German Aerospace Center publishes study on Nazi-era complicity

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has released a landmark study exposing the dark history of its predecessor institutions during the Nazi era. The comprehensive research, presented on June 12, 2026, details the involvement of these organizations in the crimes of National Socialism, including the use of slave labor and deadly human experiments.

The study, which covers aeronautical research centers from 1907 to 1945, focuses particularly on the period between 1933 and 1945. It highlights how organizations that eventually formed the DLR engaged in "injustices" and participated in Nazi atrocities. Researchers found evidence of forced labor across all predecessor legal entities and confirmed fatal outcomes in human experiments.

One key predecessor, the Institute for Aviation Research (DVL), active from 1912 to 1945, is implicated in the deaths of ten to thirty prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp. These individuals perished during experiments conducted by Nazi Air Force doctor Siegfried Ruff, who was studying human survival limits in extreme oxygen and pressure conditions for aeronautical technology development.

Furthermore, several organizations exploited prisoners of war, civilians, and scientists for the development of Nazi Germany's aeronautical products. The DVL alone utilized 231 such workers, including 37 Soviet prisoners of war. The Aerodynamic Research Institute, founded in 1907, employed 50 "Eastern workers", individuals subjected to forced labor, for facility construction in 1943.