Siegwart-Horst Günther

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Memorial plaque , Am Heineberg 2, in Potsdam

Siegwart-Horst Günther (born February 24, 1925 in Halle ad Saale ; † January 16, 2015 in Husum ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism , tropical medicine and researcher on the disease caused by uranium ammunition .

Life

Siegwart-Horst Günther was a member of the resistance group around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp during the Nazi era .

Of interest are the circumstances under which, as a soldier on the Eastern Front, he finally broke with the National Socialist terror regime. He was aware of massacres from reports by other members of the Wehrmacht and, in one case, from his own experience. The rebuke that was heard over and over again, “Günther, you always shoot past!” Was impressed on his memory. It was not least this nightmare, which lasted until his death, that led him to join the resistance group. Siegwart-Horst Günther was the most important liaison between the Stauffenberg group and the resistance group around General von Choltitz in Paris. On the evening of July 20, 1944, after he had communicated the circumstances of the attack to his confidants in Paris by noon (he did not know the actual outcome at that time), he was in the Paris-Dormans area on the way back to Berlin. The car journey led through northern France and Belgium. During the journey he came across numerous controls by SS units, but they let him pass. When he arrived in Germany, he was arrested.

From 1945 to 1950 he studied human medicine in Jena , as well as philosophy and Egyptology. This was followed by training in tropical medicine in London and Liverpool . From 1963 to 1965 he worked in Lambaréné ( Gabon ) with Albert Schweitzer , his role model. Activities as a doctor in Egypt , Syria , Israel and Iraq followed . From 1990 to 1995 he taught and worked at the Baghdad University Hospital in Iraq, where he completed his habilitation and became a professor.

After the first Gulf War, Günther, as a doctor in Iraq, discovered symptoms that he had never observed there before; Among other things, he noticed an accumulation of leukemia and malformations in newborns. When he saw children outside of Basra playing with projectiles painted as dolls, and one of these children fell ill with leukemia and died a little later, he became suspicious. He began questioning the children and found out that the children with leukemia had played with ammunition or in wrecked tanks, and almost all the fathers of children with deformities similar to those after the Chernobyl disaster as soldiers in the tank battles to the south from Basra had participated. At the end of 1991 Günther began to write the first articles about his research, in which he suspected that the projectiles were radioactive.

In 1995 he collected some pieces of the uranium ammunition used by the USA in Iraq and had them brought to Berlin in a diplomatic suitcase. To prove that the projectiles are DU ammunition, he had it examined in three recognized laboratories in Berlin (Luise Meitner Institute, FU Clinic Berlin-Charlottenburg, Berlin Humboldt University). These three independent laboratories confirmed the radioactive danger of these projectiles. When this became known to the authorities, he was arrested. The reason given to him was "unauthorized possession of weapons and spreading of radioactive material". The sentence was later commuted to a fine of 3,000 DM, which he refused to pay. He was sent back to prison and was released five weeks later after going on a hunger strike and bailed him out.

Günther fell ill with cancer and attributes this to his professional contact with uranium. He was President of the Yellow Cross International and Vice President of the Albert Schweitzer World Academy of Medicine .

Gulf War Syndrome

He is considered the discoverer and first person to describe diseases that are attributed to the use of depleted uranium in DU ammunition (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Günther's disease ). These diseases began to appear in the early 1990s.

In the course of his work for an aid organization after the Second Gulf War, Günther examined children in Iraq from 1991 to 1995 who were suffering from a previously unknown disease. Günther assumed that it was the consequences of contact with depleted uranium. He was also of the opinion that the so-called Gulf War Syndrome was based on such poisoning.

Awards

Publications (selection)

  • Uranium projectiles: Severely damaged soldiers, deformed newborns, dying children. Ahriman, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2000, 2nd expanded edition, ISBN 3-89484-805-7 . (also available as download version)
  • With Gerald Götting : What does awe of life mean? Encounter with Albert Schweitzer. New Life Publishing House, August 2005, ISBN 3-355-01709-4 .
  • With Burchard Brentjes and Rainer Rupp : Before the third Gulf War. History of the region and its conflicts. Causes and consequences of the conflict in the Gulf. Edition Ost, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-932180-34-8 .
  • With Burchard Brentjes: The Kurds. An outline of the history and experience reports on the current humanitarian situation. Braumüller, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-7003-1351-9 .

literature

  • Antje Bultmann : “Nobody believes that anyway.” The restless life of Siegwart-Horst Günther. In: Günter Grass et al. (Ed.): In a rich country. Evidence of everyday suffering in society . 3. Edition. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-88243-841-X , pp. 252-262.

Movies

  • Frieder Wagner : The doctor and the contaminated children in Basra , Deadly Dust , films about Günther and YOU
  • House Usedom: Hossam Wahbeh , Germany 2005 , report of a trip to Dr. Siegwart-Horst Günther

Web links

Commons : Siegwart-Horst Günther  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 22nd, 2015: Peace activist Siegwart Günther has passed away
  2. ↑ Antje Bultmann: “Nobody believes that anyway.” The restless life of Siegwart-Horst Günther. In: Günter Grass et al. (Ed.): In a rich country. Evidence of everyday suffering in society . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2003
  3. ^ Matthias Rude: Creeping mass murders. Use of uranium weapons in the name of "Democracy", UZ, 3 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Persecuted as the discoverer of the Gulf War Syndrome
  5. ^ Online presence of the counter information office letter from Günther from the Kiel prison in 1995
  6. ↑ Online presence of Stichting Sociale Databank Nederland ( Memento of the original dated February 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biography of Siegwart Horst Günther @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sdnl.nl
  7. ↑ Online presence of thurnfilm documentary: The doctor and the irradiated children of Basra - uranium ammunition and the consequences
  8. ↑ Whistleblower network: "Civil courage in the risk society"
personal data
SURNAME Günther, Siegwart-Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and tropical medicine
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 2015
Place of death Husum