Otto Mezger

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Otto Mezger (born March 4, 1875 in Naislach ; † August 21, 1934 near Pfronten in the Allgäu ) was a German pharmacist, chemist and criminalist . He was the first scientist in the world who could use a pistol atlas to identify a handgun by means of the fired cartridge cases and associated projectiles.

Life

Teaching

As the son of a chief forester, he first learned the profession of pharmacist until he passed his apprenticeship exam. He then studied pharmacy from 1898 at the Technical University of Stuttgart . He continued his studies in chemistry and then went to the University of Tübingen . There he completed his studies and received his doctorate in 1902 at William Sexton Dr. rer. nat. on the subject of contributions to the knowledge of hematin . In the same year he took part in a prize assignment in the field of botany at the TH Stuttgart and won a gold medal.

Chemist and criminalist

In 1903 he went as an assistant to the municipal chemical laboratory in Stuttgart. In 1905 he took over the management of the food control department. In this activity he developed a method for the urban control of milk analysis, which he documented in 1913 with a further publication. In 1917 he became director of the city investigation office. He also carried out chemical investigations in the field of criminalistics for the Stuttgart Police Headquarters . When the state police were nationalized in 1923, Mezger was able to continue his work for the forensic institute of the Württemberg State Criminal Police Office in Stuttgart.

For his forensic investigations, he sometimes developed devices for securing evidence at crime scenes himself, with the support of his hunting friend, the industrialist Robert Bosch . These devices worked with such precision that his research and publications gained worldwide acclaim. From 1930 he taught food chemistry and forensic chemistry at the TH Stuttgart . In the same year he was appointed a member of the International Academy of Forensic Sciences .

Life's works

He received worldwide recognition for his work for a pistol atlas, with which it was possible to identify a handgun by the cases and projectiles fired. He presented these results for the first time in an article in the magazine Archiv für Kriminologie in Volume 89 under the title The determination of the pistol system from fired cases and projectiles . With this work he had strengthened his reputation as a criminologist so that he could appear as an expert before national and international courts. He published about a hundred papers on his work and research in various journals.

While on a hunting excursion in the Allgäu on August 21, 1934, he suffered a heart attack and died in the arms of his friend Robert Bosch .

Fonts (selection)

  • Contributions to the knowledge of hematin. About the reduction of hematic acids and an attempt to synthesize the partial anhydride of tribasic hematic acid , Würzburg 1902
  • For the qualitative detection of boric acid . in: Journal for the Study of Food and Beverage, Volume 10, pp. 243–245, Stuttgart 1905
  • Guidance on how to conduct effective milk control in urban and rural communities; A guideline for officials involved in carrying out the control , Stuttgart 1910
  • On the biological differentiation of protein types with special consideration of the investigation of food and traces of blood , in: Chemische Zeitung, Volume 34, 1910, pp. 346–347, 363–364, 371–373
  • On the development of food control in the various cultural states with special consideration of the conditions in Württemberg , Stuttgart 1913
  • The goals of the Central Office for Chemistry and Economics , in: Journal for Food Analysis and Research A, vol. 52, number 1–2 / July, 1926, pp. 40–41
  • The external labeling of food with Roland Schmiedel, Stuttgart 1928
  • Is the whole milk from two udder quarters to be regarded as whole milk? , with Julius Umbrecht, Kempten 1928
  • On the development of technical shooting examinations in the service of the judiciary , in: German journal for the whole judicial medicine, vol. 13, 1929, pp. 377–391
  • The determination of the pistol system from fired cases and projectiles, calibers 6.35, 7.65 and 9 mm Kurz , Berlin 1931

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaiber, Otto Mezger, in: Archive for Criminology, Volume 95, 1934, p. 169
  2. ^ Dietrich von Engelhardt, Biographische Enzyklopädie deutschsprachiger Naturwissenschaftler, Volume I, Munich 2003, p. 588
  3. ↑ Klaiber, Otto Mezger, in: Archive for Criminology, Volume 95, 1934, pp. 169–171
personal data
SURNAME Mezger, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist, chemist and forensic scientist
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Naislach
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1934
Place of death Black Forest near Pfronten