Carl Ludwig Lautenschläger (27 February 1888 in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

– 6 December 1962 in Karlsruhe) was a German chemist and physician. He was tried during the

IG Farben Trial ''The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al.'', also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War ...

but was acquitted.

Early life

Lautenschläger was the son of Ludwig Lautenschläger, an architect and his wife Paula Schober.Carl-Ludwig Lautenschläger (1888–1962)
/ref> He was trained in pharmacy before studying chemistry, medicine and pharmacy at a number of universities, receiving his doctorate in engineering from the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

in 1913. Lautenschläger served for a year in the

German Imperial Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...

before returning to medical study, eventually receiving his MD from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

in 1919. He followed an academic career initially, becoming a non-tenured professor of pharmacy at the University of Greifswald in 1920.

Joining Farben

In 1920 he was taken on at Hoechst AG's pharmaceutical department and by 1922 was in charge of the company's Science Office. He became an alternate member of the managing board of parent company IG Farben in 1931 as well as a member of their Pharmaceutical Main Assembly. Having initially concentrated his research on developing drugs to fight

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

Lautenschläger's remit now broadened to take in the production and development of drugs for vaccination and pest control.

Under the Nazis

Lautenschläger became a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

in 1938. At the same time his duties at IG Farben expanded further as he took over the management of the company's Mittelrhein/Maingau Operating Unit and their Höchst plant. With this increased remit Lautenschläger was also admitted to full membership of the board. He was made a ''

Wehrwirtschaftsführer ''Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' (WeWiFü) were, during the time of Nazi Germany (1933–1945), executives of companies or big factories called ''rüstungswichtiger Betrieb'' (company important for the production of war materials). ''Wehrwirtschaft ...

'' in 1942 and presented with a First Class

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit ...

. According to Diarmuid Jeffreys Lautenschläger became aware of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

in 1943 after junior colleagues who had witnessed gassings told him about their experiences.Diarmuid Jeffreys, ''Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine'', Bloomsbury, 2009, p. 275

Post-war

Arrested by the American Military Government in 1946 he was brought before the

IG Farben trial ''The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al.'', also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War ...

the following year on charges of mass murder and slavery. The court stated that the pharmaceutical department had been responsible for sending drugs to the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

in order that they be tested on prisoners but ruled that Lautenschläger himself was not personally to blame and so acquitted him. Like many of his colleagues at IG Farben he was taken under the wing of

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

chairman Ulrich Haberland, who gave him a job as a research associate at the company's Elberfeld facility. He retired in 1952 and died ten years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lautenschlager, Carl 1888 births 1962 deaths German Army personnel of World War I German pharmacologists IG Farben people German chemical industry people Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni University of Freiburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Greifswald Physicians from Karlsruhe People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals