Eckart, Wolfgang U. (Author)
Springer International
Pages: 213-227
Publication date: 2017
Language: English
The paper describes medical and psychological aspects of gas warfare 1915–1918. It is shown that exact knowledge such as lethal dosages and the type and extent of injuries had been observed in cases of accident long before the outbreak of war. Nevertheless, detailed toxicological research was carried out in the toxicological department of Fritz Haber’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. War itself offered the opportunity for deadly field experiments. The soldiers suffered not only from physical injuries (chest pain, breathlessness, coughing, bloody sputum, multiple organ failure) but also from fear and traumatization. Given the enormous fear caused by the idea of a supposed poisoning even without symptoms, distinguishing the real and actual from the simulated in such cases must have been problematic and caused a permanent threat of being accused of malingering or even simulating. From there it was only a small step to psychic and political stigmatization as “Rentenbetrüger” (pension fraudsters) or being mentally ill in the late Weimar Republic and especially under National Socialism. Whereas the nation was forever grateful to the war-wounded and disabled veterans, the stigmatized were seen as being mentally ill, were sterilized, and sometimes even murdered.
...MoreBook Bretislav Friedrich; Dieter Hoffmann; Jürgen Renn; Florian Schmaltz; Martin Wolf (2017) One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences.
Similar Citations
Chapter
Bretislav Friedrich;
Jeremiah James;
(2017)
From Berlin-Dahlem to the Fronts of World War I: The Role of Fritz Haber and His Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in German Chemical Warfare
Book
Schmaltz, Florian;
(2005)
Kampfstoff-Forschung im Nationalsozialismus: zur Kooperation von Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten, Militär und Industrie
Article
Ivan Martines;
(2021)
Ciência e Ética: Fritz Haber e a Guerra Química
Chapter
Bretislav Friedrich;
Dieter Hoffmann;
(2017)
Clara Immerwahr: A Life in the Shadow of Fritz Haber
Book
Hubert Goenner;
Giuseppe Castagnetti;
(2020)
Establishing Quantum Physics in Berlin: Einstein and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, 1917–1922
Article
Hanene Zoghlami;
(2021)
Franco-British responses to chemical warfare 1915–8, with special reference to the medical services, casualty statistics and the threat to civilians
Article
Maier, Helmut;
(2006)
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society during the Second World War
Article
Elina, Olga;
Heim, Susanne;
Roll-Hansen, Nils;
(2005)
Plant Breeding on the Front: Imperialism, War, and Exploitation
Chapter
Epple, Moritz;
(2009)
Calculation, Measurement, and Leadership: War Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Dynamics, 1937--1945
Chapter
Schmaltz, Florian;
(2009)
Chemical Weapons Research in National Socialism: The Collaboration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes with the Military and Industry
Article
Alexander, Jennifer K.;
(2006)
An Efficiency of Scarcity: Using Food to Increase the Productivity of Soviet Prisoners of War in the Mines of the Third Reich
Book
Heim, Susanne;
Sachse, Carola;
Walker, Mark;
(2009)
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism
Chapter
Margit Szöllösi-Janze;
(2017)
The Scientist as Expert: Fritz Haber and German Chemical Warfare During the First World War and Beyond
Chapter
Johannes Preuss;
(2017)
The Reconstruction of Production and Storage Sites for Chemical Warfare Agents and Weapons from Both World Wars in the Context of Assessing Former Munitions Sites
Chapter
Miloš Vec;
(2017)
Challenging the Laws of War by Technology, Blazing Nationalism and Militarism: Debating Chemical Warfare Before and After Ypres, 1899–1925
Article
Reed, Peter;
(2015)
Making War Work for Industry: The United Alkali Company's Central Laboratory During World War One
Book
Johnson, Jeffrey Allan;
MacLeod, Roy M.;
(2006)
Frontline and Factory: Comparative Perspectives on the Chemical Industry at War, 1914--1924
Article
Ede, Andrew;
(2002)
The Natural Defense of a Scientific People: The Public Debate over Chemical Warfare in Post-WWI America
Chapter
Edward M. Spiers;
(2017)
The Gas War, 1915–1918: If not a War Winner, Hardly a Failure
Article
Vilensky, Joel A.;
Sinish, Pandy R.;
(2006)
Blisters as Weapons of War: The Vesicants of World War I
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Chemical Heritage
Circumscribere: International Journal for the History of Science
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
History and Technology
Be the first to comment!