Germar Rudolf - Background

Background

Rudolf was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse. After finishing secondary education in 1983 in Remscheid, Rudolf studied chemistry in Bonn, completing his studies in 1989. As a student, he joined A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn and K.D.St.V. Nordgau Prag zu Stuttgart. Both are Catholic fraternities belonging to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen. He was a temporary supporter of the CSU/CDU, but parted ways and became a temporary member of Die Republikaner (REP) due to their more patriotic policy.

After his military service, he was temporarily employed at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, beginning in October 1990. During this time he wrote a paper, titled "Report on the formation and verifiability of cyanide compounds in the Auschwitz gas chambers" on behalf of the Düsseldorf attorney Hajo Herrmann, a former Luftwaffe pilot holding the rank of Oberst. In 1993, when his report caused some media attention, his employer ordered Rudolf not to enter the Max Planck Institute unless asked to. When Rudolf entered the institute without permission, his employment contract was terminated without notice. In 1994 this termination was converted into a termination in mutual agreement. In 1996 the University of Stuttgart demanded that Rudolf retract his application for his final PhD examination, or else the University would deny it, rendering his PhD thesis worthless. The legal basis for this is a German law permitting universities to deny or withdraw academic degrees in case the candidate in question has used his academic credentials or knowledge to commit a crime. Rudolf subsequently withdrew his application.

Herrmann used Rudolf's paper in the defense of Otto Ernst Remer, a former Wehrmacht officer charged with incitement of hatred, a criminal offense in German law. Although Rudolf was aware from the outset that his work would become publicly associated with an extremely controversial individual, he insisted that even an individual as despised by the general public as Remer has a right to a legal defense. Rudolf stated that his findings at Auschwitz and Birkenau "completely shattered his world view," which motivated him to continue despite increasing societal and legal resistance against his work.

Among other things, the report states that, after having collected and analyzed samples from the walls of various buildings in the Auschwitz concentration camp, only insignificant and non-reproducible traces of cyanide compounds can be found in the samples taken from the gas chambers. Richard Green and Jamie McCarthy from The Holocaust History Project have criticized the report, saying that like Fred Leuchter in the Leuchter report, Rudolf did not discriminate against the formation of iron-based cyanide compounds, which are not a reliable indicator of the presence of cyanide, and that thus his experiment was seriously flawed. Germar Rudolf has responded to their criticisms.

Both in 1994 and in 1995 Rudolf was evicted from his rented apartments after media articles had reported about police searches in his homes. In 1995 a TV report revealing the identity of his current employer led to the immediate termination of his employment contract. That same year Rudolf was expelled from the Catholic fraternities on grounds of having violated his fraternity's principles by his Holocaust denial publications.