Richard Helmer

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Richard Helmer (born December 14, 1939 - January 23, 2010 ) was a German anthropologist .

Richard Helmer received his doctorate in 1969 in Kiel with a thesis on the possibilities and methods of cell nucleus morphological gender recognition in body tissues and secretion traces. In 1981 his habilitation took place in Kiel, too, with an investigation into skull identification through electronic image mixing. In Kiel, Helmer was a senior physician and the deputy director of the clinic department for forensic medicine. In 1990 he accepted a professorship for experimental forensic medicine at the University of Bonn . Helmer retired at the end of August 2003.

Helmer was the leading expert in forensic facial reconstruction in Germany . Helmer developed 34 measuring points on the skull for facial reconstruction. This determines the possible thickness of the soft tissue layer of the face. The 34 identification points apply to all age groups and both genders. Using these soft tissue values, the orientation points along the contours of the skull can be connected with clay strips. The gaps between these strips are filled and the face is given its shape. Numerous crimes have been solved through his work.

In 1983 Helmer made a facial reconstruction from Windeby's bog body . He was in Brazil in 1985 and was able to prove that the missing Nazi doctor Josef Mengele is dead. With the help of the superimposition technique, Helmer was able to determine Mengele's skull by bringing older images of Mengele into congruence with the image of the skull to be identified. Helmer's results were confirmed in 1992 by a DNA analysis. Helmer recreated the head of the medieval ruler Henry IV . The head reconstruction was presented on the occasion of Heinrich's 900th anniversary of death in May 2006 in Speyer. Helmer died in January 2010. He is buried in the Eichhof park cemetery in Kiel.

Fonts

  • Possibilities and methods of cell nucleus morphological gender recognition on body tissues and secretion traces (= working methods of medical and scientific criminalistics. Vol. 9). Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1970. (At the same time: Kiel, University, dissertation, 1969).
  • Skull identification through electronic image blending. At the same time a contribution to constitutional biometrics and thickness measurement of the soft facial tissues (= Kriminalistik. Wissenschaft & Praxis. Vol. 16). Kriminalistik-Verlag, Heidelberg 1984, ISBN 3-7832-0883-1 (At the same time: Kiel, University, habilitation paper, 1981).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Richard Helmer: Identification of the remains of Josef Mengele. In Archiv für Kriminologie 177 (1986), pp. 129-144.
personal data
SURNAME Helmer, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anthropologist and forensic doctor
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1939
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 2010