SS Institute for Plant Genetics

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The SS Institute for Plant Genetics was a research facility in Austria during the Nazi era , housed in Lannach Castle near Graz .

history

Lannach Castle was awarded to the Research Association of German Ahnenerbe in July 1943 , after which the institute was founded by Heinz Brücher on November 1, 1943 . This was done on the orders of the Reichsführer SS , Heinrich Himmler . The Ahnenerbe was responsible for the scientific part of the institute, on the legal side it belonged to the German Research Institute for Nutrition and Catering (DVA) and was there under the name "Schloßgut Lannach". On June 24, 1944, it was decided in a meeting between Wolfram Sievers , Heinrich Vogel , Ernst Schäfer and Heinz Brücher that the institute should be expanded. Another resolution established three names for the institute; for scientific questions institute for plant genetics , for written specifications with legal obligation German Research Institute for Nutrition and Catering GmbH Hof Lannach and SS-Versuchsgut for correspondence within the SS . The institute was demonstrably in operation until February 1945, when Sievers gave the order to blow up the facility if the Allies got too close. The aim was to prevent the plant material from falling into the hands of the enemy. The order was ignored by Brücher. The castle was liberated by the Red Army on May 9, 1945 together with the institute .

Location and equipment

View of Lannach Castle from the south, postcard from 1910

The institute was located around 16 km from Graz and at an altitude of 337 m on the Koralpen Mountains . The test site extended over about 120  hectares , which were divided as follows: 63 hectares of forest, 37 hectares of arable land , 18 hectares of meadows, pastures and alpine pastures and 2 hectares of surrounding areas, parks, paths and farmland. The site was chosen because Brücher and the Ahnenerbe considered the climate in Styria (warm summer and long autumn) useful for growing plants at different altitudes. Some farm animals were also housed on the site, namely 43 cattle, 15 pigs and five horses.

In 1944, the DVA's balance sheet names a total of 52 employees at the institute and in the castle, divided between 23 civilians, 17  prisoners of war , nine concentration camp prisoners ( Jehovah's Witnesses ) and three members of the SS. Various new equipment was purchased to manage the research facility, including a tractor and various harvesting and processing machines.

Tasks and research operations

The institute was entrusted with one main task. It was intended to examine and cultivate the range of cultivated plants of the SS-Tibet expedition Schäfers (1938/39) and the range of cultivated and wild plants of the SS-collecting command in Russia (1943, see also the article by Hoßfeld and Thornström under literature ). In 1944 , grains ( barley and wheat ) originating from Tibet were grown in the high altitude areas belonging to the institute . A new breed was sought that should combine the positive properties of the Tibetan varieties (including a very short vegetation period) with those of the native varieties or varieties originating from Russia (including resistance to certain diseases ). This should serve to supply the population in the conquered areas . Heinz Brücher summarized this in a work report:

“The aim of breeding is to have an early- ripening , cold-resistant, hull-free mountain barley on the one hand, and a fast-growing mountain wheat on the other. This makes it possible to improve the grain cultivation of our mountain farmers, to extend the cultivation limits for wheat and barley to higher altitudes and to increase the self-sufficiency with feed and bread grain . "

- Heinz Brücher, work report

Another task of the institute was to grow an oil plant called “Lafi” . With this one wanted to ensure the supply of the German Reich with fat (see fat gap ). There were plans to use the oil obtained as an additive for aircraft engine oil.

In the autumn of 1943 there was the first sowing of plants of Russian origin. 202  winter wheat , 18  rye , 74 barley, 28  oats , 37 species of  aegilops , 12  Hordeum bulbosum , 33  lobelia and an unknown number of wild grasses were planted . The sowing in spring 1944 comprised 2,412 Tibetan barley, 197 Russian barley, 35 German barley, 407 Tibetan wheat, 66 Russian summer wheat , 32 German summer wheat, 82 Russian oats, 11 German oats and an unknown number of other Russian and German grains.

There were also various cultivated plants: 157  bean tendrils , 76  cucurbits , 126  maize plants , 42 millets, 40  peas , 14  sunflowers , 101  horse beans , 150  cruciferous plants and an unknown number of buckwheat , soy , camelina , rapeseed and tomatoes . In addition, there were several thousand crosses of plants (barley, wheat and oats), which were used to research genetic changes that were valuable for breeding purposes.

The second sowing of Tibetan barley began in mid-July 1944. 772 precocious plants were planted for the second time, of which the most precocious were harvested again in September. Tibetan wheat was also grown and its growth behavior was to be tested in 1945. In addition to the grain experiments, research was also carried out on the breeding changes in oil plants. For this purpose, a test field was created that was one hectare in size. In the course of these investigations, several plants were bred that had a particularly high oil content.

See also

literature

  • Uwe Hoßfeld ; Carl-Gustav Thornström: "Quick grab": Heinz Brücher and the botanical collection command of the SS to Russia in 1943 . In: Autarky and Eastern Expansion: Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research in National Socialism . Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-496-X , p. 119-144 .
  • Thomas Wieland: "The political tasks of German plant breeding": Nazi ideology and the research work of academic plant breeders . In: Autarky and Eastern Expansion: Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research in National Socialism . Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-496-X , p. 35-56 .
  • Michael H. Kater : The "Ahnenerbe" of the SS. 1935–1945. A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1974, p. 216 .
  • Bertrand Perz : Lannach Castle . In: The Place of Terror . tape 4 . Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-52964-1 , p. 420-422 .
  • Stefan Karner ; Heather Gsell; Philipp Lesiak: Lannach Castle 1938–1949 . Leykam Verlag, Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7011-0109-2 .
  • Klaus Taschwer: Research for the Führer . In: at.venture . No. 2 . LW Werbe- und Verlagsgesellschaft, St. Pölten December 2006, p. 46–47 ( PDF, 3.2 MB [accessed January 21, 2012]).
  • Stefan Karner; Heather Gsell; Philipp Lesiak: Lannach Castle 1938–1949 . Leykam Verlag, Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7011-0109-2 .
  • Alfred Seebacher-Mesaritsch : Lannach. Gateway to paradise . Ed .: Municipality of Lannach. Lannach 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael H. Kater : The "Ahnenerbe" of the SS. 1935–1945. A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1974, p. 216 .
  2. ↑ a b Uwe Hoßfeld ; Carl-Gustav Thornström: "Quick grab": Heinz Brücher and the botanical collection command of the SS to Russia in 1943 . In: Autarky and Eastern Expansion: Plant Breeding and Agricultural Research in National Socialism . Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-496-X , p. 131 .
  3. ↑ Karner: Lannach Castle 1938–1949, p. 81.
  4. ↑ a b Karner: Lannach Castle 1938–1949, p. 82.
  5. ^ Undated work report, BA Berlin, BDC, SS files Brücher, sheet 38.
  6. ↑ Stefan Karner; Heather Gsell; Philipp Lesiak: Lannach Castle 1938–1949 . Leykam Verlag, Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7011-0109-2 , p. 79 .
  7. ^ "Subject: Oil plants at the Institute for Plant Genetics in Lannach, undated", BA Berlin, NS / 19-773.
  8. ↑ a b Hoßfeld: "Rasches Zupacken", p. 133.

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 ′ 43.8 "  N , 15 ° 19 ′ 57.4"  E