Bruno Tesch
A chemist who turned his invention of a pesticide into an instrument of genocide, becoming one of the few businessmen executed for supplying the Holocaust.
1890–1946 (age 56)·German chemist and war criminal·Birthday: August 14·The Lost Generation
Biography
Bruno Tesch was a pragmatic scientist turned entrepreneur. With partners, he patented Zyklon B in the early 1920s, a cyanide-based insecticide used for fumigation. He co-founded the company Tesch & Stabenow (Testa) to market it. Under the Nazi regime, his business found a grim new customer: the SS. Testa became the primary supplier of Zyklon B to concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Majdanek. Tesch knew exactly how the chemical was being used; correspondence and invoices show he was directly involved in supplying the canisters, without the warning odorant, that were poured into gas chambers. After the war, he was arrested by the British. At his 1946 trial, the first of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, evidence proved his conscious complicity. The court rejected his defense of mere business dealings, finding he had actively facilitated mass murder. Bruno Tesch was hanged, a stark example of corporate accountability for crimes against humanity.
The Lost Generation
1883–1900
Came of age during World War I. Disillusioned by the carnage, they rejected the certainties of the Victorian era and built modernism from the wreckage — in art, literature, and politics.
Bruno was born in 1890, placing them squarely in The Lost Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Bruno Was Born
The biggest hits of 1890
Bruno's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1890Born
Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of the Indian Wars
President: Benjamin Harrison
1895Started school
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1903Became a teenager
Wright brothers achieve first powered flight
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1906Could drive
San Francisco earthquake devastates the city
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1908Could vote
Ford Model T goes into production
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1911Turned 21
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 in New York
President: William Howard Taft
1920Turned 30
Women gain the right to vote in the US
Home: $3,395President: Woodrow Wilson"Swanee" — Al Jolson
1930Turned 40
Pluto discovered
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,510President: Herbert Hoover"Body and Soul" — Paul WhitemanBest Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
1940Turned 50
The Blitz: Germany bombs London
Gas: $0.18/galHome: $2,938Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"I'll Never Smile Again" — Tommy DorseyBest Picture: Rebecca
1946Died at 56
United Nations holds its first General Assembly
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $5,150Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Prisoner of Love" — Perry ComoBest Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
Key Achievements
- Co-invented and held the patent for the cyanide-based pesticide Zyklon B.
- Co-founded and was managing director of Tesch & Stabenow (Testa), the leading supplier of Zyklon B.
- His company supplied over 12 tons of Zyklon B to Auschwitz-Birkenau alone between 1941 and 1944.
- Was convicted as a war criminal at the Nuremberg Pesticide Case (The Tesch Trial) in 1946.
Did You Know?
He held a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Berlin.
During his trial, a former employee testified that Tesch had stated the Zyklon B was for 'a new procedure for the destruction of human beings.'
His partner, Paul Stabenow, left the company in 1942, reportedly over unease about the Nazi dealings.
Tesch was one of only three industrialists executed at the Nuremberg trials.
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