Rudolf Spanner

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Memorial plaque in Gdansk

Rudolf Maria Spanner (born April 17, 1895 in Metternich near Koblenz , † August 31, 1960 in Cologne ) was a German physician. On his initiative, soap was produced from concentration camp victims.

Life

Spanner was a field medical officer from 1914 to 1918 during the First World War . In 1919 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD . He then became an assistant at the Senckenberg Academy in Frankfurt am Main in 1919 and at the Anatomical Institute in Hamburg in 1921. In 1923 he was second and in 1927 first prosector at the Anatomical Institute in Kiel. In 1924 he completed his habilitation in anatomy , became a private lecturer and in 1929 a non-civil servant associate professor in Kiel. In 1938 he became a regular associate professor in Jena and in 1939 he moved to Cologne as a full professor. From 1939 to 1945 he was a full professor at the Medical Academy in Danzig. In 1942 he became a member of the Leopoldina . In 1946 he returned to Cologne as a visiting professor.

Spanner was a doctor at the Danzig Anatomical Institute during the Second World War . In the years 1943–1944 he developed a process for making soap from human bodies on his own initiative. According to witness statements at the Nuremberg trials, this was then made from the corpses of concentration camp prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp and the Danzig hospital. Up to 100 kg of soap are said to have been produced in this way. It is said to have been used for cleaning purposes within the autopsy rooms . Rumors about industrial soap production from humans, on the other hand, cannot be proven. However, such stories intimidated concentration camp inmates .

The topic has its oldest origins in anti-German propaganda in Great Britain from the time of the First World War . The British and American press in particular suspected that human fat, due to scarcity of resources, etc. a. was used for soap production in so-called carcass disposal plants .

From 1955 he was a professor in Cologne.

literature

  • Friedrich Volbehr and Richard Weyl: Professors and lecturers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 1665–1954 (= publications of the Schleswig-Holstein University Society . New series, Volume 7). 4th edition, Hirt, Kiel 1956.
  • Joachim Neander: The Danzig Soap Case: Facts and Legends around "Professor Spanner" and the Danzig Anatomic Institute 1944–1945 . In: German Studies Review 29 (2006), no. 1, pp. 63 - 86.
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Matthias Berlage: The anatomist Prof. Dr. Rudolf Spanner from 1939 to 1945 . Dissertation, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf 2016 ( pdf ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Rudolf Spanner
  2. ^ Soap made from human remains . In: Nizkor . Retrieved December 29, 2006.
  3. ↑ Zofia Nałkowska , Diana Kruprel (translator): Medallions (Jewish Lives) . Northwestern University Press, February 2000, ISBN 0-8101-1743-6 . The Soap Myth . In: Jewish Virtual Library . Retrieved December 13, 2006.
  4. ^ The Soap Allegations . In: Jewish Virtual Library . Retrieved December 13, 2006.
  5. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 589
personal data
SURNAME Spanner, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spanner, Rudolf Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician at the Danzig Anatomical Institute
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Metternich near Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1960
Place of death Cologne