Karl Weinbacher (23 June 1898 – 16 May 1946) was a German manager and war criminal who was executed after conviction by a British war tribunal. He and his boss,

Bruno Tesch Bruno Emil Tesch (14 August 1890 – 16 May 1946) was a German chemist and entrepreneur. Together with Gerhard Peters and Walter Heerdt, he invented the insecticide Zyklon B. He was the owner of Tesch & Stabenow (called ''Testa''), a pest contro ...

, hold the dubious distinction of becoming the only businessmen to be executed for their role in Nazi atrocities in Western Europe.

Life

Weinbacher worked at

Degesch The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH (), oft shortened to Degesch, was a German chemical corporation which manufactured pesticides. Degesch held the patent on the infamous pesticide Zyklon, a variant of which was used to execu ...

(''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung'', which translates as German Corporation for Pest Control) until 1924, and then at

Tesch & Stabenow The corporation Tesch & Stabenow (in short Testa) was a market leader in pest control chemicals between 1924 and 1945 in Germany east of the Elbe. Testa distributed Zyklon B, a pesticide consisting of inert adsorbents saturated with hydrogen cyani ...

(Testa, for short), where he received the position of manager in 1927, and by 1943 was director and deputy executive under owner and chief executive officer

. Testa manufactured and sold

Zyklon B Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such ...

, which was used not only for pest control and disinfestation, but also in 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; ...

in the

gas chambers A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

of Auschwitz to murder people. Weinbacher received a commission on all of the company's profits, including the Zyklon B sales. After the end of

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Weinbacher, Tesch and Joachim Drosihn, the firm's first gassing technician, were arrested on 3 September 1945. They were tried by a British military tribunal in the Curiohaus Trial in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

from 1–8 March 1946, also called the Testa trial or the Zyklon B trial. In the cases of Weinbacher and Tesch, the court ruled that the prosecution had proven that both of them knew how the SS would use Zyklon B. Tesch and Weinbacher were convicted and sentenced to death on 8 March 1946, while Drosihn was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

. Tesch and Weinbacher were

hanged 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 ...

in the prison for war criminals in Hamelin on 16 May 1946.

Bibliography

*Angelika Ebbinghaus: ''Der Prozeß gegen Weinbacher und Stabenow - Von der Schädlingsbekämpfung zum Holocaust.'' In: ''1999 - Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts'' 13 (1998), H. 2, p. 16–7
(pdf)
*Jürgen Kalthoff / Martin Werner: ''Die Händler des Zyklon B. - Weinbacher & Stabenow. Eine Firmengeschichte zwischen Hamburg und Auschwitz.'' Hamburg 1998, .

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinbacher, Karl 1898 births 1946 deaths Holocaust perpetrators Businesspeople from Szczecin Curiohaus Trial executions Executed mass murderers