Albert Demnitz

Friedrich Albert Demnitz (born October 9, 1892 in Dresden , † March 4, 1959 in Marburg-Ockershausen ) was a German veterinarian and from 1928 a senior employee of the Behring works in Marburg .

Life

Letter from Demnitz to Buchenwald concentration camp dated February 2, 1943 regarding typhus experiments

Demnitz studied from 1912 veterinary medicine at the Veterinary University of Dresden and was established in 1919 at the University of Leipzig Dr. med. vet. PhD . He then worked at the Animal Physiological Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine Dresden and at the Agricultural University Berlin . Finally he came to the Behring works in Marburg, where he became head of the veterinary medicine department in 1923. A research stay took him to the Instituto Biológico in Santiago de Chile in 1926/27. After his return in 1928 he became head of the production department at Behring-Werke Marburg, later manager of the plant within the IG Farben network and finally director.

In the winter of 1940/41 Demnitz stayed in Warsaw for some time and worked with Robert Kudicke on a new mixed vaccine against the dysentery. From November 1940 at the latest, these new double vaccines were also tested on humans as part of tolerance tests. Under his leadership, the Behringwerke participated as part of IG Farbenindustrie from 1942 in cooperation with the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS in typhus experiments on prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp .

From 1940 to 1945 he was teaching animal disease therapy at the Animal Disease Institute at the University of Giessen . In 1950 he was appointed honorary professor for animal disease therapy at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. In 1957 he retired.

Honors

• 1953: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1998: Renaming of the Rotdornweg in Marburg to Albert-Demnitz-Weg. After the Behringwerke's involvement in deadly series of experiments in Buchenwald concentration camp became known, the path was renamed again in 1998 as Rotdornweg.

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Web links

• FU Berlin, Veterinary Medicine Library: Demnitz, Albert . Biographical representation based on: Wilhelm Schauder: On the history of veterinary medicine at the University and Justus Liebig University of Giessen. P. 147 and 165. In: 350 Years of the University of Gießen (1607–1957).
• Thomas Werther: Anzu struts are human testing ... . A short contribution to the history of the Marburger Behringwerke.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death register of the Marburg an der Lahn registry office No. 164/1959.
2. ↑ Thomas Werther: Typhus research in the German Reich 1914–1945. Studies on the relationship between science, industry and politics with special consideration of IG Farben. Inaugural dissertation at the Philipps University of Marburg. Wiesbaden 2004, p. 189 f.