Milo Pesca

Watch my movie "ACID NAZIS" On Austrian Chemist Richard Kuhn below:

Richard Kuhn 

Richard Kuhn is known for receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and his innovations in the realm of carotenoids and vitamin research. He developed some of the most effective identification and synthesis techniques and discovered critical information about the structure of vitamin B. Beneath these innovations lies a layer of evil. Kuhn was not only an avid ideological supporter of Nazism, but his scientific work also bolstered the Nazi regime, specifically in creating the gas that would end up euthanizing millions of Jews in the Holocaust. He is also, in many ways, responsible for the American MKUltra project due to his experiments on Nazi soldiers during WWII, which eventually snowballed into the War on Drugs. Kuhn is an example of someone who both contributed to society and took away from it—a case study on how we can still use products created by some of the most morally questionable people imaginable.

Richard Kuhn was born on December 3, 1900, in what is now Vienna, Austria but was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Richard Clemens Kuhn, was a counselor and senior civil servant, and his mother, Angelika, was an elementary school teacher (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Growing up, Kuhn's passion for chemistry was evident; he consistently attended lectures at the University of Vienna and went on to earn his doctoral degree from Munich in 1922 under Richard Willstätter for his scientific work on enzymes (Max Planck Gesellschaft).

Kuhn’s passion for science continued after graduation. In 1926, he became a science professor at the ETH Zurich (Max Planck Gesellschaft). He married Daisy Hartmann in 1928, and the couple had four daughters and two sons. In 1929, Kuhn began working at the University of Heidelberg, where he was appointed Head of Department at the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Here, he began researching his lifelong passion for vitamins and carotenoids.

Kuhn specialized in theoretical problems of organic chemistry, specifically in the realms of stereochemistry of aromatic compounds, synthesis of polyenes, and acidity of hydrocarbons. Additionally, Kuhn specialized in many fields of biochemistry (Everts). One of his most significant contributions was in the elucidation of the vitamin B complex. Kuhn isolated vitamin B₂ and discovered it is a component of a coenzyme crucial for cellular energy metabolism (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Another of Kuhn’s greatest scientific accomplishments was in carotenoids, which are found in carrots and are essential for vitamin A. Kuhn and his team identified two types of carotenes, and Kuhn himself played a large role in identifying a third. He also conducted innovative research on a similar substance, carotenoids (Nobel Foundation). Kuhn is also known for his techniques of identification and synthesis, particularly his chromatographic techniques, which are still used today for vitamin A and B supplements.

His work at the university gained worldwide attention. He even taught for a year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as a visiting professor (Max Planck Gesellschaft). He became so renowned that he received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, although he was unable to accept it due to Adolf Hitler’s policy that barred German citizens from receiving the award (Nobel Foundation). Kuhn was also the editor of the renowned research journal Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie from 1948 (Van Klooster).

While Kuhn was a great researcher and scientist, he is not to be respected as a person given his blatant antisemitism and ties to the Nazi party. Although Kuhn was not officially a member of the Nazi party, he undoubtedly supported the regime. He was actively against Jewish people working in the field of medicine (Van Klooster). To demonstrate his Nazi sympathy, he would end his scientific presentations with the Nazi salutation “Sieg Heil.” He even denounced his colleague Otto Fritz Meyerhof for continuing to employ Jewish workers (Max Planck Gesellschaft), and in 1936, he denounced three of his Jewish coworkers (Van Klooster).

Horrifically, Kuhn was heavily involved in creating the nerve and poison gas used to kill Jewish people in extermination camps (Max Planck Gesellschaft). His team was tasked with understanding how nerve agents cause harm. In these experiments, Kuhn discovered that nerve agents block cholinesterase, an enzyme responsible for breaking down acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter essential for nerve-to-nerve or nerve-to-muscle signals. Kuhn used these findings to develop a new agent, soman, which was twice as effective as sarin at inhibiting cholinesterase (Everts). This new agent doubled the efficiency of the poison used to kill concentration camp prisoners.

Additionally, Kuhn was in correspondence with the Sandoz chemical factory, particularly with then-CEO Arthur Stoll. Stoll sent Kuhn samples of LSD along with research findings about the new experimental drug, which Kuhn proceeded to use in psychedelic research tests on Nazis (Ohler). These tests, conducted in Dachau concentration camp, were designed to extract secrets from soldiers, using what they called a “truth serum.” The results of these tests were later utilized by the Americans and the CIA in the MKUltra project (Ohler).

Kuhn died in 1967 in Heidelberg, Germany, at the age of 66.

Years after Kuhn’s death, his ties to Nazism have impacted how people view him and his work. In 2005, the Society of German Chemists announced their intention to discontinue awarding the Richard Kuhn Medal, stating:

“The board of the GDCh intends to discontinue awarding the Medal named after the organic chemist, Nobel Prize laureate of the year 1938, and President of the GDCh in 1964–65, Richard Kuhn. The board thereby draws the consequences out of research on Richard Kuhn's behavior during National Socialism. Even though the question of whether Kuhn was a convinced National Socialist or just a career-oriented camp follower is not fully answered, he indisputably supported the Nazi regime in administrative and organizational ways, especially by his scientific work. Despite his scientific achievements, Kuhn is not suitable to serve as a role model and eponym for an important award, mainly due to his unreflective research on poison gas, but also due to his conduct towards Jewish colleagues” (Nachrichten).

The description rendered by the  Society of German Chemists aptly captures Kuhn. Despite Kuhn being a great chemist and innovative scientist whose work is still used today, particularly in vitamin A and B supplements, he was a supporter of Nazism. His scientific work undoubtedly contributed to the deaths orchestrated by the Nazi party, and his collaboration with Arthur Stoll ultimately led to American replication of German LSD tests on Nazis, which eventually fueled the War on Drugs and contributed to systemic racism in the U.S. While we often try to separate the “art” from the “artist,” with Kuhn, it is impossible to overlook his terrible actions in favor of his scientific achievements—even as we continue to benefit from his innovations today.  

Works Cited

"Digital Story – Richard Kuhn: Max Planck Gesellschaft." Accessed 10 Oct. 2024. 

Everts, Sarah, "Chemistry In Nazi Germany," Chemical & Engineering News, American Chemical Society, Volume 91, Issue 37, pp. 30–33, 16 September 2013.

 Nobel Laureates Facts. The Nobel Foundation. 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2008.

Ohler, Norman, et al. Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age. HarperCollins, 2024. 

 Van Klooster, H. S. (January 1957). "The story of Liebig's Annalen der Chemie." Journal of Chemical Education. 34 (1): 27.. Archived from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.

Artist's Statement

I chose Richard Kuhn because, over the summer, I read a book by Norman Ohler called Tripped about the use of LSD on Nazi soldiers. What I liked about this book was that it discussed something the media had never talked about before — everything else I had read felt like the eighth or ninth source on a topic. I was very interested in adapting a newer piece of research. Additionally, in 10th-grade history, I learned about the effect LSD had on the War on Drugs, and if you read my biography, you can see the correlations. Lastly, Richard Kuhn was a very interesting person to focus on. Aside from the bad he did in regard to the Holocaust, he reinvented the way we look at vitamins. How do we view a person like that?

As I mentioned in my previous point, this was a major decision for Richard Kuhn. He had already made mistakes before, like designing the gas that killed the Jews, but that was more of a forced situation as Hitler approached him. In this moment, however, he approached Hitler to conduct his own research, which shows deliberate, intentional action. This was the last moment for him to possibly “redeem” himself. So, making this decision the source of the conflict felt like a good place to tie in the script.

Writing the script was difficult because, again, this topic is understudied, so I had to pull facts from only a select few sources, mainly being Norman Ohler’s book. Additionally, the depiction of some of the characters, like Daisy, is inaccurate. She wasn’t outwardly for or against the Holocaust, but I wanted her to be the voice of reason. Lastly, I only had one other actor for a majority of the film due to timing, but I think he did a good job playing his parts.

I will remember this project fondly because I really got to delve deep into it. Mr. McDonald structured it in a great way where I didn’t feel rushed due to the fact that he portioned the different segments of the assignment: from the bio, to the bibliography, script, rough cut, and final edit. I will use this structure to help me in college when it comes to tackling long-form topics—when there won’t be intermediary deadlines. Lastly, I will also remember trying to make Richard Kuhn’s thought process understandable. Although he wasn’t a Nazi, he did many Nazi-like things, such as saying “Sieg Heil” and, of course, helping the Nazis. He did this as a way to expand his career, so I wanted to show moments where the fame got to him and led him to do immoral things.

I think that World War II, when looked at from an American point of view, is much less interesting than from a German one, particularly when focusing on Germans who weren’t Nazis. Those who helped Jews or even didn’t support the Nazis should be praised because, at the time, it wasn’t the “obvious choice,” and the few who did faced severe backlash. It is empowering to learn about people whose morals superseded their safety, success, and other factors. Those who helped save Jews are even more spectacular, as the consequences were severe. Lastly, taking this class has given me a better sense of scaling, particularly scaling atrocities. We often try to compare things, but each “thing” represents a number of lives, and it’s important to individualize atrocities to respect the victims.

Many people choose safety, money, and fame over doing the right thing—take most of the GOP supporting whatever Trump does, despite it going against their values, or celebrities taking brand deals with morally ambiguous compenys. The key in Richard Kuhn’s case was that it was situational. Many people we look up to, if placed in Germany at the time, would not have been against Hitler’s regime because it would lead them to lose fame, money, and power. People’s sense of morality is much smaller than we expect, and that’s an issue we should address in society. Sooner or later, another bad situation will arise, and people, whom we deem “moral” currently, may again value safety, money, and fame over morals.