Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124

The history of forensic medicine in times of the Weimar republic

and national socialisman approach
E. Lignitz
Institut fur Rechtsmedizin Kuhstr. 30, Universitat Greifswald, 17489 Greifswald, Germany

Available online 25 August 2004

Abstract

German Forensic Medicine established the tasks and aims of forensic medicine during the period of the Weimar Republic
(19191933). Since 1925, forensic medicine is part of the medical examination regulation. In times of the 3rd Reich (1933
1945), most of forensic pathologists were influenced by and involved in National Socialism. The special subject of forensic
medicine was endangered by the absence of political neutral forensic pathologists.
# 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The time frame of this paper is delimited by the dates of 9
November 1918 (November Revolution); 30 January 1933
(National Socialist seizure of power); and 8 May 1945
(capitulation/end of World War II in Europe). However,
the influence of National Socialist ideology was felt much
earlier in German society and also in forensic medicine, and
could be detected in peoples attitudes, such as the fact that
many important representatives of forensic medicine were
among the first to apply for membership in the National
Socialist organisations. From todays perspective, the transi-
tion from one historical period to the next seems to have been
smooth and, virtually, effortless.
Nevertheless, those brief 25 12 years correspond to one-
fourth of the time the German Society for Forensic Medicine
(and its predecessors under other names) yet existed. The
blow to forensic medicine was doubly felt, as it was dealt in
the construction phase.
After Kaiser Wilhelm IIs abdication, Philip Scheidemann
proclaimed the German Republic, shortly followed by
Karl Liebknecht and his proclamation of the Free Socialist
Republic of Germany. On 5 January 1919, the January
Uprising (Spartakusaufstand) took place, claiming 165
victims before it ended on 12 January. During the ensuing
purges, perpetrated by the Army of the Reich (Reichswehr)
and the Volunteer Corps (Freikorps), Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg were murdered on 15 January. Kurt Eisner
was shot on 12 February. On 13 March, the marine brigade
began a siege on the governments quarters in Berlin (Kapp-
Luttwitz-Coup) which lasted until 16 March. The National
Assembly was in session in Weimar from 2 February to 30
September 1919. The parliamentary-democratic constitution
was ratified on 31 July and signed by President (Reich-
sprasident) Ebert on 11 August. In the 14 years of the
Weimar Republics existence, there were 20 cabinet shuffles,
11 of them were minority cabinets. On 26 January 1921,
Matthias Erzberger Minister of Finance and Vice Chan-
cellor was killed. On 26 June 1922, Foreign Minister
Walther Rathenau was murdered. The beginning of the
worldwide economic crisis in October 1929 led to more
than 6 million people losing their jobs by February 1932.
The National Socialist movement was, primarily, set on
gaining absolute power, however, in the context of the Weimar
Republics party pluralism it was underestimated for a long
time. The NSDAP party programme was formulated and
presented as eternal and invariable as early as 1920. The
anti-semitic and racist elements were clearly expressed from
the very beginning. After the national rising of 8/9 Novem-
ber 1923 (Hitler-Ludendorff-Coup), the party was forbidden
until 1925. From then on the number of its members rose to 2.5
million, leading to a moratorium in new admissions in order to
keep out opportunists (!). Hitler assured the German public
that he would compete for power within the bounds of legality.
His party reaped but meagre results in the elections of 1928
(2.6%), but did better from then on: in 1930, it received 18.3%
of the votes; in July 1932, 37.3% and in November 1932 it
reached to 33.1%, remaining the strongest party in the Reich-
stag. Conservative coalition partners helped prepare Hitlers
rise to power, which ultimately occurred on 30 January 1933:
Hitler was proclaimed chancellor (Reichsuanzler) and the
National Socialists seized power, which, in fact, meant the end

0379-0738/$ see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.04.044
114 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
of the Weimar Republic. But, even in the last elections for the
Reichstag with other parties also competing for power, the
NSDAP only reached 43.9%. The development of the party
had taken place under the protection of the democratic
structures established by the Weimar Republic [1].
Some of the ideas inhumanely put into practice later on,
such as selection, eradication, eugenics and racial hygiene,
already circulated at the beginning of the 20th century. The
idea that life not worth living should be eliminated was
invented (for economic reasons) after the German defeat in
World War I. The sterilisation of psychiatric patients, who
allegedly were mentally and morally sick and inferior, found
supporters in the psychiatric profession long before Hitler
seized power [2].
Mallachs1 historical presentation of scientific forensic
medicine lists (independently of various forms of forensic
practice at those universities) a number of university depart-
ments of forensic medicine founded from 1919 onwards:
Greifswald and Jena in 1919, Bonn and Marburg in 1922,
Mu nster and Du sseldorf in 1925, Wu rzburg in 1926, Heidel-
berg and Frankfurt in 1927, Halle in 1928. These founda-
tions of university departments express the successful
development of a field that had needed to struggle for a
long time to be accepted as part of the German university
system. The excellent professional work and commitment of
forensic pathologists in solving the political murders, during
the Weimar Republic, may have helped to consolidate the
field in those times. The foundation of the German Society
for Forensic Medicine was, without doubt, also very helpful,
even though, two more decades were going to pass until
forensic medicine was firmly established as part of the
curriculum. The worldwide economic crisis interrupted this
continuous development. Before 1919, only very few uni-
versities had departments of forensic medicine: Berlin
(1886), Leipzig (1900), Go ttingen (1904), Ko nigsberg
(1905), Munich (1907), Erlangen (1912), and Breslau
(1908). In the Third Reich only 2 more departments were
founded, namely, Cologne (1936) and Hamburg (1942).
The Austrian departments in Vienna, Graz, and Innsbruck
are not taken into account here. The German Karls-Uni-
versity of Prague (founded in 1882), which counted a number
of leading experts von Maschka, Paltauf, Dittrich, Marx
among the directors of its forensic department, expanded
considerably by taking over the Czech department. As
Mallach wrote in 1996: It was Gu nther Weyrich2 who finally
was given the opportunity (on 10 November 1941) to take
over the Czech department and thus expand [3].
1
Hans Joachim Mallach (19242001); professor in Tu bingen
19691989: member of the NSDAP, SS Unterscharfu hrer (Bunde-
sarchv).
2 6
Gu nther Weyrich (18981998); professor and director at the
department of forensic medicine and criminology at the German
Karl-University, Prague (front university); professor in Freiburg,
19541966; member of the NSDAP, official of the NS Lecturers
Association; SS Obersturmfuhrer (cf. [6,7]).
The departments of forensic medicine at the Medical
Academy Danzig (since 1939, 1935 State Academy of
Applied Medicine, entitled to awarding doctoral and post-
doctoral academic degrees), Posen (from 1941 to 1945 with
Ponsold3 as its director), and the Reich University Straburg
NS Fight University (from 1941 onwards under von
Neureiter4) were not considered either.
Considering the number of questions that had to be taken
into account as well as the different backgrounds of the
fields representatives at the time, it should come as no
surprise that it took the first 30 years of the 20th century to
arrive at a definition regarding the tasks of scientific forensic
medicine [4]. As a result, forensic medicine became a
special medical field of its own and established itself as a
mediator between medicine and law.
However, every local representative of the field had to cope
with adversaries, like Vorkastner (18781931) in Greifswald
with the psychiatrist Forster. In (1928), Karl Bonhoeffer
(18681948) called the forensic specialist a second-hand
scientist, as far as his occupation as psychiatric expert witness
was concerned (and he was quite right) [5]. Expert witness
Mu ller-He,5 who represented the forensic-psychiatric
branch of forensic medicine, was controversial among psy-
chiatrists [6,7]. Pathologist Felix Marchand (18461928), of
Leipzig, had an ambivalent relationship with forensic med-
icine as an institution, although Kockel (18651934) himself
had a good reputation regarding his knowledge of pathology
and anatomy. Resistance against forensic medicine could
often be found in the neighbouring departments.
After the November Revolution, with its outbreaks of
violence and numerous victims, the expertise of forensic
medicine was required; and it mastered the challenge in
every respect. Eisenmenger [11] gives an account of the
political murders that took place after the Bavarian Soviet
Republic was proclaimed and Prime Minister Kurt Eisner
shot on 21 February 1919. Hermann Merkel,6 professor of
3
Albert Ponsold (19001983); 1933 member SA, NS Lecturers
Association, NS Medical Doctors Association, NS National
Welfare; military doctor with the NS Motor Vehicle Corps; judge
at the Court of Eugenic Health, 1936/1937; temporary director at
Halle; 1937 member NSDAP; 19411945 professor in Posen;
19481968 professor in Mu nster. According to his memoir Der
Strom war die Newa, he never was an NSDAP member this has
been disproved by Herber (cf. [4,610]).
4
Ferdinand Edler v. Neureiter (18931946); extraordinary
professor in Riga, 1922; 19371939 professor for criminal biology
at Berlin University; professor in Hamburg 19401941; member of
NSDAP and NS Medical Doctors Association.
5
Viktor Mu ller He (18831960); professor in Bonn and Berlin,
later in West Berlin; no NSDAP member (cf. [4,8,9]), Pannings
successor at the department of court-martial medicine at the
Military-Medical Academy.
Hermann Merkel (18731957); professor in Munich 1914
1945; 1945 removed from office on US occupation authority
orders, later rehabilitated (cf. [11]); judge at the Supreme Court of
Eugenics; member of NSDAP and SA; 1952 emeritus professor,
1953 rehabilitated (according to Eisenmenger).
 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
forensic medicine in Munich since 1914, performed the
autopsy on this and other victims of the revolutionary
upheavals. The surviving records and the sketches, that
Merkel himself made of Eisners gunshot wounds as part
of the autopsy record, are an example of forensic accuracy.
In a different case, connected with the killing of hostages at
the Luitpold Gymnasium, photographic evidence of a
womans (a countesss, moreover) gunshot wounds in the
throat were later on deliberately misinterpreted by the
National Socialists for propaganda purposes, who claimed
that the pictures showed an example of a typical Jewish
ritual slaughter performed with a knife. Eisenmenger
draws attention to the fact that forensic expert witnesses
could be treated with hostility or even be punished for their
correct diagnosis and evaluation, according to the political
situation; this would be repeated, as we shall see later.
The Berlin Section Archive [12] also has a list of the
victims of the revolutionary events (e.g., Dr. Karl Liebknecht
No. 162/19, shot; and Rosa Luxemburg No. 1480/19,
shot; January 1919). Fritz Strassmann gave an account of
these events under the heading Shot on the Run at the 13th
conference of the German Society for Forensic and Social
Medicine in Innsbruck in 1924. Along the same lines
as Eisenmenger, Geserick writes: The report about the
state of Karl Liebknechts body was elaborated with utmost
care.
Further bloody events kept the Berlin University Depart-
ment well occupied during the years 1919 and 1920, such as
the shooting of at least 28 unarmed Peoples Marine Division
sailors in Franzo sische Strae in Berlin, or the 42 victims
counted after a demonstration on 13 January 1920 had been
fired at with machine guns and hand grenades (22 of the
victims are listed in the Berlin section archive). The Ehrhardt
Brigade, who even that early wore the swastika on their steel
helmets and was very active during the times of the
Lu ttwitz-Kapp-Coup, also made unrestricted use of their
firearms. Gesericks report lists at least 62 victims.
In post-revolutionary times, the violence perpetrated by
conservative groups was also directed against individuals
who had fallen out of grace through their political commit-
ment. Thus, on 26 August 1921, politician Matthias Erz-
berger (member of the Zentrum Party) was first shot down
and then virtually executed by shots in the head. In the
summer of 1922, Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was
killed in his open car with a machine gun and hand grenade,
obviously, because of his efforts in favour of a balanced
policy towards the Eastern countries. Strassmann and
Fraenckel performed out the autopsy and reconstructed
the course of events according to the evidence provided
by the wounds. Violent excesses by leftist radical groups also
attracted attention for decades. On 9 August 1931, on the
Bu lowplatz in the centre of Berlin, two police officers Paul
Anlauf and Franz Lenck were killed during an attack close
to the KPD (German Communist Party) headquarters. The
autopsies, later, showed that they had been shot in the back.
One of the two perpetrators was Erich Mielke, who would
115
later become minister of state security in the German
Democratic Republic; he was able to flee after the deed
and only received a 6-year prison sentence in 1993 [13].
The position of the field was consolidated in the 1920s, in
the sense that the examination regulations for medical
doctors included forensic medicine (on 25 July 1924) among
the examination requirements. Forensic medicine became
examination subject number 14; the exam was to be an oral
one, held on one day and with one examiner only. Candidates
were required to show that they commanded knowledge of
the most important issues in forensic medicine as a practi-
tioner might need them, and that they knew the rules of
acting as forensic expert witnesses as well as some aspects of
medical law. According to the former examination regula-
tions, only the relationship between forensic medicine and
other branches had to be taken into account. The strongest
resistance against the admission of forensic medicine, as
an examination subject, came from the medical departments.
When the examination regulations were changed, in
Germany, only 16 universities had special departments of
forensic medicine [4].
The leading department of the field was the one at Berlin
University. In the years between World War I and Hitlers
seizure of power it released a lot of publications, mainly
written by Fritz Strassmann (18581940), his son Georg
Strassmann (18901973), and later on Paul Fraenckel
(18741941) and Waldemar Weimann (18931965) as well
as a few others (Rose). This is an expression of the fact that
the field had attained a more secure position and no longer
needed to affirm itself every day.
From being an exotic field unworthy of serious attention
and with severe difficulties in distinguishing itself from
neighbouring branches, forensic medicine had managed to
evolve into a subject with an unquestionable right to exist; it
taught obligatory courses for students of law and medicine
alike, was part of the requirements for a university degree in
medicine, and combined scientists and methods from differ-
ent fields. Especially, the insight that scientific proof can only
be attained through scientific working methods led to forensic
medicine and its expertise being planted on firm ground and
contributing to the solution of all kinds of problems in court.
It soon became clear, as well, that considering the range
of scientific methods and the scope of problems forensic
medicine has to deal with, different kinds of training would
be required (cf. [14]). Retrospectively, Walter Krautland
(19121988) wrote in 1971: Kockel,7 Lochte,8 Zangger,9
Nippe,10 and Vorkastner had spoken in favour of including
7
Richard Kockel (18651934); professor in Leipzig, 18971934.
8
Theodor Lochte (18641953); professor in Go ttingen, 1906
1934.
9
Heinrich Zangger (18741957); professor in Zurich, 1905
1941.
10
Martin Nippe (18831940); professor in Erlangen 19141919,
Greifswald 19191922, Ko nigsberg 19231940; member of NSDAP,
NS Medical Doctors Association, NS Teachers Association.
116 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
criminology in an expanded sense. But development has
shown that the occupation with scientific criminology, out-
side the field of biology, has led to transgressions which have,
rather, done damage to the field of forensic medicine. This
may be true in a retrospective sense; but for a prospering
subject of the 1920s and 1930s, it would have meant coming
close to self-amputation, as some cautious remarks by Strass-
mann show. Furthermore, today it is quite clear that hardly
any institution would be willing to do without the participa-
tion of, at least, chemists and biologists.
After the NSDAP was re-established in 1925, National
Socialist thought infiltrated the entire German society.
Katers social history [15] gives an account of the ethical
corruption of the entire medical profession; he points out that
only few doctors resisted the politicisation and ideologisa-
tion of medical science and research. However, only a small
number participated in medical experiments with human
beings or even killings. Mitscherlich and Mielke [16]
describe in detail all the crimes perpetrated by the medical
profession that formed the basis for the sentences pro-
nounced by the First American Military Tribunal on 20
August 1947. There are some excellent descriptions of
forensic medicine under National Socialism [4,8,9] which
also take into account the political and social conditions
which had reigned before. Mallach [3], on the other hand,
does not mention the specific problems of those times and
decided to smoothen or ignore the political references.
Rolf Hey, professor in Greifswald, and, later on, in
Frankfurt on the main, is a good example of the excesses
of National Socialist ideologisation. His son, Richard Hey,
describes him as a convinced National Socialist: At least he
was one in Greifswald, where he became professor in 1928
after having served as a senior doctor in Bonn for years, and
he remained one in Frankfurt, where he accepted a professor-
ship in 1934 [. . .] After the November Pogrom in 1938, he no
longer wore the party badge on the lapel of his grey suit [. . .]
At about that time my father received the visit of a friend of
his. His best [. . .] and maybe only friend. My father was
friendly with some of his colleagues, but some, because of
his party membership, considered him a traitor to humanistic
ideals, especially in Greifswald. This was less strongly felt in
Frankfurt, as more and more professors joined the party [. . .]
Well, so there was professor Riesser11 sitting in our living-
room, a pharmacologist whom the Nazis had chased from
Leipzig University because he was a Jew [. . .] He needed a
friends help and advice [. . .] Only many years after my
father had died, my mother was able to tell me what Riesser
had to take from his friend on that afternoon. In times like
ours, my father allegedly said, when Germanys renewal was
at stake, the great task could not be left to the man on the
street. The intellectuals were also and especially faced
with the challenge of making clear and bold decisions. And,
11
Otto Riesser, professor of pharmacology at Greifswald
University 19211928, later Breslau, emigrated to Holland,
survived the Holocaust, died 1949 (cf. [20]).
however, much it hurt him, he would not flinch from that
necessary decision. In the future, it would be impossible for
him to consider a Jew his friend. My mother was appalled
and tried to make him change his mind. But my father
maintained his decision. And the good wife obeyed [. . .].
A number of quite simple laws asserted the NSDAPs
claim to power and put into practice their programme:
First, the Enabling Act (Erma chtigungsgesetz) of 24
March 1933 introduced the dictatorial measures that would
soon follow.
The Law for the Reinstitution of Professional Civil
Service, 7 April 1933, openly aimed at chasing officials
of Jewish descent from their posts and also posed a threat to
communists. This led to a loss of mental capital and to an
exodus of the elite in the medical profession, causing a
lasting damage for German medical science. It does not
come as a surprise that in that hectic phase the 22nd
conference of the German Society for Forensic Medicine,
scheduled for 1933, was cancelled on short notice. Soon,
new names for the Societys presidency were mentioned,
men who had close ties with, or were part of, the National
Socialist system: Herwart Fischer12 and Friedrich Pie-
trusky13, who became chairman in 1934. Both, eventually,
became vice chancellors at their respective universities.
Meanwhile, the Society drafted new statutes. All mem-
bers, absolutely, had to be Arian. At once, National Socialist
issues, such as National Socialist criminal law [17,18] and
the castration of dangerous habitual criminals [19], became
the most important contributions to the 1934 conference in
Hanover. Mueller writes: The Prussian memorandum calls
for the elimination of life not worth living. I believe that
from a national and medical point of view this suggestion
need not be questioned.
In 1935, Mueller14 [17] becomes president, with Buhtz
and Schrader as vice presidents. In terms of ideology, there is
no doubt about their loyalties [21].
12
Herwart Fischer (18851937); 1931 professor in Wu rzburg;
NSDAP member 1 September 1930; regional chairman of the NS
Medical Doctors Association; Vice Chancellor at Wu rzburg
University; Chairman of the National Association of German
Universities.
13
Friedrich Pietrusky (18931973); 1927 professor in Halle;
1930 professor in Bonn; 193335 Vice Chancellor at Bonn
University; 1942 professor in Heidelberg, 1945 dismissed, no
further employment in higher education. 1937 retrospectively
admitted as NSDAP member, with membership officially starting at
1 May 1933. He was said to be the most unpleasant of the National
Socialists at Bonn.
14
Berthold Mueller (18981976); 1934 professor in Go ttingen;
1937 professor in Heidelberg; 1941 professor in Ko nigsberg; 1945
(nominally) professor in Breslau; NSDAP 1 May 1933, before
member of DVP (German Peoples Party) and German-National
Freedom Party; textbook author; repeatedly chairman of the
German Society for Forensic and Social Medicine; after WW II,
one of the leading forensics in the second third of the 20th century
[4,8,9].
 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
At the opening session of the conference, Mueller [22]
said (among other things): We feel specially honoured to be
able to welcome a representative of the party [. . .] Further-
more: We have gathered in a university town of the German
East. From here, the first national impulse towards the
liberation of our German Fatherland, in times of its deepest
humiliation, started. Today, too, the town and university of
Breslau guard the Eastern frontier of Germany, conscious
that the German people, unified by National Socialism, have
a deep understanding for the important and difficult pro-
blems of the East [. . .] As with every other collective effort,
today, we want to honour the man who united the German
people into one entity, overcoming differences, party affilia-
tions and hatred. We are conscious that we have to account to
him and the German people for our scientific work.
In 1938, Buhtz was appointed president. In the preface to
the 14th volume of the Contributions to Forensic Medicine,
Fritz Reuter15 addresses his readers with the words Heil
Hitler! (and is dismissed in 1938 without a pension!). In
1939, the return of the old Austrian East German Mark into
the great German Fatherland, united under National Socialist
ideology, is enthusiastically announced. Arthur Gu tt,16 head
of the department at the Ministry of the Interior, talks about
the Reform of the medico-legal service in Germany.
Herber [4] points out how the address pronounced by
President Buhtz is rich in formulae, which clearly prove
the fascist orientation present in the entire presidency:
Never before it became as clear as in this conference to
what extent the field was in the clutch of the executing
organs of German tyranny.
In 1940, Roland Freisler, president of the Peoples Court
who would later be responsible for the liquidation of the
leaders of the German resistance, is welcomed at the war
conference with obsequious eulogies. Somebody pro-
nounces: In him, I welcome a friend of forensic medicine,
whose presence at the conference pleases us in a very special
way, and the following sentence is also heard: With
feelings of comradeship, I would like to welcome the
representatives of the German criminal investigation depart-
ment, the SS and the SD. . ..
The law concerning the standardisation of the public
health service, 3 July 1934, led to the establishment of
advice centres for the preservation of genetic inheritance
and race. It contained negative aspects regarding the reform
of forensic responsibilities.
Gu tts paper and the law established the following: the
public health department is responsible for all forensic
medical activity. In terms of the law, forensic pathologists
are: the medical officer, his substitute or an appointed doctor;
university professors may be appointed as part-time forensic
15
Fritz Reuter (18751959); professor in Graz ,19191935, and
Vienna, 193538 and 194546.
16
Arthur Gu tt (18911949); NSDAP 1932, head of the
department of national health at the ministry of the interior; SS
Obersturmfu hrer, SS Brigadefu hrer (cf. [6,7]).
117
pathologists; the choice of a forensic expert witness rests
with the court.
The law for the prevention of genetically defective off-
spring, 14 July 1933, permitted sterilisation without the con-
sent of the affected person. It met with little resistance. The
courts for eugenics, whose sessions took place behind closed
doors, was staffed with one state-appointed doctor and one
doctor registered and licensed in the German Reich; soon
forensic doctors joined them. Expert witnesses were not
required to heed the hitherto mandatory professional secrecy
(7.2). Very quickly exhaustive literature (by Gu tt et al. [21])
was published regarding topics like the regulations for abor-
tions and sterilisations for reasons of health. The Marriage
Health Law, 18 October 1935, is closely related to the Nur-
emberg Laws, 15 September 1934. Gu tt writes (in 1939): For
the first time in German legislation, the doctor is perceived not
only as an advisor, but as a decisive factor, and is together
with the judge employed as an executive of the national will,
in this significant field that is human life [22].
The police decree obliging the Jews, to make themselves
recognisable, 1 September 1941, led Paul Fraenckel (who
had refused to believe this could happen) to taking his own
life on 10 September 1941.
The Nuremberg Laws: Reich Citizen Law, 15 September
1941 (2.1) a citizen is defined as a person of German (or
related) blood who shows through his behaviour that he is
willing to serve the German people and Reich loyally.
Further specifications regulate, on this basis, the licen-
sing of Jewish doctors and lawyers. The law for the protec-
tion of German blood and honour, 15 September 1941, states
that the purity of German blood will be the prerequisite
for the continued existence of the German people and that
therefore marriage and ex-marital relations between Jews
and citizens of German or related blood will be forbidden.
Gerhard Baader [23] and Myriam Spo rri [24] recently
contributed in detail to the issues of Blood-group Research
in National Socialism and Race and Blood.
Euthanasia in Germany was based on the Fu hrers deci-
sion to authorise Karl Brandt17 and Philipp Bouhler18 to kill
children with severe mental disabilities as an act of mercy,
without having to consult any further with him. The Reich
committee for the scientific registration of hereditary and
genetic diseases was founded; every disabled or deformed
new-born had to be recorded. After that, the systematic
killings of mentally or chronically ill people in nursing
and mental homes began (T-4-Aktion); their alleged causes
of death were all invented.
17
Karl Brandt (19041948, executed); highest-ranking NS
doctor; SS Obergruppensfu hrer and lieutenant general of the
armed SS; Hitlers doctor; authorised to carry out euthanasia; death
sentence pronounced in the Nuremberg process against doctors.
18
Philipp Bouhler (18991945, suicide); NSDAP, member no.
12; 1925 Reich executive; 1933 SS, since 1934 head of the Fu hrers
office, since 1939 responsible for the mass murder of disabled
persons (cf. [6,7]).
118 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
Since 1937, the Societys official name was German
Society for Forensic and Social Medicine and Criminol-
ogy, later it became the German Society for Forensic
Medicine and Criminology. The departments were uni-
formly referred to as Department of Forensic Medicine and
Criminology (a denomination which the GDR would keep
for quite a while!). With the beginning of 1938, Buhtz
became president. In spite of his party loyalty there
had been some controversy regarding the tasks of the
Forensic Science Institute because Buhtz, rather, understood
himself as a forensic criminologist [4], which led to him
disagreeing with the perception of the tasks assigned to other
university departments and the department of health as
prescribed by the law. Among other things, he was opposed
to the participation of Eduard Schu tt,19 as a representative of
the Ministry of the Interior, in the Societys presidency.
Buhtz was dismissed from office and succeeded by first
Mueller and then Schrader.
As in the Weimar Republic, in National Socialist times
political murders occurred. During the so-called Bloody
Week of Ko penick, beginning on 21 June 1933, 91 people
were killed, among them was Johann Stelling (SPD, member
of the Reichstag). Communist actor Hans Otto died on 24
November 1933 after mistreatment, camouflaged as a fall
from a window. John Scheer, one of Tha lmanns companions,
was shot while attempting to escape; his body was found
in February 1934 in a Potsdam forest. On 30 June 1934, the
entire leadership of the SA were executed in the so-called
Ro hm Coup. In this context, around 200 persons were killed
in what became known as the night of the long knives; the
victims included members of the opposition as well as
old hands like Gregor Strasser, Dr. Erich Klausener
(Chairman of Catholic Action), Herbert v. Bose (assistant
to Vice Chancellor Franz v. Papen), Dr. Edgar Jung (von
Papens speechwriter) and general Kurt Schleicher (former
Reichsuanzler for the opposition). Ro hm and some other SA
leaders were shot on the Fu hrers orders at Munich-
Stadelheim on 1 July 1934. The bodies were not transferred
to the forensic department of Munich University, in spite of
its geographical proximity.
On the other hand, there are examples for camouflaged
killings being discovered and investigated through forensic
examinations, e.g. three cases from Dachau concentration
camp, in the examination of which Dr. Berthold Mueller
participated. One long distance shot (L.H., autopsy in
Dachau 17 May 1933) was discovered to have been a shot
fired from a very close distance; a suicide through hang-
ing (L.Sch., male, 52 years, autopsy at Dachau 17 May
1933) was disclosed to have died of massive violence with
fat tissue embolism; a suicide with cut veins (S.N., male,
autopsy on Dachau cemetery 29 May 1933) turned out to
19
Eduard Schu tt (18751948); race hygienist, 1930 first Prussian
medical official to join the NSDAP; 1937 director of the
department for the protection of heritage and race at the Reich
health department; judge at the Supreme Court of Eugenics.
have suffocated (by strangling); bleeding to death was
excluded even though the wrists were cut to the bone (!);
the wrists showed no further tentative cuts. These cases even
led to a conversation between the state prosecution and the
Chief Constable of Munich, Heinrich Himmler, and to
further investigations (personal conversation with Eisen-
menger). As late as 1942, when the persecution of Jews
had reached its peak, the discovery of body parts pertaining
to two women was investigated in all criminological detail,
declared to have been a double murder of two Jewish
women, mother and daughter; the murderer was arrested
and executed [13].
In spite of the numerous examples of obsequious obedi-
ence and willing submission of German forensic doctors to
the NS system, in spite of their systematic efforts to deliver
scientific justifications for National Socialist laws and their
dissemination as doctrine, and in spite of their involvement,
their work still retained its medical-scientific character. This
becomes evident in the forensic examinations and records as
well as in the forensic passages of the official final reports on
the examination of mass graves found in Katyn and Winniza
during German occupation.
When the war started and Poland was attacked by
Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time, Polish
units had fallen into the hands of the Russians. A great
part of the Polish military elite was killed near Smolensk
in 1940, their mass graves were found close to Katyn in
1943 by the German army. This led to the forensic
examination of the victims of a crime against the law
of nations that would remain a topic of political contro-
versy, and would be presented from opposing angles in
parts of Germany and the world, until the 1990s. In the
end it was proven that the Polish officers were executed in
Katyn by Soviet secret service agents. But until the 1990s,
the truth remained a matter of tensions and arguments in
the highest circles of the Soviet party and government
[25]. The events that had taken place at Katyn had already
been mentioned during the Nuremberg processes, but they
were not considered a point of issue and were, eventually,
dropped.
Excavations in Katyn started on 29 March, ordered by the
High Army Command. The team of specialists in forensic
medicine20 worked under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Gerhard
Buhtz; other members were Dr. Siegfried Mu ller, Dr. Theo-
dor Schmidt and Dr. Jobst Waechter (a senior doctor named
Dr. Huber, whose name appears on an autopsy report body
no. 0833 that was published as an example, is not listed as a
member of Buhtz team). Furthermore, the team included
the court-appointed chemists Dr. Walter Specht21 and
20
They all were temporarily employed by the institute for
military forensic medicine.
21
Walter Specht (19071977); SS Hauptsturmfu hrer, NSDAP
member; 1938 assistant with Buhtz in Breslau, 1944 professor of
scientific criminology in Breslau, after 1945 post at the Bavarian
state department for criminal investigation.
 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
Dr. Rudolf Themlitz, the Polish forensic doctor Dr. Wod-
zinsky (who belonged to the Krakow Institute led by Werner
Beck22), the lab technicians Kurt Merzbach, Friedrich Neels
and Alfred Schubert, the photo lab technicians Heinz
Robach and Bruno Zachlod, clerk Adolf Hengstbach,
and Mrs. Asta Rosenbach. During the exhumation of mass
graves in three different places a total of 4,143 bodies were
found (in well-fitting Polish uniform parts, mostly winter
garments) of which 2,815 could be identified. All the men
had been shot from point-blank range. The cartridge cases
found close by all bore the signs GECO DD 7.65 A large
number of bodies had their hands tied at the back; some had
obviously been stabbed with a bayonet. Taking into account
the characteristics of the soil, botanical examinations, gen-
eral investigation results and the evaluation of written
testimony such as notes or newspaper fragments, the state
the exhumed bodies were in corresponded to the hypothesis
that they had been dead for 3 years.
The results of the Special Command Buhtz were
confirmed by an international commission of 12 medical
doctors (among them eight specialists in forensic medicine,
including the Bulgarian Markov and one commission mem-
ber from neutral Switzerland) in April 1943, taking into
account 982 exhumed bodies. The commission performed an
autopsy on nine corpses and conducted some further exam-
inations.
In a secret report addressed to the Director of the Security
Police and S.D. Dr. Kaltenbrunner, the hints to the well-
fitting Polish uniform parts and to the use of German
GECO shot calibre 7.65 were qualified as Buhtz political
blunders ([9], pp. 387389), since they obviously contra-
dicted German propaganda intentions. The report also
quotes professor Buhtz scientific interest in taking part
in executions performed by the security police.
Until the day, the report written by Buhtz can be read as an
objective forensic expert witness report. Only the amend-
ments to the text added in the version released as official
material include some propagandistic elements. Already
much earlier and without any evidence the number of
victims had been rumoured to have been 10,000.
After the Smolensk region had been re-conquered by the
Red Army, the exhumations were repeated by Soviet experts
and led to the politically desired results, proving German
responsibility.
Raszeja and Chro scielewski [26] also provided an assess-
ment of the Katyn events, including the political history of
the non-aggression pact signed by von Ribbentrop and
Molotow in the night of 23 August.
In his text, Herber [8,9] made no clear statement regard-
ing original responsibility; he corrected himself in 2002,
22
Werner Beck (19101989); assistant with Buhtz in Breslau,
from 1940 director of the department of forensic medicine in
Krakow; accused of excessive violence towards Polish personnel, a
warrant was issued after the war; after 1945, director of a
laboratory investigating blood alcohol, in Aachen (cf. [6,7]).
119
claiming that in 1989 there had still been some unclear
points regarding the issue. In the zone of Soviet influence,
undoubtedly, it would have been difficult to state what had
become evident as historical truth. However, there cannot be
any further doubt that the Soviet secret service had acted on
orders of the Soviet leadership under Stalin (Central Com-
mittee resolution 5 March 1940, cf. Kerner); and this was
already quite clear in 1989.
At the Department of Forensic Medicine at Humboldt
University under Otto Prokop, of which the author of this
paper became a member in 1971, there were no doubts
regarding this issue at that time. Prokop used to tell us how
the Bulgarian forensic doctor Markov had told him, crying,
that he was threatened to a point where he had to revoke his
signature under the statement issued by the so-called inter-
national commission (which, however, was made up almost
exclusively by members of states under NS rule).
Stefan Karner [27] gave an exhaustive report on The
Treatment of Truth. According to him, witnesses who did
not reproduce the Soviet version where silenced, removed
from public life or killed. Markovs inconsequent beha-
viour is, therefore, easy to explain.
In the winter of 19421943, a German Army unit received
hints from the Ukrainian civil population regarding mass
graves in the suburb of Winniza on former NKDW (Soviet
secret service) grounds. The first bodies were retrieved on 25
May 1943 and examined by the Russian specialist in forensic
medicine, professor Dr. Malinin, and his Ukrainian collea-
gue Dr. Doroschenko (n 228). On 15 June 1943, Dr.
Gerhard Schrader,23 professor at Halle university, was
ordered by Reich Health Director Dr. Conti to take charge
of the proceedings. The team included forensic doctors Dr.
Joachim Cramer and Dr. Volland, the assistants Weinga rtner
and Wu ffel (according to Herber: Wu rfel) and lab technician
Karl Lentsch in Halle. Malinin and Doroschenko stayed with
the group. At three sites (IIII), an orchard (I 41 graves,
three of them filled with shoes, clothes and documents only),
an old cemetery (II 40 graves) and an old park (III 13
graves), all mass graves found were emptied completely. A
total of 9432 bodies were found, 169 of them female; 49 of
those, mostly younger women, were entirely naked. 679
bodies could be identified by the civil population who
recognised their clothes (just like 50 years later in the
23
Gerhard Schrader (19001949); 1934 professor in Marburg;
1937 professor in Halle; NSDAP member since 1 May 1933, SA,
NSKK, member of Erbgesundheitsgericht Halle; 1942 presidency
of German Society for Forensic Medicine and Criminology.
According to Eberle [10], instead of clarification, a clear political
result was expected at Winniza. In his presentation of the results,
Schrader concentrated on the most horrible cases: people who had
been buried alive, torture victims, women who had been raped and
then strangled [. . .] The official material put together from
Schraders report and the police investigation ultimately was a
piece of propaganda disguised as science [. . .]. Quite rightly,
Eberle contrasts this with the monstrous numbers of victims of
German extermination actions.
120 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
Kosovo). The victims belonged to the Ukrainian civil popu-
lation (mostly country people) and were mostly middle-
aged. The majority had been shot in the back of the neck
from a very short distance, with two gunshot wounds pre-
dominating (n 6360), although sometimes there were
three (n 78) or four (n 2). Moreover, in many cases
the skull was fractured or crushed (n 395), in all cases, due
to one dull blow perpetrated with considerable force. In
some cases there were reliable hints that the victims had still
been alive when the earth covered them. As ammunition,
uncoated lead shot, calibre 5.6 mm, had been used, which
explains why shots were repeated (low penetration); in most
cases the bullets were lodged in the body and according to
the report had been fired from handguns. The executions
obviously had taken place at a different site. Virtually, all
male victims had their hands tied on their backs. On young
men, additional shackles could be found. Taking into
account the evidence the enormous compression of the
bodies, the characteristics of soil and climate, and the
testimony of witnesses the bodies had been in the earth
graves for 5 to 6 years before they were exhumed, which
means that the killings must have taken place between
1937 and 1938. This is consistent with the arrests reported
for the time between October 1937 and May 1938 and,
retrospectively, fits in very well with the purges of the
Stalin Era.
When Schrader wrote his final report, he was aware of
Buhtz report about the exhumations of mass graves in
Katyn; he followed its diction, but left out propagandistic
elements. Only the part of the report that deals with the
criminal investigation, signed by senior civil servant and
investigation official Cla and written by a commission
instituted by SS Obergruppenfu hrer and Director of the
security police, Dr. Kaltenbrunner, subtly hints at the facts
of the propagandistic value, namely, the number of Jews
among the NKWD members responsible for the mass mur-
ders. There are also allegations to the rape of women,
unproven by forensic evidence.
An international commission of foreign forensic doctors
went to Winniza and participated in the examinations from
13 to 15 July 1943. Members of the commission were Dr.
Soenen (anatomy, Belgium), Dr. Michailov (forensic med-
icine, Bulgaria), Dr. Pesonen (anatomy, Finland), Dr. Duvoir
(forensic medicine, France), Dr. Cazzaniga (forensic med-
icine, Italy), Dr. Jurak (anatomy, Croatia), Dr. ter Poorter
(pathology, Netherlands), Dr. Birkle (forensic medicine,
Romania), Dr. Ha ggquist (anatomy, Sweden), Dr. Krsek
(forensic medicine, Slovakia), and Dr. Orsos (forensic med-
icine, Hungary). In the presence of Dr. Wagner, Director of
the health department in the occupied Eastern territories, and
professor Dr. Schrader, leader of the exhumations and pre-
sident of the German Society for Forensic Medicine and
Criminology, they performed 11 autopsies and 24 forensic
examinations and, basically, confirmed Schraders state-
ments. With the exception of age (which Schrader identified
as middle age and the commission as older age), the (cf. [6,7]).
reports show no differences. Herber [4] mentions that
between 24 July and 25 August 1943, 14 commissions,
among them 6 foreign ones, were taken to the mass graves
of Winniza. From 27 July to 29 July, twelve further
professors and assistant professors of forensic medicine
namely, Fo rster (Marburg), Hallermann (Kiel), Haus-
brandt24 (Ko nigsberg; he substituted B. Mueller), Jungmi-
chel25 (Go ttingen), von Neureiter26 (Straburg), Panning
(Bonn), Raestrup (Leipzig), Schneider27 (Wien), Timm
(Jena), Walcher28 (Wu rzburg), Weyrich (Prague), and
Wiethold29 (Frankfurt) also performed forensic autopsies
and examinations on 78 bodies, confirmed Schraders
results, and handed over their report to Reich health
director Conti in Berlin. The report was also signed by
Schrader and Dr. Waegner. Even though the events at
Winniza, unlike Katyn, did not have lasting consequences
on the search for truth, the later persecution of two forensic
doctors Raestrup30 and Timm,31 who held chairs in
Leipzig and Jena, respectively, were arrested by Soviet
occupation forces and imprisoned for several years is a
belated confirmation that the investigations performed at
Winniza were accurate.
24
Fritz Hausbrandt (19062003); post-doctoral thesis in Ko nigs-
berg; substitute professor in Straburg, last forensic doctor to leave
Ko nigsberg.
25
Gottfried Jungmichel (19021981); SA, 1937 NSDAP; NS
Doctors Association; NS Lecturers Association; NS National
Welfare; professor in Go ttingen 19381945, removed from office;
19561966 mayor of Go ttingen; 1958 professor of insurance
medicine; 19671977 mayor of Go ttingen, honorary citizen of
Go ttingen. Important work 1933: determination of blood alcohol
levels.
26
Ferdinand Edler von Neureiter (18931946); extraordinary
professor in Riga; senior civil servant in Reich health department;
1940 professor in Hamburg; 1941 professor at Reich University
Straburg.
27
Philipp Schneider (18961954); 1937 professor in Go ttingen;
1938 professor in Wien; NSDAP 1938 (1931), SS Obersturmfu hrer.
28
Kurt Walcher (18911973); 1933 NSDAP, NSDDB; 1932
professor and dean in Halle;1936 professor in Wu rzburg; 1945
removed from office on orders of US occupation forces, no further
employment in universities, Bavarian district court doctor (excerpts
from Herber).
29
Ferdinand Wiethold (18931961); professor in Kiel 1935;
professor in Frankfurt 1941; 1945 dismissed from office (reasons
unclear), named professor 1958 (cf. [4,8,9]).
30
Gottfried Raestrup (18891955); extraordinary professor at
Frankfurt University; from 1934 until his arrest in late 1946
professor at Leipzig University, 3 years in prison; could not occupy
a chair in Go ttingen for this reason, was later named professor
there; no NSDAP member (cf. [4]).
31
Friedrich Timm (18951985); NSDAP, NS Doctors Associa-
tion, NS Teachers Association, NS Lecturers Association; 1938
professor in Jena; 1947 sentenced to 10 years prison by Soviet
court martial, released in 1955, director of department of
histochemistry at the medical research centre of the Max-Planck-
Gesellschaft Go ttingen, 1958 honorary professor at Go ttingen
 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
As early as 1939, the forensic doctors Hallermann32 and
Panning33 had been appointed to investigate Polish atro-
cities. Hallermann examined 51 bodies and inspected 53 in
the Warthegau region (which comprised the districts of
Posen, Hohensalza and Litzmannstadt). Between September
and December 1939, Panning performed 133 autopsies and
11 inspections of bodies that were ascribed to the Brom-
berg Bloody Sunday. In a joint statement, dated 20 Novem-
ber 1939, they summed up the results reached at this point
[. . .] regarding the investigation into political murders in the
region of Posen and Bromberg. They referred to their
results as an arbitrary, small-scale sample. Where Buhtz
and Schrader used objective expressions, Hallermann and
Pannings report is tendentious and contains propagandistic
elements: Of course, the results of the autopsies only
showed a minimum of the violence each individual victim
suffered at the hand of their murderers. Or: The most
important result of the forensic examinations is not the
inhumane physical and psychological violence that can be
deduced; the fact that the vast majority of the cases examined
were without any doubt perpetrated with army weapons is
rather more significant [. . .]. The supreme weapon used in
the attempt to eradicate the German people in Poland and,
especially, on the Bromberg Bloody Sunday was, therefore,
the Polish army gun [. . .] The irrefutable conclusion is that
unsophisticated weapons like clubs or knives were used only
in exceptional cases, and that in general the perpetrators had
access to modern and highly effective weapons, such as army
guns and pistols. These are only two of the many highly
tendentious passages.
The Institute for Military Forensic Medicine was founded
on 5 June 1940 and initially formed part of the military-
medical Academy (re-opened in 1935) as a medico-legal
examination centre. From 1 May 1938 onwards it was led by
Gerhart Panning. Academic personnel acted on military
orders. Hallermann and Pannings reports about the forensic
examinations in Bromberg and Posen form part of the
academys overall activity reports (quoted after Herber
[4]). The shooting experiments, Panning performed on
imprisoned Russian soldiers (according to von Moltke, in
the context of executions of Jews), figure among the most
heinous crimes perpetrated by NS doctors. Later, a blood
alcohol test centre was operated at the Institute.
From 1941 onwards, different commando units of the
army were assigned specialists in forensic medicine as
32
Wilhelm Hallermann (19011975), NS Lecturers Associa-
tion, 1937 NSDAP, 1941 extraordinary professor at Kiel, 1942
psychiatric advisor with the Army High Command (OKH), 1947
49 dean, 1969 emeritus professor, honorary university senator at
Kiel (cf. [6,7]).
33
Gerhart Panning (19001944); 19331938 assistant with
Mu ller-He; 1938 director of institute for military forensic
medicine at the military-medical academy; 1940 assistant profes-
sor; senior military doctor; forensic advisor with the army sanitary
inspector; 1941 human experiments at Shitomir/Ukraine involving
Soviet POWs; 1943 chair at Bonn University (cf. [6,7]).
121
advisors. By 1943, every German army unit in the Soviet
Union had its advisory forensic doctor: Mueller, Buhtz,
Jungmichel, W. Mu ller, Elbel, Niedenthal, and Ponsold
(air force). The supply was stable at the army group North
(Mueller, Cortain;34 cf. [4,8]). The evaluation of self-muti-
lations soon became one of the most important fields of
action for the forensic advisors. The register of military and
secret criminal offences (up to 6 April 1945) comprises 955
entries on 193 pages; among them, 80 cases of undermining
military morale (which may include cases of self-mutila-
tion), 68 cases of absence without leave, 61 cases of deser-
tion, 56 cases of sexual acts between men, 11 cases of self-
mutilation, 11 cases of offence against drug laws (usually
doctors and military medical personnel), and others like
disobedience, resistance against superiors, falsification of
documents, murder, manslaughter, inebriation, espionage,
treason (13 cases), sabotage, and one case of incest.
The study and examination regulations of 1924 (1934
appointment regulations) only lasted for 10 years, because in
1934 the number of compulsory class hours was reduced in
order to introduce new subjects like racial hygiene (which
immediately became an examination subject). Further
changes in the curriculum led to students finishing sooner
and, consequently, increasing numbers of licensed doctors.
Later, teaching was sometimes restricted due to the war,
especially, since many lecturers were drafted. Schraders
intervention against the attempts to abolish forensic medi-
cine as an examination subject were successful (Herber,
2001).
During National Socialist times, at German universities
89,354 doctoral theses and postdoctoral theses (required for
qualification as a professor) were finished, 43,742 in the field
of medicine. Topics that catered to the spirit of the times
were not predominant at first, but already detectable; as early
as 1933, there were academic papers with telling titles, such
as A contribution to the question of sterilizing mentally
defective people (Hamburg), About the sterilisation of
inferior persons (Gieen); 1934: Security measures
against mentally ill, highly dangerous criminals in present
law and in the federal law against dangerous habitual
criminals and about measures of reformation and security,
24. 11. 1933 (Bonn), About the usability of the laws of
genetics in civil action (Mu nchen); 1937: A forensic
approach to drafting penal laws (Rostock). During the last
years of the third Reich, NS-related topics were much more
frequently addressed in doctoral theses.
In 1940, Gerhart Panning finished his post-doctoral thesis in
Berlin, by the title Vital reaction in the bone [28]. Panning
did experimental work on The effect and detectability of
Soviet infantry explosive ammunition; he had shooting trials
performed on Soviet captives and published the results
(without mentioning the experimental set-up) in 1942 in the
scientific magazine Der deutsche Milita rarzt (cf. [8,9],
34
Heinz Cortain (19081980); after the war, medical director in
Essen (until 1973).
122 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
p. 196; [6]). This had become known to the witness expert and
member of the resistance, later to be executed Helmut James
Graf von Moltke at the Army High Command; he called it the
peak of perversion and depravity.
A number of topics for doctoral theses hint at economic
questions: 1940 About the life span and cause of death in
schizophrenics, with special consideration of the poverty that
reigned from 1917 to 1919 (Berlin), The weight regarding
numbers and costs placed by healed paralytics on the public
welfare system; an exemplary investigation of the cases
treated in the nursing home at Branitz/OS (Breslau), On
the possibility of re-using the gold in the mouths of the dead
(Breslau). The echo of the hereditary health laws can be
found in the following topics: Experience with 144 ster-
ilisation recommendations because of hereditary mental
defects (Breslau), The development of jurisdiction on
hereditary epilepsy in the enforcement of the law to impede
genetically defective offspring (Du sseldorf), Racialmor-
phological observations on the lower jaw, with a contribution
to the racial pathology of jaw and teeth (1940, Freiburg),
Investigations into hereditary character traits of criminal
kinship groups and Anatomic and hereditary-biological
examinations of a kinship group afflicted with deformations
of the hands and feet (both Halle, 1940), Experience with
expert testimony on epilepsy for the Court of Eugenics
(Hamburg), The sterilisation laws of culturally advanced
countries (Heidelberg, 1940), Physical well-being and
attitudes in women sterilised under genetic health laws
(Heidelberg, 1940), Were Germanys most significant
men of pure or mixed race? (Heidelberg, 1940) and so on.
A the end of Herbers contemplation [8] it is said that a
spectacular involvement in fascist crimes, as that which can
be stated for the bigger field of psychiatry [. . .] cannot be
established for forensic medicine [. . .] Due to its medical
scientific orientation, it can be said that the scientific field of
forensic medicine did not become seriously fascist; there
was no such thing as fascist forensic medicine, even though
the majority of the fields representatives not only among
university professors without any doubt agreed with fas-
cism and expressed their support through their membership
in the NSDAP and other fascist organisations [. . .] Numer-
ous variants of forensic medical activity, which fit in well
with the interests of the National Socialist guardians of law
and order, were responsible for the crisis the entire field
experienced in post-war Germany; the blame rested with the
activists as well as the outspoken and tacit supporters of
fascism: there were not enough unstained professionals left
that could have taken care of important tasks regarding an
anti-fascist administration of justice.
But Herbers summary [8] also reveals a contradiction.
Political systems are made by people who in turn put
ideologies into practice; therefore it is impossible to say
that the scientific field of forensic medicine did not become
seriously fascist when at the end there was obviously
hardly anybody left to take care of the specific responsi-
bilities of forensic medicine, and do so free of ideology.
The number of victims tells us much less about forensic
doctors possibly fascist attitudes than the way they treated
the victims. By definition, forensic medicine is a field with
an orientation towards victims. However, in some cases the
fields representatives themselves generated victims (e.g.,
Panning). Investigation of the topic and intellectual reflec-
tion of papers already published will show that scientific
forensic medicine has also produced a number of reprehen-
sible examples.
On 8 April 1946, Siegfried Krefft 35 (19161981) handed
in his doctoral thesis [29]. Its topic was of questionable
moral quality and moreover lacked any kind of scientific
purpose: with Schraders help, he investigated the vitality of
neck muscle bleedings in hangings, examining the recently
hanged corpses at Halle jail after he had been present at their
executions.
The strong urge of active younger forensic professionals
to show their allegiance to the system is quite obvious. This
proximity to the system reached such intensity that the men
can hardly be described as tacit supporters. Since estab-
lished forensic doctors had absorbed Nazi ideology to the
same high degree as the younger ones, the need or desire to
fuel a career cannot have been the only explanation for this
behaviour. In the job applications of those times, nobody
forgot to mention their membership in NS organisations,
also quoting the membership number if only it was low
enough. When doctors were proposed for promotion and
characterised for that purpose, their ties with the system
were never left out. When a candidate for the chair in
Greifswald had to be selected (as a successor for Goroncy
in 1944), all professors included lengthy commentaries on
that issue in their statements. Only in the case of some
leading forensic doctors, like Schrader, these commentaries
seem to be missing (UA Greifswald, MF 559). On the other
hand, Holzer was often openly mentioned to have done
serological work with Landsteiner in New York for a year.
In the process for the appointment of a successor to
Goroncy in Greifswald, Buhtz suggested the candidates
Jungmichel, Bo hmer, Elbel (SS member since 1935), Haus-
brandt (member of NSDAP and Sa since 1933), Breitenecker
(old party member), Manz (NSDAP since 1930). Regard-
ing the candidates Neugebauer, Elbel, Breitenecker, Holzer
and Hausbrandt, Wiethold refrains from any assessment
regarding their political orientation. Jungmichel places spe-
cial emphasis on the candidates scientific achievements,
naming Ebel (who was a party member before 1930), Brei-
tenecker (who had a long history of membership in the
nationalistic associations of the so-called Ostmark, i.e., Aus-
tria), and Holzer (who worked for one and a half year under
Landsteiner at the Rockefeller Institute). Schrader proposes
Bo hmer, Elbel, Breitenecker, Hausbrandt, and Saar without
any kind of commentary regarding politics. Mueller names
35
Later senior doctor at the German Bundeswehr, director of the
department of flight accident medicine at the flight medicine
institute of the air force (in Fu rstenfeldbruck).
 E. Lignitz / Forensic Science International 144 (2004) 113124
Jungmichel, Elbel, Breitenecker, and Hausbrandt likewise
without any hint to politics. Fo rster also limits himself to a
merely professional evaluation of Breitenecker, Holzer and
Hausbrandt. Merkel names Schmidt, Jungmichel, Holzer and
Breitenecker in a very neutral way. To bben recommends
Holzer (NSDAP member), Neugebauer, and Koch. Ponsold,
Weyrich, Walcher, Mu ller-He, Werkgartner, Schneider,
Timm and von Neureiter also suggest the candidates already
mentioned, usually without any political evaluation. Those
among the candidates who hand in their curriculum vitae
(Breitenecker, Neugebauer, Holzer, Elbel, Hausbrandt) all
include special references to their political positions.
Personal attitudes quite often were not limited to silent
consent; obedience, obsequiousness and subservience rather
seem to have been the rule. This really leads to serious
doubts about the truthfulness of the statement that forensic
medicine as a scientific field was not dominated by fascist
ideology. These doubts are also fed by the behaviour the
scientists in question showed in post-war times: most of
them clearly chose to suppress their memories and deliber-
ately forget their actions, as is often the case after a dictator-
ship ends. The obituaries for the professors are mostly a
falsification of history. Extensive historical reports omit
details regarding National Socialism. The courage to parti-
cipate in the system is in reverse proportion to the courage it
takes to confess that participation.
If we reach the conclusion that many professionals in
forensic medicine were no more than tacit supporters of
National Socialism, and that they expressed their approval
of the system and became members in its organisations
without genuine conviction, it is important to say that their
chameleon-like change in ideology is the real pest, as it
is in any society. There have been many examples of this
attitude so far, and it is safe to predict more for the future,
because democratic systems are obviously in no position to
persecute the perversions and legal offences that take place
in dictatorships.
After a socio-politic change in the system (a recent
example would be the German reunification), people seem
to have a lot of trouble to analyse their former point of view
objectively, and to reach a conclusion regarding their present
convictions either defending their former position, or
admitting that it was wrong and needs to be corrected,
which in turn implies that the individual has to assume
the responsibility for former breaches of law. Such a reaction
would be totally acceptable. On the other hand, it is totally
unacceptable for a person to name alleged coercion as an
excuse for tacit support.
In 1948, on the occasion of the opening session of the
Congress of Pharmacology in Du sseldorf, the Jewish phar-
macologist Riesser without explicitly naming anybody
had something to say about the disgraceful behaviour Hey
and others had shown before. He said: Is it not true that
many failed miserably at the hour of proving the strength of
their character? That many turned out to be weaklings, or
even participated in planning and carrying out truly evil
123
deeds? That, however intelligent they were in terms of their
scientific work, they seemed to be blind whenever justice,
values, decency were required? There is no simple answer to
this. We will have to be content with the ancient truth that
every person has a capacity for good as well as for evil, and
that many lack the strength to fight their own bad tendencies.
Nevertheless, it remains true that the moral ideal of science is
untouched by the weakness of its servants, and that every
scientist who fails in terms of his character is an insult to
himself and to science. We know and I will not shy away
from this subject that many German scientists are heavily
blamed with having disgraced science precisely through their
attitude, or the lack of any kind of attitude, in a moment when
so much was at stake. However, the ones who criticise and
find fault with others today, will have to admit that they do not
know whether they would have been able to pass this trial.
Would they have been willing to sacrifice themselves, or their
loved ones, for justice? Who knows the devil in his own soul
before the great ordeal? Who knows, without having experi-
enced it themselves, how even the most fundamental moral
requirements may disappear under an enormous suggestive
power and a fatal falsification of the sense of duty?.
The Berlin artist Paul Kuhfuss, who was officially
rejected by the German people as alien due to his
pro-Jewish attitudes and expressionistic tendencies,
and was forbidden to exhibit his work, realised in time that
fascist rule perverted all values of culture, science and art in
order to generate suppression: nation, socialism, work, mind,
body, soul, technology, nature, roots, blood, comradeship,
family, home. He especially detested all those who, as artists
and intellectuals, devoted themselves to the system; he
noted: People with weak minds, stupid and inebriated,
cannot be blamed for supporting the oppressor. In people
with strong minds, however, this is a crime.
Richard W. Sonnenfeld, an emigrated German Jew and
US citizen who acted as chief interpreter at the Nuremberg
War Criminal Trials, visited Germany and his home town
in one of the new federal states repeatedly after the
reunification. He wrote: . . . as everywhere in Germany,
many men would wear the blue workers shirts before Hitler
came. When he rose to power, some exchanged them for the
brown and black shirts of the SA and SS, and later they
would put on the field grey of the army uniforms and serve as
proud soldiers. After the war, red shirts predominated in East
Germany, and finally just like their brothers in West
Germany people here began to wear white shirts because
German unity had brought them wealth. But have they ever
really changed beneath their shirts? Which colour will the
next shirt be? And still are they really any different from all
the other people in the world?.
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Further reading
[1] G. Buhtz, Begru ungsansprache 29. Tagung der Deutschen
Gesellscaft fu r gerichtliche, soziale Medizin und Kriminalis-
tik in Innsbruck, Dtsch. Z. ges Gerichtl. Med. 34 (1941)
17.
[2] W. Hallermann, Die Todesopfer der Volksdeutschen aus den
Geiselzu gen im Warthegau, Dtsch. Z. ges Gerichtl. Med. 34,
5490.
[3] R. Hey, Die schlafende Scho ne in Formalin und andere fru he
Erinnerungen, Ullstein Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 2003.
[4] G. Kaiser, Katyn, Das Staatsverbrechendas Staatsgeheim-
nis, Aufbau Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin, 2002.
[5] W. Krauland, Ein junges Fach profiliert sich, Berlin Med. 4
(1961) 97.
[6] W. Krauland, Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellschaft fu r
Rechtsmedizin, Beitr. Gerichtl. Med. 27 (1970) XVIXXXVI.
[7] R.W. Sonnenfeld, Mehr als ein Leben, Scherz Verlag, 2003.
[8] F. Strassmann, Ueber den Unterricht in der gerichtlichen
Medizin, Berl. Klin. Wschr. 21 (1914) 969.
[9] F. Strassmann, Erschieen auf der Flucht, Dtsch. Z. ges
Gerichtl. Med. 5 (1925) 247252.
[10] Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Winniza, Im
Auftrag des Reichsministers fu r die besetzten Ostgebiete
auf Grund urkundlichen Beweismaterials zusammengestellt,
bearbeitet und herausgegeben, Deutscher Verlag, Berlin,
1944.
[11] Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Katyn, Im Auftrag
des Auswa rtigen Amtes auf Grund urkundlichen Beweisma-
terials zusammengestellt, bearbeitet und herausgegeben von
der Deutschen Informationsstelle, Zentraverlag der NSDAP,
Franz Eher Nachf, GmbH, Berlin, 1943.
[12] Dokumente polnischer Grausamkeiten, Im Auftrag des
Auswa rtigen Amtes auf Grund urkundlichen Beweismaterials
zusammengestellt, bearbeitet und herausgegeben von der
Deutschen Informationsstelle, Berlin, 1941.
[13] Richtlinie fu r Schwangerschaftsunterbrechung und Unfrucht-
barmachung aus gesundheitlichen Grunden. hrg. Reicha rzte-
kammer, Bearbeitet von H. Stadler, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag,
Mu nchen, 1936.
[14] Paul Kuhfuss, Malerei und Graphik, Ausstellungskatalog der
Nationalgalerie, Hrgb: Staatliche Museen Zu, Berlin, 1983,
S.52.
[15] Register Milita r-Strafsachen und Geheimstrafsachen, Berlin,
19421945.
[16] UAG MF 559: Nachfolge Lehrstuhl fu r gerichtliche, Medizin,
1944, Bl. 1122.