Erich Naumann (chemist)

Erich Naumann (born March 11, 1900 in Schleusenau / Bromberg district , † December 30, 1983 in Darmstadt ) was a German chemist .

Live and act

Naumann studied chemistry in Tübingen and Berlin and passed the chemical association examination in 1923 . In 1926 he received his doctorate from the University of Gießen with Karl Schaum as Dr. phil., because chemistry was taught at the philosophical faculties at that time. From June 1926 he worked in the Prussian State Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene ( WaBoLu ) in Berlin-Dahlem, where he mainly devoted himself to water-related issues and waste disposal.

After the handover of power to the National Socialists, Naumann became a research assistant and joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 (membership number 2634177); “Of the 45 scientists, 21 were members of the NSDAP, 17 of them as civil servants”. Naumann's employer was also given imperial duties from 1934 as part of the National Socialist conformity, although the name of the institution remained unchanged for the time being. The WaBoLu managed to "impressively assert itself in the dichotomy of state and party institutions". In April 1935 Naumann became a scientific member of the institute. In 1939 Naumann was an honorary student representative group administrator in the Reichsbund German civil servant for Gaufachschaft 12 (regional civil servants, Gau Berlin). Naumann was drafted in 1939 and worked as a special commissioner for the army water supply in France and Crete during World War II . He also dealt with drinking water chlorination and so-called ozonation . In December 1942 Naumann was appointed Scientific Councilor and Professor at the now renamed Reich Institute for Water and Air Quality .

After the end of World War II, Naumann was initially a scientist at the river water investigation office in Hildesheim . From 1953 he worked as a consultant for water hygiene, first director and professor at the Federal Health Office only in Koblenz and from April 1958 (after the relocation of the presidential department of the Federal Health Office) in Berlin. From March 10, 1960 to 1965, he was Professor and Head of the Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene in Berlin. The now branch of the institute in Koblenz was relocated to Düsseldorf with his assistance in 1960 and was headed by senior scientific adviser Gerhard Giebler.

1952–1962 Naumann was chairman of the main water treatment committee of the German Association of Gas and Water. V. and investigated problems of wastewater disposal in nuclear power plants on behalf of the then Federal Ministry for Atomic Affairs .

At the beginning of his activity as head of the institute, he outlined the demands of his institute management as follows: Water “has long since become a scarce commodity not only in terms of its quantity, but also in terms of its quality. The problems of an all-encompassing water quality management form the main task of the institute ”, whereby“ such management of our water resources must be carried out by the state according to plan and on a large scale ”. From today's perspective, Frank Uekötter sums up this approach as follows: "The baseline can be described as a high level of trust in scientific processes and technical solutions - and a lack of interest in political initiatives."

Naumann was one of the "most prominent Central European opponents of drinking water fluoridation ".

Awards

• Bunsen-Pettenkofer Honor Roll (1960)
• Large Merit (1970)

Publications (selection)

By 1965 Naumann had submitted "more than 100 publications", including a .:

• Contributions to the chemical sensitization of gelatin dry plates , Giessen 1927 (dissertation).
• Problems of the contamination of ground and surface water by mineral oils and detergents , Stuttgart 1960.
• 60 years of the Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene , Stuttgart 1961 (reprinted in Dieter Bongert et al. (Ed.), 100 Years of the Association for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene eV: 1902–2002, Berlin 2001, p. 133 ff.) .
• Keeping Lake Constance clean. A vital question for the southwest , Stuttgart 1961.
• Pocket book for gas and water, part 3: Central water supply , Munich 1963.

literature

• Kempf, Prof. Dr. Erich Naumann on his 65th birthday , magazine for cultural technology and land consolidation, vol. 6 (1965), p. 250 f.
• Heller, First Director and Prof. Dr. phil. Naumman 65 years old , in: The public health service, vol. 27 (1965), p. 159 f.
• Norman Fuchsloch, See, smell, taste and measure as components of the expert and scientific work of the Prussian State Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene in the field of air pollution control between 1920 and 1960 , Freiberg 1999, p. 21.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norman Pohl, The Prussian State Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene (WaBoLu) and the protection of the inhuman, in: Judith Hahn u. a. (Ed.), Medicine in National Socialism and the Concentration Camp System, Berlin 2003, pp. 188 ff. (191 f.).
2. ↑ Thomas Forster u. a., 1974–2014: 40 Years of the Federal Environment Agency, 2014, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/376/publikationen/40_jahre_umweltbundesamt.pdf , p. 62.
3. ↑ Norman Pohl, The Prussian State Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene (WaBoLu) and the protection of the inhuman, in: Judith Hahn u. a. (Ed.), Medicine under National Socialism and the Concentration Camp System, Berlin 2003, p. 190.
4. ↑ Self-disclosure, “Party statistical survey 1939”, Federal Archives Berlin, call number R 9361 I / 2438.
5. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
6. ↑ Erich Naumann, 60 Years of the Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene, Stuttgart 1961, p. 79.
7. ↑ http://www.umweltunderinnerung.de/index.php/kapitelseiten/verschmuchte-natur/49-die-wabolu
8. ↑ Eckard Rehbinder, Legal Barriers to Drinking Water Fluoridation, Berlin 1975, p. 14 f.
9. ↑ https://www.dvgw.de/der-dvgw/bildung-im-dvgw/ehrungen/bunsen-pettenkofer-ehrentafel/ (there No. 47)
10. ↑ Heller, First Director and Prof. Dr. phil. Naumman 65 years old, in: The public health service, vol. 27 (1965), p. 159 f. (160).