Armand Mergen

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Armand Mergen (born January 29, 1919 in Heffingen , Luxembourg; † March 1, 1999 in Bridel ), called Toto, was a Luxembourgish legal scholar , criminologist and publicist who taught as a professor at the University of Mainz . He was the founding president of the German Criminological Society .

Life

Mergen studied law and medicine at the universities in Brussels and Innsbruck . It was there that he was a student and assistant to the psychiatrist Friedrich Stumpfl , who had headed the “Office for Hereditary and Racial Biology” in Innsbruck since 1939 . Together with Stumpfl, Mergen carried out race- biological studies on Tyrolean Karner and Jenische and labeled them as " anti-social ". Mergen received his doctorate from the law faculty in Innsbruck in 1942 . The title of his dissertation was The Crime of the Mentally Ill, examined in 200 cases at the Innsbruck University Hospital . At the behest of the Gestapo and after an arrest, his assistantship at Stumpfl was terminated prematurely in 1943.

In 1947 Mergen was again awarded a Dr. jur. PhD. There he also passed the assessor examination in 1949. In 1953 he acquired the Venia legendi for criminology at the University of Mainz with a habilitation thesis on the methodology of criminal biological investigations . He had been a lecturer in criminology in Mainz since 1947, and from 1953 to 1984 he taught there as an adjunct professor .

In addition to his work in Mainz, Mergen worked as a lawyer in Luxembourg from 1947 to 1958 and also worked as a criminological expert before Luxembourg courts.

In 1959 Mergen was the initiator and founding president of the German Criminological Society. The eight founding members of the society included Max Horkheimer , Theodor W. Adorno and Fritz Bauer .

He published on many topics in criminology and criminalistics and also wrote popular science and fiction books. He trained high-level detective officers and, with some insider knowledge, wrote his much- noticed BKA story . His critical journalistic examination of the investigation into the Barschel case , death in Geneva , attracted public attention. Mergen delved into sex research, darkfield research, and the links between disease and crime. In the 1970s he proposed the term "criminopathy" in a criminological controversy.

He was a member of the advisory board of the Humanist Union .

Fonts (selection)

Book of Mergen with autograph
  • Crime of the mentally ill, investigation of 200 cases at the Innsbruck University Clinic , Luxembourg: Beffort, 1942 (also dissertation at Innsbruck University)
  • Die Tiroler Karrner: Criminological and criminal biological studies on land drivers (Jenischen) , Mainz: Internat. Universum-Verl., 1949
  • Methods of criminal biological investigations , Stuttgart: Enke, 1953 (also habilitation thesis)
  • The science of crime: An introduction to criminology , Hamburg: Verlag Kriminalistik, 1961
  • Illness and crime , Munich, Goldmann, 1972, ISBN 3-442-50027-3
  • The criminology: a systematic presentation , 3rd, completely revised. Ed., Munich: Vahlen, 1995, ISBN 3-8006-1887-7 (earlier editions 1967 and 1978)
  • The BKA story , Munich / Berlin: Herbig, 1987, ISBN 3-7766-1458-7
  • Death in Geneva: investigation error in the Barschel case: murder thesis neglected? , Heidelberg: Kriminalistik-Verl., 1988, ISBN 3-7832-1088-7
  • The devil chromosome. Programmed to the perpetrator , food; Munich; Bartenstein; Venlo; Santa Fe: Bettendorf, 1995, ISBN 3-88498-063-7 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 404.
  2. ↑ Source of biographical information: Karl Baer, Armand Mergen - 50 years , in: Current Kriminology. For the tenth anniversary of the German Criminological Society and the 50th birthday of its President Prof. Dr. Dr. Armand Mergen , Hamburg: Kriminalistik-Verlag, 1969, pp. XXIX - XXXI
personal data
SURNAME Mergen, Armand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourg lawyer, criminologist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Heffingen , Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1999
Place of death Bridel