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus und die Vergangenheitspolitik der Max-Plank-Gesellschaft," in Deutsche,Juden, Völkermord. Der Holocaust als Geschichte und Gegenwart,ed. Jürgen Matthäus und Klaus Malman (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft , 2006), 268.

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Citation: Avraham Barkai. "ReviewofFlorian Schmaltz, Kampfstoff-Forschung im Nationalsozialismus: Zur Kooperation von Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten, Militär und Industrie, H-German, H-Net Reviews, . URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=310021174661456. Copyright © 2007 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author,web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For anyother proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial [email protected] .

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