Günter Adolphi

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Günter Adolphi , also Günther Adolphi , (born February 18, 1902 in Riga ; † August 26, 1982 in Merseburg ) was a German process engineer and from 1961 to 1967 lecturer at the Technical University of Chemistry in Merseburg. From 1943 to 1945 he held a managerial position in a IG Farben production facility in Auschwitz-Monowitz .

Life

The son of an official Günter Adolphi did military service in the Latvian army after graduating from high school in 1920 . From 1921 to 1926 he studied at the Technical University of Dresden and in Berlin . In 1926 and 1927 he worked as an assembly fitter in various companies in the USA . From 1928 to 1934 Adolphi was operations manager at the US Corn Products Refining Company . In 1934 and 1935 he was an engineer at the Magdeburg Friedrich Krupp AG Grusonwerk and from 1935 operations manager at the ammonia works in Merseburg (Leuna-Werke) .

In 1936 Adolphi joined the National Socialist Motorist Corps , and in 1938 the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). From 1943 to 1945 Adolphi was employed in a managerial position in a IG Farben production facility in Auschwitz-Monowitz, where prisoners from the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp were employed as slave labor . After the end of the war, Adolphi joined the SED.

Files published later by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR show that Adolphi was the right-hand man in Monowitz to the manager Walter Dürrfeld . He was sentenced to eight years in prison as a war criminal at the IG Farben trial in 1947/48.

In 1965, Adolphi was summoned as a witness before another IG Farben trial in the Federal Republic of Germany . Adolphi declined this invitation. Nevertheless, the MfS interrogated him in this connection, in which he refused to give evidence. The role of Adolphi in the Nazi era has not been conclusively clarified and is the subject of current research.

From 1949 Adolphi was head of the process engineering center and the chemical test department of the Leuna-Werke. From 1961 to 1967 Adolphi was director and professor at the Institute for Process Engineering at the Technical University of Chemistry in Merseburg, which was founded in 1958. The institute was the largest of its kind in Central Europe . In 1967 Adolphi retired .

plant

The most important areas of work for Adolphi were material separation processes and problems of heat and mass transfer. In 1967, Adolphi initiated the transition of process engineering from a specialization in mechanical engineering to a separate field of study. Adolphi translated numerous Russian standard texts on process engineering and edited numerous publications. He also held various patents .

Honors

  • 1956 Honorary title of Honored Inventor
  • 1968 Clemens Winkler Medal
  • 1972 Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Chemistry in Merseburg
  • 1977 honorary professor at the Lensoviet Technological Institute in Leningrad
  • In 2014, the street leading to the local university in Merseburg was renamed Günther-Adolphi-Straße at the proposal of the university. In July 2015, however, the street names were pasted over after protests, as the dedication remained pending clarification of Adolphi's role in the Nazi era. The street was renamed in August 2019.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Michael Bertram: Dispute about Günther-Adolphi-Strasse in Merseburg In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . Merseburg, July 9th, 2015. ( online )
  2. ↑ Georg Wagner-Kyora: “Chemiker helped organize crime” In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . Merseburg, March 18, 2015. ( online )
  3. ↑ Chemiefreunde Erkner eV: Günter Adolphi In: Chemieforum Erkner , 2015. ( online )
  4. ^ In: Neues Deutschland , October 6, 1956.
  5. ↑ Death Günter Adoplhi In: New Germany , August 31, 1982nd
  6. ↑ Dirk Skrzypczak: Günther Adolphi is masked In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . Merseburg, July 15, 2015. ( online )
  7. ↑ renaming Günter Adolphi Street in Friedrich Zollinger Road 1. Retrieved on 30 October 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Adolphi, Günter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adolphi, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German process engineer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 1982
Place of death Merseburg