The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and its research facilities were involved in weapons research , experimentation and production in both the First World War and the Second World War . During the Great War , the group , and in particular Fritz Haber , was responsible for introducing poison gas to the War . This was in direct violation of established international law . During World War II , some of the weapons and medical research performed by the KWI was connected to fatal experimentation on living test subjects in concentration camps . In fact , members of the Anthropology Department , particularly Otmar von Verschuer received preserved Jewish bodies for study and display from Auschwitz . These were provided by the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele . As the American forces closed in on the relocated KWI , the organization 's president , Albert Vögler , an industiralist and early Nazi Party backer , committed suicide , knowing he would be held accountable for the group 's crimes and complicity in war crimes . By the end of the Second World War , the KWG and its institutes had lost their central location in Berlin and were operating in other locations . The KWG was operating out of its Aerodynamics Testing Station in Göttingen . Albert Vögler , the president of the KWG , committed suicide on 14 April 1945 . Thereupon , Ernst Telschow assumed the duties until Max Planck could be brought from Magdeburg to Göttingen , which was in the British zone of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany . Planck assumed the duties on 16 May until a president could be elected . Otto Hahn was selected by directors to be president , but there were a number of difficulties to be overcome . Hahn , being related to nuclear research had been captured by the allied forces of Operation Alsos , and he was still interned at Farm Hall in Britain , under Operation Epsilon . At first , Hahn was reluctant to accept the post , but others prevailed upon him to accept it . Hahn took over the presidency three months after being released and returned to Germany . However , the Office of Military Government , United States ( OMGUS ) passed a resolution to dissolve the KWG on 11 July 1946
war crimes
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
Kaiser Wilhelm Society