Jakob Segal

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Jakob Segal (born April 17, 1911 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire ; † September 30, 1995 in Berlin ) was a biologist and until his retirement he was the head of the Institute for General Biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin ( GDR ). He published numerous studies on the structure and role of protein molecules and immunology . He recently gained notoriety by supporting the conspiracy theory that the HI virus was not of natural origin, but was artificially generated in an American secret laboratory using genetic engineering . Until 1955 he was an informant for the Ministry for State Security of the GDR.

Jakob Segal's grave in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin

life and work

At the age of eight he came to Königsberg in East Prussia with his parents , where he graduated from high school. He completed the first semesters of his biology studies in Königsberg, Berlin and Munich , before he had to emigrate because of anti-fascist activities in the Red Student Union and the KPD , continued his studies in Toulouse , France , and graduated with a "License des Sciences". There he met his future wife Lilli.

After completing his studies, he began his research work in Paris at the sensory physiology laboratory of the Collège de France . He then worked at the Center national de la recherche scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research) in Paris . In 1940 Segal received his doctorate "Docteur des Sciences" (subject physiology ) at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). During the Second World War he actively participated in the resistance against National Socialism in the international combat groups (MOI) and in the “Free Germany” committee for the West (CALPO). Among other things, he produced forged ID cards and other documents for the resistance movement. After the war he returned to the “CNRS” and was appointed “Chargé de Recherches”. He took on a research assignment on the sensory functions of the cerebral cortex .

In 1952 Segal and his wife, both of whom had taken on Soviet citizenship, moved to the GDR on Soviet recommendation, where he immediately started working as an unofficial employee for the MfS. At the end of 1955, his commanding officer at the State Security received an order from a Soviet KGB officer not to meet Segal any more because they wanted to work with him themselves. In 1953 he was appointed to the Humboldt University in Berlin ( GDR ) and commissioned to set up an institute for general biology, which subsequently specialized in the training of biophysicists . He headed the institute until his retirement in 1971. In between he taught for three years in Cuba and three semesters in Mexico .

Research areas: structure of protein molecules , role of proteins in elementary cell functions and immunology. Numerous publications in these fields. After his retirement he continued the same work with an increased focus on biophysical problems in medicine. In the last years of his life, the HIV virus was Segal's main area of ​​research, to which he dedicated several book publications. In a book from 1991 he suggests developing a vaccination against AIDS with antigens from the internal protein structure of the virus ( nucleocapsid protein p24). The outer shell (env, protein gp120 ) has functions for the immune system, which is why vaccination with this antigen would interfere. When the virus penetrates the host cell, part of the p24 remains attached to the surface of the host cell. After a successful immunization against p24, the immune system thus destroys the affected cells (through the anti-p24 antibodies produced ) and reduces the viral load . AIDS can be cured by irradiating blood with ultraviolet light. Both theses are considered erroneous in research on AIDS and HIV.

AIDS / HIV conspiracy theory

In 1985 Segal put forward the thesis that the HI virus was the result of military experiments in Fort Detrick , Maryland , USA at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a P4 research laboratory for the study of infectious diseases in Fort Detrick , by the US researcher Robert Charles Gallo . He was building on claims made by the KGB disinformation campaign, Operation Infection . In contrast to the statements made by the KGB that HIV was discovered as a novel virus by American researchers in Africa and brought to the USA, Segal's theory was based on the assumption that Gallo made HIV artificially composed of two natural viruses, Visna and HTLV- 1 , has been created. Because Segal assumed that viruses would not be able to recombine , an artificial origin seemed plausible to him. In 1985 Segal got in touch with the Cologne molecular biologist Benno Müller-Hill in order to discuss his thesis with him. The correspondence dragged on until April 1986 and ended with the assessment of Müller-Hills: " Precisely because the crime that you [sic?] Suspected (unproven) is so great, in my opinion it is irresponsible ... to go public with it " .

When he nevertheless wanted to publish his hypothesis in the GDR, the Politburo , which he had actually asked for support, banned him from publishing and researching under the banner of “ peaceful coexistence with the USA”. Since Segal was a Soviet citizen, it was still possible for him to publish in the West as long as Moscow did not intervene - which also did not happen since Gorbachev had initiated glasnost at that time . Segal succeeded in publishing for the first time in the form of a brochure that was distributed at a conference of the non-aligned countries that took place in Harare in the late summer of 1986 .

A publication in the Federal Republic of Germany turned out to be difficult. The Frankfurt sexologist Volkmar Sigusch declined to publish a monograph by Segal on the subject after reading the manuscript. Stefan Heym then organized a detailed interview , which was initially to appear in Die Zeit . When this refused, as in the episode Der Spiegel , Stern and Quick , Segal's alleged revelations appeared in the taz . This interview received international attention and inspired other variants of the AIDS conspiracy theory.

Segal's conspiracy theory is popular up to the present, for example in Africa (like Sam Nujoma , President of Namibia until 2005 or Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai ) and in the USA. In Germany, the MLPD still defends Jakob Segal's theses today . In addition to the assertion of the US origin of AIDS, treatment strategies against AIDS, as proposed by Segal, were propagated and in some cases also tested until a few years ago. This took place within the framework of the Friends of the New Paths in HIV Therapy (FNV), which is closely related to the MLPD, and which dissolved in 2012.

Publications

  • with Lilli Segal: AIDS - the trail leads to the Pentagon , together with Manuel Kiper, Biokrieg , Verlag Neuer Weg, 2nd supplemented edition October 1990, ISBN 3-88021-199-X .
  • with Lilli Segal, Christoph Klug: AIDS is defeatable. Artificial production, early therapy and its boycott , Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 1995 ISBN 3-88021-296-1 .
  • AIDS. Cell physiology, pathology and therapy , Verlag Neuer Weg 1992, ISBN 3-88021-211-2 .
  • with Gunther Seng: Methods of UV irradiation of blood - HOT and UVB. Basics, clinic, practice . Hippokrates-Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-7773-0984-2 .
  • Jakob Segal, Ute Körner, Kate P. Leiterer: The origin of life from a biophysical point of view , VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag 1983.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche, Michael K. Walter: Conspiracy: Sociology of Conspiracy Thought . Springer-Verlag, October 19, 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-19324-3 , p. 127.
  2. ↑ Erhard Geißler: The myth of the origin of the AIDS virus . TIME ONLINE. January 14, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ Jakob Segal: AIDS - Cell Physiology, Pathology and Therapy . Neuer Weg publishing house, Essen 1992.
  4. ↑ Jakob Segal and Gunther Seng: Methods of UV irradiation of blood - HOT and UVB. Basics, clinic, practice . Hippokrates-Verlag, Stuttgart 1998.
  5. ↑ Jakob and Lilli Segal: AIDS - the trail leads to the Pentagon , together with Manuel Kiper, Biokrieg , Verlag Neuer Weg, 2nd supplemented edition October 1990, ISBN 3-88021-199-X .
  6. ↑ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin: The Mitrokhin Archive. The KGB in Europe and the West , Gardners Books 2000, ISBN 0-14-028487-7 , p. 319.
  7. ↑ Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche, Michael K. Walter: Conspiracy: Sociology of Conspiracy Thought . Springer-Verlag, October 19, 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-19324-3 , p. 121.
  8. ↑ http://www.prof-dr-erhard-geissler.de/30-jahre-aids-l%C3%BCge/
  9. ^ A b Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche, Michael K. Walter: Conspiracy: Sociology of Conspiracy Thought . Springer-Verlag, October 19, 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-19324-3 , p. 123.
  10. ↑ Andreas Anton, Michael Schetsche, Michael K. Walter: Conspiracy: Sociology of Conspiracy Thought . Springer-Verlag, October 19, 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-19324-3 , p. 130.
  11. ↑ Jan Feddersen, Wolfgang Gast: How the AIDS virus came to Fort Detrick . taz.de. January 9, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  12. ↑ Jack Z. Bratich: AIDS . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, p. 43 f.
  13. ^ Johanna Lutteroth: "The KGB's Propaganda Virus". In: Zeitgeschichten on Spiegel-online. June 22, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2013 .
  14. ↑ https://www.mlpd.de/2012/kw29/enthuellungen-zum-aids-ursprung-2013-alles-andere-als-201everschwoerungstheorie201c
  15. ↑ Douglas Selvage and Christopher Neuring: The AIDS Conspiracy. Department of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, pp. 128–136. ( PDF , ISBN 978-3-942130-76-9 ) In: BF informs 33rd Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic , 2014, accessed on November 19, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Segal, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist and head of the Institute for General Biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, unofficial employee of the GDR State Security
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1995
Place of death Berlin