Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut Research Articles

Josef Mengele's research program on noma in Auschwitz

Noma research protocol was conducted in the Auschwitz Birkernau camp by the infamous (Schutzstaffel) SS doctor Josef Mengele who was known as “the Angel of Death” in close collaboration with researchers at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in Berlin Crimes. Mengele who held the post of camp doctor in the “Gypsy camp” saw an opportunity to set up a research program on gypsy children called “Nomaprojekt”. The purpose of this program was to study the causes of noma and to find treatment methods. The experimental treatment protocol consisted of administering a combination of sulfanilamido-ethyl thiodiazole and nicotinic acid. Heads and selected body parts of children suffering from noma were prepared in formaldehyde jars and sent to researchers at the prestigious Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin-Dahlem, but also to the SS Medical Academy in Graz to carry out further examinations. The experimental protocol for the treatment of noma among Gypsy children is one of the most horrific crimes that Dr. Josef Mengele committed in the Auschwitz camp.

A Visit to Einstein's House [Around the Globe

Reports on Albert Einstein’s summer house in Caputh, some twenty miles from Berlin. It was built for Einstein and was the only house that Einstein ever owned. The house was built in 1929, and Einstein left the house, in 1933, when he left Germany for good. During the period when he lived there, Einstein was professor of physics at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in Berlin.

Neuroscientists at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in the "Third Reich": OskarVogt-HugoSpatz-WilhelmTönnis

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch was one of the key institutions enmeshed in the euthanasia program between 1939 and 1945, generating scientific knowledge by dissecting the brains of murdered patients. As aconsequence, this institution and its early years have attracted the attention of historians for years. The neuroanatomist Oskar Vogt (1870-1959), director of the KWI until 1937 and his wife Cécile (1875-1962) who were both appointed honorary members of the German Neurological Society (DGN) in 1952, concentrated on the microstructure and brain architecture of healthy and "elite" brains. Vogt's successor, Hugo Spatz (1888-1969), shifted research activities towards pathology of the central nervous system (CNS) and incorporated psychiatric and military institutions into the institute's network. Spatz had been amember of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) since 1938. As acting director of the KWI he was responsible for the dissections performed by Hallervorden on murdered patients. After the war Spatz tried to justify his actions. Years after the unveiling of these relationships the DGN decided in 1998 to rename the Hugo Spatz award. Wilhelm Tönnis (1898-1978), the German pioneer of neurosurgery had been amember of the National Socialist Air Corps since 1933 and amember of the NSDAP since 1937, finally joining the NS Medical Association in 1938. After the war he played down his affiliation to NS divisions. When his denazification trial had ended he pursued his career in the young Federal Republic of Germany. In 1976 he was elected honorary member of the DGN, 2 years before his death.

The historical background of Jules and Augusta Dejerines’ work

The historical background of Jules and Augusta Dejerines’ work

German neurology and neurologists during the Third Reich: brain research and "euthanasia"

The connection between systematic killing of the mentally ill and disabled, euphemistically called "euthanasia" in the National Socialism ideology, and German brain research has been thoroughly investigated and in detail; however, the impact of this criminal nexus on the image and self-perception of German neurologists as well as the status of neurology as a medical discipline is still the subject of controversial debates.Between 1939 and 1945 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) in Berlin along with other research centres were insofar enmeshed in the "euthanasia" program as brains of killed patients were dissected in the guise of "concomitant research" in order to generate medical knowledge. Affected were mainly individuals suffering from oligophrenia, early childhood brain atrophy, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. According to current historical research, collegial networks were instrumental in receiving brains of killed patients. Furthermore, civil research units were supplemented by military ones at the KWI. These, too, were concerned with the collection of medical knowledge, for instance on injuries of the brain and spinal cord. The historical approach to consider the Nazi organizations and medicine as "resources for each other" seems, therefore, at least in part applicable to neurology.

Helmut Beinert (1913–2007)

Helmut Beinert (1913–2007)

The metabolism of tumours. Investigations from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Edited by Otto Warburg, Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Translated from the German edition, with accounts of additional recent researches, by Frank Dickens, M.A., Ph.D., whole-time worker for the Medical Research Council, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, Middlesex Hospital, London. Demy 8vo. Pp. 327 + xxix. Illustrated. 1930. London:

The metabolism of tumours. Investigations from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Edited by Otto Warburg, Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Translated from the German edition, with accounts of additional recent researches, by Frank Dickens, M.A., Ph.D., whole-time worker for the Medical Research Council, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, Middlesex Hospital, London. Demy 8vo. Pp. 327 + xxix. Illustrated. 1930. London: Constable & Co. Ltd. 40s. net The Metabolism of Tumours. Investigations from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Edited by Warburg Otto, Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology, Berlin-Dahlem. Translated from the German edition, with accounts of additional recent researches, by Dickens Frank, M.A., Ph.D., whole-time worker for the Medical Research Council, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, Middlesex Hospital, London. Demy 8vo. Pp. 327 + xxix. Illustrated. 1930. London: Constable & Co. Ltd. 40s. net. British Journal of Surgery, Volume 19, Issue 73, July 1931, Page 168, https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.1800197331 Published: 06 December 2005

Founding Years of Clinical Neurology in Berlin Until 1933

During the so-called “Gründerjahre” or “founding years” in Berlin it became necessary to build new hospitals because of the rapid growth of population. As a result, several infirmaries, asylums for the insane and institutions for epileptics were built between 1877 and 1912. The new building of the University Neuropsychiatric Clinic (“Nervenklinik”) of the Charité was opened in 1905 according to plans made by Friedrich Jolly (1844–1904), the physician who named myasthenia gravis pseudoparalytica. A “Neurological Central Station”, under the direction of Oskar and Cecil Vogt, in existence since 1898, was a research center dedicated more to morphology. There the study of the structure of the cerebral cortex by Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1925) and research into basal ganglia diseases by the Vogts began. The Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Cerebral Research, which moved into a new building in 1931, also had its origin here. Hermann Oppenheim (1858–1919) promoted independent clinical neurology, as did his younger contemporary, Max Lewandowsky (1876–1918), who was already advising physician for neurology at the Berlin-Friedrichshain Hospital. Hugo Liepmann (1863–1925), the creator of apraxia theory, worked at the asylums for the insane in Dalldorf (Berlin-Wittenau) and Berlin-Herzberge. In 1911, the first neurological unit was established in the large hospital in Berlin-Buch under the direction of Otto Maas. Not until after World War I were further neurological hospital units founded, under the direction of Paul Schuster (1867–1940), Kurt Goldstein (1878–1965), Kurt Löwenstein (died in 1953) and Friedrich Heinrich Lewy (1885–1950). These Jewish physicians, as well as C.E. Benda and Otto Maas, had to leave their posts in 1933 and emigrate. The clinical institutions and scientific achievements of these pioneers of independent clinical neurology will be presented up to the point of its violent dissolution.

Arthur Herbert Cook, 10 July 1911 - 26 July 1988

Arthur Herbert Cook is remembered by his many students and professional colleagues as an intellectually large person, often charming socially, and a big man physically. He was, however, extremely reserved and never really mentioned his origins, childhood or early education. He was born on 10 July 1911 and received his main chemical education at Imperial College, London, during 1931-1933. After graduation, he stayed on in Professor Sir Jocelyn Thorpe’s laboratory for Ph.D. training under the direction of (then) Dr R.P. Linstead (see Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society , 1968,14, 309) who set Cook some problems concerning fused five-membered ring carbon compounds which he satisfactorily solved. With the Ph.D. degree attained, Cook followed a tradition by proceeding to Germany to widen his chemical experience and horizons. At the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Medizinische Forschung, Heidelberg, Cook spent a year (1935-36) with Professor Richard Kuhn, of international fame, working on lumazine and alloxazine syntheses and contributing notably to a synthesis of vitamin B 2 through an inspired suggestion. English chemists at the time (for example, R. Robinson, Ingold, Kenyon and Waters) were establishing a remarkable new understanding of mechanism in organic reactions and so Cook, as the nearest English chemist, was consulted on a difficulty of condensing alloxan with mono- N -ribitylxylidenediamine which was frustrating a direct synthesis of the vitamin. Cook suggested that boric acid should act as a catalyst, and to his great credit the idea led to a triumphant first synthesis of riboflavin by Kuhn. It was at this time also that Cook gained a life-long interest in heterocyclic chemistry as well as in natural pigments, and in chromatography as an elegant method for the separation and purification of organic compounds in general. Characteristically, he reinforced his new acquaintance with this important topic by writing a review (4).

German eugenics between science and politics.

T HE HISTORY OF EUGENICS is one of a reciprocal involvement of science and politics. Simply put, that history can be characterized as beginning with two scientific theories, evolutionary theory and its complement, the theory of human heredity. Taken up by political discourse, these theories helped to create or crystallize concerns about the hereditary quality of the human stock. They delineated and helped to focus political concerns about population policy and control. Scientists used eugenics as a vehicle for their political convictions and social biases, just as politicians used its scientific framework, sketchy as it was, to advance their particular causes. It was only in Germany, however, that the small community of race hygienists (as eugenicists called themselves there), seeking status and recognition, formed a coalition with politicians of the conservative and radical right. This coalition enhanced the political influence of race hygienists and aided the implementation of many of their ideas. The subsequent moral catastrophe had repercussions far beyond the German community, forcing eugenics-minded geneticists all over the world to strive for a sharper demarcation between science and politics. Their efforts eventually resulted in a fundamental change in their original program: human genetics thereafter renounced all claims to improving the gene pool of the human race as a whole and instead concentrated on the cure of genetic diseases on an individual basis. This study does not encompass the entire development of eugenics in Germany. It focuses on the crucial role of an institute in Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics (KaiserWilhelm-Institut fur Anthropologie, Menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik), which became the single most important institution for race hygiene in Germany. Although there were a number of other important centers devoted to various aspects of eugenics and race hygiene-such as the Institute for Genealogy and Demography under Ernst Rudin in Munich, which was part of the German Research Agency for Psychiatry and in 1924 became an institute in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (KWG)-the institute in Berlin was clearly the leading institution in the field between its foundation in 1927 and 1945. Given that the most eminent representatives of race hygiene, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz, and Otmar

Weimar eugenics: the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, human heredity and eugenics in social context.

Summary This paper examines relations between eugenics and genetics during the Weimar Republic. Research aims and requests for funding were motivated by a sense that biology could contribute to national reconstruction after the First World War. Geneticists' participation in social policy-making is assessed, as well as the rise of interest in eugenics and racial biology among public health officials. It was important that eugenics be acceptable to the (Roman Catholic) Centre Party, and a sometime Jesuit, Hermann Muckermann, took a leading role as intermediary between the state and human geneticists in the founding of the Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. Earlier plans to establish a national institute, the organization of the Institute as it actually materialized, and the scope of research are considered. Finally, the dislocation in 1933 is assessed in order to further emphasize how the Institute was deeply embedded in the Weimar social structure.

Vegetative Propagation by Root Cuttings

EARLY in December 1949, we attempted the propagation by root cuttings of Lagerstrœmia indica, previously submitted for a fortnight to the action of low temperatures (0°–2° C.) or to a dry atmosphere (relative humidity, 50 per cent) for one or two weeks. Immediately after each of these treatments, the cuttings were put in a rooting medium of equal proportions of sand and garden soil, in a greenhouse, together with controls. All the cuttings were planted upright, as recommended by the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut.

Scientific Work in Germany

DR. H. KALMUS, of the Galton Laboratory, University College, London, W.C.I, has received the following information from the French zone of occupation of Germany, in a letter from Prof. Alfped Kühn. Prof. Alfred Kühn left the Zoological Institute in Göttingen in 1937 and went to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut fur Biologie in Berlin. In the autumn of 1943 he was able to evacuate his department from there to Hechingen, Hohenzollern, and thus all his apparatus and library have been saved. Work in this institution has continued since the occupation first by the Americans and then by the French under the protection of the American T-force and the Mission Scientifique. In December 1945, Prof. Kühn was appointed to the chair of zoology in the University of Tubingen in the French zone of occupation, and he is now trying to move the other biological departments of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute to Tübingen. A botanical department under Melchers, working on plant hormones and plant viruses, has provisional quarters in the botanical department of the University. Hartmann and Bauer are working in Hechingen, Hohenzollern, and Hämmerling in Langenargen am Bodensee in the Institute for Limnology. Prof. Kühn has lost all his close collaborators and is training young workers. His main interest at present is the chemical action of genes; in this work he is collaborating with Prof. Butenandt, who occupies the chair of physiological chemistry in Tübingen.

Kaiser Wilhelm‐Institut für physikalische Chemie. und Elektrochemie, Berlin‐Dahlem

Angewandte ChemieVolume 54, Issue 19-20 p. 240-240 Versammlungsberichte Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für physikalische Chemie. und Elektrochemie, Berlin-Dahlem F. Frey, F. FreySearch for more papers by this author F. Frey, F. FreySearch for more papers by this author First published: 10. Mai 1941 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19410541907Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume54, Issue19-2010. Mai 1941Pages 240-240 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

Neuere Beiträge der biologischen Chemie zum Krebsproblem

Angewandte ChemieVolume 53, Issue 31-32 p. 345-352 Article Neuere Beiträge der biologischen Chemie zum Krebsproblem Professor Dr. Adolf Butenandt, Professor Dr. Adolf Butenandt Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Biochemie, Berlin-DahlemSearch for more papers by this author Professor Dr. Adolf Butenandt, Professor Dr. Adolf Butenandt Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Biochemie, Berlin-DahlemSearch for more papers by this author First published: 3. August 1940 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19400533105Citations: 21AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume53, Issue31-323. August 1940Pages 345-352 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

The Determination of Characters at Metamorphosis in Rhodnius Prolixus (Hemiptera)

ABSTRACT Two factors have been recognized as regulating moulting and metamorphosis in Rhodnius prolixus: a “moulting hormone” and a so-called “inhibitory hormone” (Wigglesworth, 1934, 1936).

Vorträge aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung, Stuttgart, und dem Institut für Allgemeine Metallkunde, Göttingen

Angewandte ChemieVolume 52, Issue 36 p. 587-589 Versammlungsberichte Vorträge aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung, Stuttgart, und dem Institut für Allgemeine Metallkunde, Göttingen First published: 9. September 1939 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19390523604AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume52, Issue369. September 1939Pages 587-589 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für medizinische Forschung

Angewandte ChemieVolume 52, Issue 27 p. 464-464 Versammlungsberichte Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für medizinische Forschung R. Kuhn, R. KuhnSearch for more papers by this author R. Kuhn, R. KuhnSearch for more papers by this author First published: 8. Juli 1939 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19390522704AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume52, Issue278. Juli 1939Pages 464-464 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie

Angewandte ChemieVolume 52, Issue 16 p. 302-303 Versammlungsberichte Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie First published: 22. April 1939 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19390521604AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume52, Issue1622. April 1939Pages 302-303 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation

Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart

Angewandte ChemieVolume 52, Issue 12 p. 240-243 Versammlungsberichte Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart First published: 25. März 1939 https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.19390521205AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionAdd to favorites ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume52, Issue1225. März 1939Pages 240-243 This is the German version of Angewandte Chemie. Note for articles published since 1962: Do not cite this version alone. Take me to the International Edition version with citable page numbers, DOI, and citation export. We apologize for the inconvenience. RelatedInformation