Alexander Catsch


Alexander Siegfried Catsch was a German biologist and a physician of Russian-descent who was one of the senior German scientists in Soviet program of nuclear weapons, and later his research was used in the Soviet program of biological weapons.
Until the end of the World War II, Catsch was a professional colleague of Soviet biologist, Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, studying on the genome and genetic structures. He was taken into the Soviet custody and held in Russia where he first worked at the Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal’, but later posted at the Laboratory B in Singul' to work on radiation biology under Timofeev-Ressovsky in 1947.
In 1955, Catsch was returned to Germany and settled in Karlsruhe where he pioneered studies in methods on extracting radionucleotides from various organs at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Early life and education

Catsch was half-German and half-Russian. His mother was a sister of renowned Russian biologist Ivan Puzanov. Catsch was educated in Biology but trained as a physician.

Career

In Germany

As early as 1938, Catsch cited his affiliation with the I. Medizinischen Universitätsklinik der Charité; Charité was a teaching and research hospital in Berlin. No later than 1942, he was at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft, in Berlin-Buch. At the KWIH, he was in Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timofeev-Resovskij's Abteilung für Experimentelle Genetik, a world-renowned department with the status of an institute. There, Catsch conducted research on the effects of radiation on genetic mutations.
What happened to Catsch after the Russians entered Berlin at the close of World War II is best understood in the context of his colleagues Karl Zimmer and Hans-Joachim Born at the KWIH, who had a close professional relationship with Nikolaus Riehl, the scientific director of the Auergesellschaft, in Berlin.
At the close of World War II, Russia had special search teams operating in Austria and Germany, especially in Berlin, to identify and “requisition” equipment, materiel, intellectual property, and personnel useful to the Soviet atomic bomb project. The exploitation teams were under the Russian Alsos, and they were headed by Lavrenij Beria's deputy, Colonel General A. P. Zavenyagin. These teams were composed of scientific staff members, in NKVD officer's uniforms, from the bomb project's only laboratory, Laboratory No. 2, in Moscow. In mid-May 1945, the Russian nuclear physicists Georgy Flerov and Lev Artsimovich, in NKVD colonel's uniforms, compelled Zimmer to take them to the location of Riehl and his staff, who had evacuated their Auergesellschaft facilities and were west of Berlin, hoping to be in an area occupied by the American or British military forces. Riehl was detained at the search team's facility in Berlin-Friedrichshagen for a week. This sojourn in Berlin turned into 10 years in the Soviet Union! Riehl and his staff, including their families, were flown to Moscow on 9 July 1945. Riehl was to head up a uranium production group at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal’.

In Russia

From 1945 to 1950, Riehl was in charge of uranium production at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal'. When Riehl learned that H. J. Born and Karl Zimmer were being held in Krasnogorsk, in the main PoW camp for Germans with scientific degrees, Riehl arranged though Zavenyagin to have them sent to Ehlektrostal’. Catsch, who had been taken prisoner with Zimmer, was also sent to the Ehlektrostal’ Plant No. 12. At Ehlektrostal’, Riehl had a hard time incorporating Born, Catsch, and Zimmer into his tasking on uranium production, as Born was a radiochemist, Catsch was a physician and radiation biologist, and Zimmer was a physicist and radiation biologist.
After the detonation of the Russian uranium bomb, uranium production was going smoothly and Riehl's oversight was no longer necessary at Plant No. 12. Riehl then went, in 1950, to head an institute in Sungul', where he stayed until 1952. Essentially the remaining personnel in his group were assigned elsewhere, with the exception of H. E. Ortmann, A. Baroni, and Herbert Schmitz, who went with Riehl. However, Riehl had already sent Born, Catsch, and Zimmer to the institute in December 1947. The institute in Sungul’ was responsible for the handling, treatment, and use of radioactive products generated in reactors, as well as radiation biology, dosimetry, and radiochemistry. The institute was known as Laboratory B, and it was overseen by the 9th Chief Directorate of the NKVD, the same organization which oversaw the Russian Alsos operation. The scientific staff of Laboratory B – a ShARAShKA – was both Soviet and German, the former being mostly political prisoners or exiles, although some of the service staff were criminals.
Laboratory B was known under another cover name as Объект 0211, as well as Object B.
One of the political prisoners in Laboratory B was Riehls’ colleague from the KWIH, N. V. Timofeev-Resovskij, who, as a Soviet citizen, was arrested by the Soviet forces in Berlin at the conclusion of the war, and he was sentenced to 10 years in the Gulag. In 1947, Timofeev-Resovskij was rescued out of a harsh Gulag prison camp, nursed back to health, and sent to Sungul' to complete his sentence, but still make a contribution to the Soviet atomic bomb project. At Laboratory B, Timofeev-Resovskij headed a biophysics research department, in which Born, Catsch, and Zimmer were able to conduct work similar to that which they had done in Germany, and all three became section heads in Timofeev-Resovskij's department. In fact, in Sungul', Catsch began his work on developing methods to extract radionucleotides from various organs, which he would continue when he left Russia.
In preparation for release from the Soviet Union, it was standard practice to put personnel into quarantine for a few years if they worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project, as was the case for Catsch. Additionally, in 1954, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and the Soviet Union prepared a list of scientists they wished to keep in the DDR, due to their having worked on projects related to the Soviet atomic bomb project; this list was known as the “A-list”. On this A-list were the names of 18 scientists. Nine, possibly 10, of the names were associated with the Riehl group which worked at Plant No. 12 in Ehlektrostal'. Born, Catsch, Riehl, and Zimmer were on the list.
In Russia, Catsch was given a patronymic and his last name was transliterated from German into Russian; transliterated into English his name became Aleksandr Sergeevich Katsch.

In Germany again

Catsch returned to the DDR in the mid-1950s and fled West. Riehl arrived in the DDR on 4 April 1955, and by early June he was in the Federal Republic of Germany. Other colleagues of Riehl who worked with him in Russia also went West; Günter Wirths fled to the Federal Republic of Germany and Karl Zimmer went legally.
As early as 1956, Catsch was at the Biophysikalische Abteilung des Heiligenberg-Instituts, in Heiligenberg, Baden, Germany.
No later than 1958, he was at the Institut für Strahlenbiologie of the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe, which was founded in 1956 and today is known as the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. It was allied with the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe; today, it is known as the Universität Karlsruhe , after its reorganization and renaming in the academic year 1967/1968. In 1962, while still at the KFK, Catsch was appointed to the newly created Lehrstuhl für Strahlenbiologie at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe.

Personal

Catsch was married to a Jewish woman.
Karl Zimmer and Catsch were lifelong friends, as well as professional colleagues.
Catsch died in Karlsruhe.

Books

  • A. Catsch Radioactive Metal Mobilization in Medicine
  • Alexander Catsch Die Bedeutung energiereicher Strahlungen für die Biologie
  • Alexander Catsch, Adolf Zuppinger, Lothar Diethelm, and Olle Olsson Handbuch der medizinischen Radiologie. Bd. 2. Strahlenbiologie T. 2.
  • Alexander Catsch Dekorporierung radioaktiver und stabiler Metallionen
  • A. Catsch The Chelation of Heavy Metals
  • *Catsch, A., and A. E. Harmuth-Hoene Pharmacology and Therapeutic Applications of Agents Used in Heavy Metal Poisoning In Alexander Catsch The Chelation of Heavy Metals 171-183

    Publications of the ''KFK''

  • Alexander Catsch, H. Immel-Teller, and D. Schindewolf-Jordan Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 51. Die Verteilung von Radiocer in den Leberzellen und ihre Beeinflussung durch die Diäthylentriaminpentaessigsäure
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 54. Die Dekorporation von Radionukliden
  • Alexander Catsch and Glauco P. Tocchini-Valentini Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 71. Der Einfluss einiger Polyaminopolycarbonsäuren auf die Verteilung von Thorium-234 im Organismus der Ratte
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 76. Radioactive Metal Mobilization
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 124. Der Einfluss von Chelatbildnern auf das Verhalten von Blei im Organismus
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdruck. 136. Principles and trends in therapeutic removal of internally deposited radionuclides
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 174. Toxicology: Radioactive metals
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 202. Zur Toxikologie der Diäthylentriaminpentaessigsäure
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 237. Dekorporation von Metallionen durch Komplexbildner Author affiliations: Lehrstuhl für Strahlenbiologie, Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe and Institut für Strahlenbiologie am Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe.
  • Alexander Catsch, Du Khuong Lê, and Danielle Chambault Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 267. Evaluation of the efficacy of different metal chelates of DTPA in removing internally-deposited radionuclides
  • Alexander Catsch and E. von Wedelstaedt Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 338. Vergleichende Untersuchungen über die Toxizität der Ca- und Zn-Chelate der Diäthylentriaminpentaessigsäure
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. 390. Medikamente gegen Vergiftungen mit radioaktiven Substanzen
  • Alexander Catsch and D. Kh. Lê Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Sonderabdrucke. 407. Removal of 60Co and 65Zn from the mammalian body
  • Alexander Catsch Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. 491. Das Verhalten von Radiozink-Chelaten im Säugetierorganismus
  • Alexander Catsch ''Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. 873. Probleme der Chelat-Therapie''