Anton Dilger
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Anton Dilger | |
|---|---|
University of Heidelberg | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology |
Anton Casimir Dilger (13 February 1884 – 17 October 1918) was a
Early life and career
Dilger was born in
Dilger was the grandson of anatomist Friedrich Tiedemann (1781–1861), who was the Director of the Institute of Anatomy at Heidelberg University. Dilger was also the cousin of Generalmajor Hubert Lamey (1896-1981), the commander of the 118 Jager Division, as well as General der Kavallerie, Carl-Erik Koehler (1895–1958), the commander of the 20th Army Corps.
There are reports that Dilger served as a surgeon in the
World War I
When
In the U.S., Baltimore
The U.S. biological sabotage program is thought to have ended sometime in late 1916 after which Anton returned to Germany. Upon his return to the U.S., Dilger found himself under suspicion of being a German agent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and fled to Mexico, where he used the surname "Delmar."
Sabotage program
The United States was the only target of German biological sabotage to which Dilger traveled personally, but Romania, Norway, Spain, and South America were all wartime targets of the program. Dilger was the only known individual with the required medical knowledge to have presided over the program in Germany even if he was not directly involved in each country. The methods of infecting livestock became more advanced as the war progressed and went from crude needles to capillary tubes of bacterial culture hidden inside sugar cubes.
The effects of the German effort to sabotage the neutral support of Allied countries is unknown. Since reports were made of disease outbreaks among livestock, it is not known whether the cultures used were pathogenic or even viable. Certainly, the amateurish method by which the U.S. stevedores infected horses would have given rise to accidents, but none was reported. That alone is cause for suspicion among researchers of the cultures used. Indeed, in the treaties signed in the wake of World War I, no specific provisions were made for the prohibition of biological warfare; it is presumed officials either did not know about the German effort or did not consider it a serious threat.
His relative Jürgen Schöfer, Ph.D., now writes about biosafety in science magazines.
References
- ^ David Woodbury (16 January 2007). "Sometimes Heroes Sire Scoundrels (review of The Fourth Horseman by Robert Koenig)". obab.blogspot.com. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
- ^ "Experts Q & A". Public Broadcasting Service. 15 December 2006. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
- ^ An American waged germ warfare against U.S. in WWI SFGate
- ^ Wheelis 1998.
- Wheelis, Mark (17 September 1998). "First shots fired in biological warfare". Correspondence. PMID 9751039.
Further reading
- Geißler, Erhard (1999). Biologische Waffen – nicht in Hitlers Arsenalen. Biologische und Toxin-Kampfmittel in Deutschland von 1915 bis 1945. Münster: Lit-Verlag.
- Robert Koenig (November 2006). The Fourth Horseman: One Man's Secret Campaign to Fight the Great War in America. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-58648-372-2.
- von Feilitzsch, Heribert (2015). The Secret War on the United States in 1915: A Tale of Sabotage, Labor Unrest and Border Troubles. Amissville: Henselstone Verlag. ISBN 9780985031763.