Kurt Plötner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurt Friedrich Plötner (born October 19, 1905 in Hermsdorf (Thuringia) , † February 26, 1984 ) was a German doctor . During the Second World War he carried out experiments on people as a camp doctor in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps . After the war he became an associate professor at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg .

Life

School and education

Plötner attended elementary school in his place of birth Hermsdorf and then finished high school in Gera with the Abitur. He then studied in Jena, Leipzig, Munich and Halle. In Leipzig he was a member of the Corps Thuringia . In 1932 he passed the chemical association examination. Plötner passed the state examination in medicine in Jena in 1934.

Joining Nazi organizations

In 1933 Plötner had joined the NSDAP , the SS and the NS-Ärztebund . Plötner last held the rank of Sturmbannführer in the SS .

University assistant and SS hospital doctor

Before the Second World War, Plötner worked as an assistant at the university hospitals in Jena and Leipzig .

From 1934, certainly from 1937, there was a collaboration with Ludwig Heilmeyer , the senior physician at the Jena University Hospital and Plötner's assistant. They parted ways for a few years when Plötner was drafted as a medic in the Waffen SS in 1939 and Heilmeyer in 1941 as an air force doctor .

During the Second World War in 1940 he worked as a lecturer and did medical service in the Waffen-SS. The following years he worked in SS hospitals in Dachau (1941) and Minsk (1942). At the beginning of 1943 he switched to the Dachau concentration camp as a doctor.

Try malaria

Plötner ran studies on prisoners artificially infected with malaria in Dachau as an assistant doctor under Professor Claus Schilling from April 1943 to July 1944 . The victims were withheld counter-drugs and instead increased the fever by administering special drugs. According to Plötner, the fever should lead to natural self-healing. According to Plötner's own statements in 1967, prisoners died as a result of the experiments.

Try the truth drug mescaline

In Dachau, Plötner also carried out experiments with the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline on Jews and Russian prisoners of war and observed their schizophrenic behavior in connection with the National Socialists' search for a truth serum that could be used as an aid during interrogations.

Try the polygal hemostatic agent

In 1944 Plötner took over the management of the institute for military scientific research of the SS organization Ahnenerbe in Dachau. In his department "P" (= Plötner) he continued the so-called "research work" of Sigmund Rascher , who had fallen out of favor with Reichsführer SS Himmler in March 1944 . In this function, Plötner carried out a series of human experiments in Sachsenhausen concentration camp to investigate the hemostatic effect of the drug Polygal.

In order to continue the experiments and production of the hemostatic agent based on pectin, he had a satellite camp set up for the Dachau concentration camp and assigned Dachau concentration camp prisoners who otherwise did slave labor in production. The camp existed in the municipality of Sigmarszell in the Lindau district (Bodensee) as Biesing's external concentration camp (also known as the butcher’s external command) from April 5, 1944 to approx. April 7, 1945 and was disbanded before the approaching French troops and by Plötner in neighboring Vorarlberg reopened as a subcamp in Lochau for almost a month. As assistant to the concentration camp commandant Plötner, prisoner functionary Robert Feix directed the work on Polygal. Plötner had already taken it over from Sigmund Rascher, who also used it as a developer. The work detail was led by prisoner functionary Walter Neff , who was also known from Dachau . Pp. 481, 482 and 385, 386

Try with N-fabric

After Hitler had transferred the development work with the N-substance to the SS, Plötner was commissioned in September 1944 by the Reichsarzt SS Ernst-Robert Grawitz to be one of two experts to investigate the toxic effects of the wonder weapon . After a first attempt, for which no results are known, five inmates allegedly sentenced to death were summoned to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in order to “carry out some tests on humans to finally clarify the physiological effect of the N substance on and through the human skin ”. At the time of human experiments with the N-substance , Plötner wanted to achieve the title of professor ; however, his application was rejected on the grounds that his work was too low a scientific level.

Submerged after the war

After the liberation , Plötner was captured by French troops near Lochau, p. 386 . In 1946 he managed to escape from Rastatt prison. For the next six years he lived under the false name ( Schmitt or Kurt Schmidt ) in Schleswig-Holstein.

University of Freiburg

In 1952 Plötner took on his real name again and was hired by Ludwig Heilmeyer as an assistant at the Freiburg University Hospital . Like Plötner, Heilmeyer had worked in military hospitals in the occupied eastern territories during the Russian campaign (e.g. from 1943 in the Ukrainian provincial capital Rovno ). However, he already knew Plötner from their time together at the Jena University Hospital before World War II.

In 1954, Plötner was awarded the title of associate professor “in recognition of his scientific work”. Plötner's research during the Nazi era was known.

Plötner's career becomes understandable in the difficulties faced by the Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-University with the order of the French occupying power to part with its Nazi-steeped faculty (50-60% of all university professors, 75% of all medical professionals were members of the NSDAP). After initial dismissals, almost everyone was gradually back in office or at least well looked after as emeriti. The relevant specialist literature describes the hiring and two years later professorship of the former concentration camp doctor and SS Sturmbannführer Kurt Plötner by the medical faculty as a model of a lack of self-cleaning. The medical faculty refused to withdraw the appointment in 1961 after Plötner witnessed former prison functionaries who said only good things about him in order not to incriminate themselves (they had been complicit in fatal attempts at medicine).

Investigations

In 1954, the central office of the state justice administration in Ludwigsburg broke off its preliminary investigations into the "Schlachters subcamp" after testimony had not revealed any evidence of deaths.

In November 1961, the University of Freiburg saw no reason to withdraw Plötner's license to teach : “On the basis of the review of the available material [...] the faculty came to the conclusion that Dr. Plötner did not violate human and medical ethics in any way, yes, he behaved humanly and medically despite the difficult circumstances, ” said the university in a statement to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture .

During an interrogation by the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Baden-Württemberg in 1967, Plötner claimed that the tests with N-substance had proceeded “without any harm to the test subjects” . He also stated that “the N-substance was completely harmless when it came into contact with human skin” and that the prisoners were “in no way impaired in terms of health” . According to current knowledge and the EC safety data sheet in accordance with TRGS 230, N-substance is chlorine trifluoride , a highly toxic and aggressive substance which can only be endured in minimal quantities without permanent damage and which "instantly leads to deep tissue destruction" when it comes into contact with the skin .

Publications

  • About crystallized acetates of cellobiosone and the question of γ-pyrone ring formation from disaccharides. Univ., Diss. - Jena, 1931. Meyer, Libau 1931.
  • About the physical properties of polypeptides consisting of 1 (+) - norleucine and their behavior towards erepsin and trypsin solutions. Diss. Jena, 1935. In: Ferment research. 13 (1932) 1932, pp. 443-450.
  • with Ludwig Heilmeyer: The serum iron and the iron deficiency disease. (Pathogenesis, symptomatology and therapy). Fischer, Jena 1937.
  • The serum protein picture, especially the pathological changes in the albumin fraction; Plötner, Kurt, Dr. med. et phil. nat. J. Springer, Berlin 1940.
  • and Ludwig Heilmeyer (ed.): Clinical colorimetry with the Pulfrich photometer. Working instructions for colorimetric-analytical determinations and color measurements on urine and serum. 2nd Edition. Zeiss, Jena 1940.

literature

Assistant doctor
  • Georg W. Löhr : Problems of erythrocytopoiesis, granulocytopoiesis and malignant melanoma . Ed .: German Society for Hematology and Oncology, Austrian Society for Hematology. Springer-Verlag, 1978, ISBN 978-3-540-08744-1 , pp. 95 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Human experiments with malaria
Human experiments with N-substance
  • Reinhard Rürup , Wolfgang Schieder , Doris Kaufmann, Susanne Heim: History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism . Ed .: Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89244-880-8 , Chapter 4.6 Human experiments with "N" substances on prisoners in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, p. 174 (Wunderwaffe N-Stoff) ( limited preview in the Google book search - Proceedings of a conference in Berlin with Florian Schmaltz: Warfare agent research under National Socialism; on the cooperation between Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the military and industry ).
  • Reinhard Rürup , Wolfgang Schieder , Doris Kaufmann , Susanne Heim: History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism . Ed .: Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89244-880-8 , Chapter 4.6 Human experiments with "N" substances on prisoners in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, p. 175–177 ( limited preview in the Google book search - execution of the experiments on the effectiveness of the N-substance at Plötner's department in the institute for military scientific research; proceedings of a conference in Berlin with Florian Schmaltz: Warfare agent research in National Socialism; on the cooperation of Kaiser- Wilhelm Institutes, Military and Industry ).
Human experiments with mescaline as a psychological drug
Human testing and production of hemostatic agents
  • Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel , Angelika Königseder: The place of terror: History of the National Socialist concentration camps . CH Beck, 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-52962-7 , therein p. 264 (Plötner's department P facility in the Defense Science Institute for Purpose Research), 386 (Plötner and Lochau camp), 481/482 (Plötner and Schlachters camp), p . 385–387, 482 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - 607 pages).
University of Freiburg
  • Silke Seemann: The political cleansing of the teaching staff of the Freiburg University after the end of the Second World War (1945–1957) . Denazification: Quickly back to office and dignity. In: Rombach Sciences, Series Historiae . tape 14 . Rombach Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, p. 386, 481–482, ( aerzteblatt.de [accessed on March 17, 2013] Book review by Ernst Klee in Deutsches Ärzteblatt 2003; 100 (26)).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e see web link Kurt Friedrich Plötner, doctor in the Dachau concentration camp and employee of Ahnenerbe eV
  2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1971, 91 , 305.
  3. ↑ according to some sources also Hauptsturmbannführer
  4. ↑ see the joint publication from that year noted in the German National Library
  5. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 465.
  6. ↑ see literature Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair: Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press
  7. ↑ a b see Lit Silke Seemann: The political cleansing of the teaching staff of the Freiburg University after the end of the Second World War (1945–1957).
  8. ↑ a b see literature Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: Der Ort des Terrors: History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps
  9. ↑ BArch Ludwigsburg, ZStL IV 410 AR 212/73.
  10. ↑ University Archives B 162/1022, quoted in Clover, Personenlexikon , S. 465th
  11. ↑ see Lit Rürup: Kampfstoffforschung im Nationalozialismus
personal data
SURNAME Plötner, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plötner, Kurt Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German concentration camp doctor
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Hermsdorf (Thuringia)
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1984