Claus Karl Schilling (5 July 1871 – 28 May 1946), also recorded as Klaus Schilling, was a German
tropical medicine specialist who participated in the
Nazi human experiments
Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners, including children, by Nazi Germany in its concentration camps in the early to mid 1940s, during World War II and the Holocaust. Chief target popu ...
at the
Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Though never 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 political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
and a recognized researcher at the
Robert Koch Institute
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin and Wernigerode. As an upper federal agency, it is subordinate to the Federa ...
before the war, Schilling participated in unethical and inhumane experiments on captive human subjects under both
Fascist Italy and
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. From 1942 to 1945, Schilling's research on
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...
and attempts at fighting it using synthetic drugs culminated in
human experimentation on over a thousand camp prisoners at Dachau, of whom hundreds died.
Sentenced to death by hanging at the
Dachau camp trial
The Dachau camp trial (German: ''Dachau-Hauptprozess'') was the first mass trial of the Dachau trials, a series of trials against war criminals held by the United States Army on the premises of the Dachau concentration camp. The main trial took ...
after the fall of
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's Germany, he was executed for his crimes against the Dachau prisoners in 1946.
Biography
Born in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
on 5 July 1871, Schilling studied medicine in his native city, receiving a doctor's degree there in 1895. He was a professor of parasitology at the University of Berlin and a member of Malaria Commission of the League of Nations. Within a few years, Schilling was practicing in the
German colonial possessions in Africa. Recognized for his contributions in the field of
tropical medicine, he was appointed the first-ever director of the tropical medicine division of the
Robert Koch Institute
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin and Wernigerode. As an upper federal agency, it is subordinate to the Federa ...
in 1905, where he would remain for the subsequent three decades.
Italian research
Upon retirement from the Robert Koch Institute in 1936, Schilling moved to
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...
's
Fascist
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, where he was given the opportunity to conduct
immunization
Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen).
When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-s ...
experiments on inmates of the
psychiatric asylum
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
s of
Volterra
Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods.
History
Volt ...
and
San Niccolò di Siena.
[Hulverscheidt, Marion. "German Malariology Experiments with Humans, Supported by the DFG Until 1945". ''Man, Medicine, and the State: The Human Body as an Object of Government Sponsored Medical Research in the 20th Century'', Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft Volume 2. Ed. Wolfgang Uwe Eckhart. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006. , , pp. 221–236.] (The Italian authorities were concerned that troops faced malaria outbreaks in the course of the
Italo-Ethiopian War.) As Schilling stressed the significance of the research for German interests, the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government of Germany also supported him with a financial grant for his Italian experimentation.
Dachau experiments
Schilling returned to Germany after a meeting with
Leonardo Conti
Leonardo Conti (; 24 August 1900 – 6 October 1945) was the Reich Health Leader in Nazi Germany. The killing of many Germans who were of "unsound mind" is attributed to his leadership.
Early life
Conti was born to a Swiss Italian father, Sil ...
, the Nazis' Health Chief, in 1941, and by early 1942 he was provided with a special malaria research station at
Dachau
Dachau () was the first concentration camp built by Nazi Germany, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents which consisted of: communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is lo ...
's
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
by
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
, the
leader of the SS. Despite negative assessments from colleagues, Schilling would remain in charge of the malaria station for the duration of the war.
![Friedrich Hoffmann priest](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Friedrich_Hoffmann_priest.jpg)
Although in the 1930s Schilling had stressed the point that malaria research on human subjects could be performed in an entirely harmless fashion, the Dachau subjects included prisoners who were injected with synthetic drugs at doses ranging from high to lethal. They had been exposed to
malaria mosquito
The ''Anopheles gambiae'' complex consists of at least seven morphologically indistinguishable species of mosquitoes in the genus ''Anopheles''. The complex was recognised in the 1960s and includes the most important vectors of malaria in sub- ...
s in cages strapped to their hands or arms so as to ensure infection with the parasite. Of the more than 1,000 prisoners used in the malaria experiments at Dachau during the war, between 300 and 400 died as a result; among survivors, a substantial number remained permanently injured. A number of
priests imprisoned by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
were killed during the experiments.
In the course of the
Dachau Trials following the liberation of the camp at the close of the war, Schilling was tried by a U.S. General Military Court, appointed at 2 November 1945, in the case of ''The United States versus Martin Gottfried Weiss, Wilhelm Rupert, et al''. The defendants, 40 doctors and staff, were charged and convicted of offenses of the violations of laws and usages of war in that they acted in pursuance of a common design, did encourage, aid, abet, and participate in the subjection of Allied nationals and prisoners of war to cruelties and mistreatments at Dachau Concentration Camp and its subcamps.
[Spitz, Vivien. ''Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans''. Boulder, Colorado: Sentient Publications, 2005. , , p. 104-112.] According to the testimony of August H. Vieweg, the patients used in the malaria experiments were Poles, Russians, and Yugoslavs.
At that time there was no formal code of ethics in medical research to which the judges could hold the accused Nazi doctors accountable. The "scientific experiments" exposed during the trials led to the
Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg Code (german: Nürnberger Kodex) is a set of ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in '' U.S. v Brandt'', one of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials that were held after the Second World War.
Tho ...
, developed in 1949 as a ten-point code of human experimentation ethics.
The tribunal sentenced Schilling to death by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
on 13 December 1945. After his conviction, Schilling asked his lawyer not to appeal on his behalf, saying he would rather die than stay in prison. However, many in the German medical community protested on his behalf, calling him an honest and humane scientist. Nevertheless, Schilling's sentence was confirmed, and his execution took place at
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, af ...
in
Landsberg am Lech
Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech (river), Lech) is a Town#Germany, town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg (district), Lands ...
on 28 May 1946. The execution was filmed by military personnel, who recorded Schilling's ascending the gallows and his hanging, along with a coffin marked "Dr Schilling, Claus."
When asked if he wanted to make a final statement, Schilling said "I am not guilty. Please get it over with."
References
External links
*
Schilling execution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schilling, Claus
1871 births
1946 deaths
Dachau concentration camp personnel
Dachau trials executions
Executed people from Bavaria
Nazi human subject research
Physicians from Munich
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German mass murderers
Executed mass murderers