INSTALLATIONS OF THE SERUM-WERK VEB DESSAU (FORMERLY ASID)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R016300350010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 23, 2003
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: February 13, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

CLAS'.31C7CATION
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MiLITION 'REPORT CD NO.
COUNTRY East (leraany
SUBJECT instalictions of the real-Work
VEB Dosmu (fornerly Aiijj
PLACE
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DATE DISTR.,. F?11-47;?,
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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STATE
AR?MsTir
1. The following four instaalations are subdivisions of the Serum-Werk VEB
Dessau:
a. The main institute is in Dessau (N53 -50,E12.15), about 200 muters
west of the Dessau main railroad station, at 1 3 Seminarplatz
the junction of Seminarpiatz, sometimes called Herzogin Marie Platz,
and jahnstrasse,
b. The quarantine station and small-animal breeding station 18 in the
Luisium in Dessau-Waldersee. shout 3 kilometers from the center of
the city.
.c. The depirtment for the production of immunizing sera, i.e, sera from
horses, ottle and sheep, is in Tornau vot: der Elbe, with about 2000
morgens-?lof farm land attached to it.
d. The production department for re'd mrain (erysipelas) serum from
pigs is on the Ilottenau farm, formerly called the Enoblauchhof
3 kilometers from Loburg (352.07,E12.04 in -,;he Magdeburg district
about 55 kilometers from Dessau; a total of 4000 morgen of agricul-
turally-used ground surrounds this department.
2. The chemical factory in Bernburg (N51)03, Ea1.44), the so-called "Studienanstaltu,
study institute, was given to the PharMa VVB in 1950 or 1951 by the Serum-Werk.
The ?harms. VVB immediately turned this installation over to one of the seveml
chemical-pharmaceutical pJants (Gervos, Halle, or other )-then under its admInis-
traAon.
3. The agricultural establishments in Tornau were returned to thelcskor, the State,
since the .agricultural establishments in Tornau required a yearly subsidy of
30,000 to 40,00o East-Marks.
The main institute in Dessau is comprised of the foi)o-ding;
a. "old building" with a small-anima).honse snd
b. the annex
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c. the typhus cover vaccane building
d. the administeation building
e. various barracks (mese, meeting and camp barracks
5 The "old building", built in 1924 to accommodate a hygienic institute, contains
3 laboratory sectionta namely human medicine, veterinary medicine, and ehemist s
Esce floor has a larpt main laboratory in addition to soma smaller laborateriee
and rooms for the adr4nistration of the respective sections. The building con-
siste of a ground floor and two additional stories as well as a cellar under tee
eatlre.building. The buildiee is approximately 14 meters long and 10 meters eede.
The cellar is used foe the filtration, bottling, and storage of serum; it bous*s
the boiler installation, which is much too small, for buildings 1 and .2. The
collectiaz and peoceseing of retroplacentary aerua into "Zomnseran" takes place
on the ground level floor wbere there ere also rooms for testing serum, On the
second floor are a department for anti-tetanus and anti-diphteria protective
vaccines, laboratorios. for veterinary diagnostics. and anaerobe vaccines for vet-
erinary medicine. The third floor houses the collection of the various praductien
strains of becteria ned laboratories for the defferential diagnosis of the etrains,
Buieding I was extenetvely destroyed by fire in March 1944 but was reconstructed
in ?*46. The equipment in this building is adequate but net upeto-date. The
laxxatories are comptively small and: the corridors on the second and third floor
are very aerrow.
The emal.% animel housa was added to the ? "old building" in 1950-51, and ie about
12 enters by 6 meters, Dissection of the experimental animals is performed in the
cellar. The unused experimental animals the animals kept in stock, the bulk of
which are in the LuiwWm) and the animals infected or otherwise put on test. are
kept separated from each other on the ground floor. The second floor houses the
snake farm, in which up to 1,000 sand vipers (Vipera ammodytes) and about 4 rattle
sealtes (Crotalus species) are kept.. Venom iiecollected and processed oily for the
preparation of the injectable snake velem solutions- used In the treatment of rheuma-
tism (Viprasid) and .for the taerapy of epilepsy. (Epileptasid). Snake bite antisera
are not produced nor is venom furnished to other plants. The production of veneo
is barely sufficient to fulfill the commercial- demand
7, The "Nubilosa" room tbuilding 9) was formerly the experimental animal house and is
ahoui-Tmeters 1)5-4' neters with a basement under only part of the building. TIle
ground floor is en thq street level and the 2nd floor is used as a fodder room
Until October 1951, the building contained an evaporation installation 2 old-
fashioned vacuum eval?restors) and a smell spraying installation 'Nubilcsa;
installation), which as far aa is known was used only occasionally after the war
During the war a yeses; peptone was produced on a large scale and utilized for the
preparation of nutrieut media. This building 'wee situatelauch too close to Building,
1 and so hampered the passage of passenger care and trucks that it was scheduled to
be torn dovn in 1952
8, Building 2, oriented en a no th-south directioe, was added to eht "old building" in
1939, because the requirer4ents for vaccines, demands for which origiaated chiefly
with the Wehrmacbt, could no longer be met in the "old building". Building 2 is
about 45 meters long and. 10 meters wide. Except for a few rooms on the ground floor,
It as destroyed by fere following an air raid on Dessau in March 1944. It was recon-
structed in 1946-47-veth.tvo seories instead'of the three stories it contained prior
to its destruction,- Present use of the building is as follows: cellar-store reams
of various kinds for raw and eueiliary materiels, vaccines and sera for finished
praducts; ground floor- arrival of goods, ? receipt of finished products, rooms for
the plant technologists, and some laboratories; second floor- central bottle wash-
lug department for sera and vaecines, sterilization and nutrient media kitchen for
all Dessau departmenta. ? Capaeity of the nutrient media kitchen is much too small;
installation of a large addieional nutrient media kitchen with auxiliary installa-
tiers in Building 3 had been planned. On the second floor there are also several
laboratoriee for the aroduction of veterinary vaccines', red murrain cultures, and
tuberculin. Several 'large inclibetire chambers making mass production poseibIe are
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teatailed in varioue eo ms on the greend and seecnd nears. in the "ole building",
howeeer0 are only ore old, mall incubating chamber and one new, large eee.
9. In tee cellar of Builling 20 a low-temperature refrigeratioe cpparatus, permi tine
serua purification according to Cohn 's method, was to be installed by the end of
1951. In October 1951 the low-temperature refrigeration machene had aereedy
areieed and its installation vas almost completed.
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10. Builliug 2 as originally a large-dimensional lnyeut but ha e by order of the Sit
been ee subdivided that a oeparate laboratory i5 available for almose every vaccine.
Boveeer, Building 2 is not wide enough, the corridern are too narrow and the est
side is not sufficiently protected against the sun, Deepite these deficiencies, the
lareat quantities of vaccenes have so fax been produced in this buildeee.
Typhi s fever vaccine bui1ding0 building eac ee?Ited in 1942 for the preduction of
typhes fever vaccine and was equipped, in .1ccr.:rr=.ce with uyld:rn princieles0 exc./tie
eivoly for bacteriological purposes. Bu:Ildin,7 3 is adversely eiteaeed as it is
separated be ea puneec street from the adminieti-Rtin building ark. the beildings des-
cribed thus far. A heavy traffic of TAfffehGtk pa d cOilttnuously between these
25X1 twa 4az'ts of the plent. Buiidine 3 ia 35 metere long and. out
13 mekers wide. In 1951-52 it was to be extended end providel with an adelitienal
storyt2 Fr em later ieformaticn, bui/dine 3 16 um' 45 umfters long, 13 meters wide and
has a 'basement, a grolnd floor and, as a new aeditIon, a fieceed story. The basement
contains, in its northern part, the pharmaceutical. department; in. the middle, the
-
washing instelletion for the pharmaceutical department, and, since, the teller cepaeity
in the "old building" was no longer sufficieet, a greatey expeeded beiler instaelation.
Towaed the uouth, a large nutrient media kitehen capable of meeting all requirements
'VAS o be added. The inspection department ichemeeal, the laboratories for thc
apprentices oriented along chemicaa lines) and seme reems of the research and develope
ing department are- on the second floor toward the ,Iast, while toeard the west there
are several bottling and storage moms. An incdnating eoom ie 4664Jetien ee mrry small
incubators and refrigerators, an also on the sc.,,;nd feeor,
12. According to the riand, the production feciliti?s for lsd murmin swine orysipolis)
adsorbate vaccines were to be accommodated on the ntire third floor of building 3.
When this department actually occupies the wtole per stors, it will, if operated
the year-round, mak* possible the production of mcre red leu=lin eesorbate vaccine
than is needed in the East Zone. He the mase ceetevetten of bacteria meld, if
necaesary, be carried out on a considerable scale.
13. On the second flyer of building 3 is a room with low-teeperettre refrigeratioe
inetallations of the Mudd and Flocdorf type, The unitee ceerceponding to those
shown by echematie illustrations in the publications of these authors, ire made
of gines. They were not regulaely in operation and up to ectober 1951 no per-
maneet or apecialized operation of them was provided. Therf)re, up to October
1951 the vacuum-drying of mass cultures ef bacteria would net have been poseible
14. Building e vas net destroyed be the fire which destroyed mueh of Dessau but Imo
demolished by a bomb which had fallen nearby. Duildene 1 vas the first building
put into operation after the breakdown. It was, End is tod,?.y, the most modern
and taost efficient building of the peseau plant,
15. Connected with building 3 by an archway, in vhieh the gateman'e apartment is
locaeed, is the woresnep with a garage for five peesenger can or trucks, but
only 2 or 3 CarE art avai:.ab:hoe at the Institute at this time
16. The second administration building building no. 61 was rentei jv 1951 as an
addi-don to the other buildings. It is a multiple-family vilia, 15 meters by
8 m4e..ers, and has a small third story_ Except for tee. guard rene of the Volkeeolieei
(reception room) and me visitor's room, ale roeme are used be administrative units,
The offices of the plant manager, deputy plant manager, techncal manager, commer-
cial manager, chief accountant, and their secretaries are located en the second floor
of this building.
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17. South of building 3 are two military barracks, each 4o meters in length, welch
were.chletly used for Etoring raw and auxiliary materiale. Old supplies of serum
were etored in concrete-lined air raid shelters located here, but these shelter
proved unsuitable for thispurpooe due to the formation of mould. North of build-
lug 3 there is a harracks(building no. 5), 15 by 10 meters, which serves al; a
canteen and a mess hall and ie uned for meetings; it is.to be replaced by a
.'culture palace" as soon as the tate will appropriate the nee*ssary 'investment
money'.
18. The quarantine station and smalleanimal breeding station in the Luisium represents
the former erum plant of Asid in the years 1925 to .1936 and was the former stud .
stables of the Duke of anhalt, There are accommodation facilities for about thirty
horses in. a brick stable and for about one hundred more in several barracks. Further-
more, there ia,a brick table ueed as a breeding station for guinea pigs., rabbits,
End mace. There are sixty-sixmorgens(eighte*n hectares) of. meadows around the
installation. The plant is capable of producing serump including the preelection ef
cultures an contains. installations for the filtration and sterilization of the uerum.
Large-scale production ef bacteraal cultures wuuid not have been possible with the
installations in use in October 195/. Because of its. isolated location eezasiona
infectious experiments with pigs, e.g. hog cholera and swine erysipelas, are carried
out in the Luisium,
19. The production. departmeut for immunizing sera from horses, cattle, and sheep at
Tornae-on-Elbe is located 300 meters north of the Tornau station at the state road
from Pessau to Magdeburg and coneists of 2 tracts of "I'"? the agricultural
or farm tractaend.the peodaction department trect. Both 25X1
tract u of buildings aro separated from each other., eeeseruction of the serum
statien was started shortly before and completedduring World War 11. The serum
&station was comprised of one stone barracks with an operating room and all the
necesvery rooms for the productiov of vaccine, serum evaivatSon, and serum pro-
ductien; one stone barracks for the dissection of large animals, and five stooe
barracks (some of theta very large) in which altogether up to five hundred nerge
animals could be kept. Two of ft:wee barracks were destroyed at the end of the war,
but there are still accommodation facilities for about two hundred- and fifty horses
or cattle and a herd of rams.
20. Following the detection of centagious anemia among the solid-hoofed animals in the
Deesau plant (Tornau and Luisium) it 1947, at which time all the horses had tc be
nlaughtered , the Soviets ordered the splitting up of the large general horse
stables into small stables.- These small stables were to be separated from each
other with regard to the control of contagious diseases end were each to have
nccommodation facilities for only eight horses. The onteration of the buildings
has been carried Out In addition, all. passages had to be provided with concrete
coverings.
. -Taken as a mhele, the Tornau serum station is probably the one with the greatest
capacity and, apart from the installations on Riems Island, the most modern in
East Germany,
22 There was never any large-scale oroduetion of bacteria or virus in Tornau prior
to October, 1951. However, the installations could readily be adapted for this
purpooe.
23. During the, war bacteriological work was conducted in the distillery in the south
tract- of the Tornau fare. After the war, however, the interior equipment was ,
removed.
24. The stock of animals in Tornau in 1951 wes.about the following: a maximua
number of one hundred. horses for diphteria and tetanus, and only e few horses
for testing each one ot the follow-lag .coliv paratyphoid enteritis,.
pyosepticat visdOsum, and various ether sera; a maximum number of twenty-five
.cattle for testing the same kinds of serum, and fifty sheep i'or testing diphtheria.
serum,
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25. A large format Rotteneh (near ?:,burg) was assegeed to Asid by the Soviets in
1946 with the task of producingimmenizing serum agairet Ochweinepest (hog
cholera) for German farms under oviet administration. To aceomplish this Asid
built on this farm a.completely isolated and fenced-in eerum production plant
with its own slaughterhouie. The cost WIAA about 360,0(0 Reich Marks. (See
26. The discontinuance of the order after about 11 yeare Jett Asid with the prob-
lem of finding some other function for the plant, whfeh was set-up primarily
for the prophylactie immunization of pigs with. horse eerem. Through the out--
break of infectious anemia among the .horses, a very Lever* ahortage of red
murraia serum occurred, but mimeo the price of the seeum did not matter, the
production of pig immunizing serum against redeurren was initiated. Prior to
October 1951, about 14,000 -liters hadebeen produeed and a production of about
6,000 liters per year vus possible.
27e The serum plant conasted of one small. laboratory building, an annex tp the
mansion house, in which the cultures for the immueizetion were prepared. It
also contained one operating room for the simuiteeveee bioodevithdraval and
immunization of 52 many as five pigs, several large pig :ns accommodating about-
six hundred pigs taking part, in the immunization pieeedure, one aleughteriee room,
and one meat packing pIant
28. The personnel of the preduction pant numbered thirty-five persons in the fall ef
1951,
29. The farm cooperated with the serum plant by furnishing fodder and by participating
In the breeding of pigs.
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Rottenau is unsuited for conversion into a large-scale bacteriologi-
cal plant, but it would. not be difficult to produce keleveinepest virus there on a
:Argo scale and if the 'necessary drying equipment weic ieetelled, to dry and stere it,
31. It follows therefore that in the case et necessity, Beelding 3 and possibly else
Building 2 would be suited for tee preparation of bacteria cultures. As of 1951e,
however, the drying installations were not sufficient [or mese production. A pre-
requisite for such a production would be the perfect verking of the high-pressure
steam boilers, without which the necessary large eventjties of agents grown, upon
nutrient .media could n*t be produced..
32.
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25XJ3.
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During World War
Building 3.
ehis production
11 virus proreeation on eggs was rractiied on a large scale in
by instelJing inneetiee traps and incubators
started again at any time,
eouee be
serem. station i
size. Ikaoreer,
for the yroduction of viree nem animals the Rottenau
best auited on account of its ieeleled location and its large
no indications that leech production was planned,
314. The production program of the Serias-Werk VB Dessau rtnains much the same as it
eas been over the past two decades, As far as is kncen, new peeparations, with
the exception of red murrain Al?3HJ3 adscrbato vaccine, have not been added since
October 1951. Purified tuberculin preparations were aleeady completely develoyed
orior to that time and scheduled for production. Prediction of a protective
eaecine against atypical Gefluegelpest (New Castle's e sense in poultry by the
Traub process had been taken over by the Ricans island leperimeeted Station prior
to 1932. Otherwise, the production program and the teehnological situation in
October 1951 correspon6ed to the situation of about 1935 New developments of a
noteverthy character and virus research work were not being conducted,
35, Typhus virus has not been vorked with since 1945 ane influenza virus only for
a short time when an influenza epidemic was al,egod4y underway. An anti-
influenza vaccination using the Professor Herzberg, vaccine was to be manufactured
but the preduatiOn of this vaccine was not possible.
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36. Divided into principal produces, the production of the Dessau eeruseplant iu.1951
cempristd:
4/
a) Immunizing sera; most of them not purified, against diphtheria and tetanus;
Retropleeentary serum, not purified (Homosexual);
(c) Plasma proparatiens for the transfusion of blood, if eny, on a small saleonly);
d) Aluminum hydroxide vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, sad scarlet feverL
eel Vaccines against typhoid and paratyphoid B, whooping cough, and gonorrhea
ft Veterinary sera and veterinary vaccines;
Solutions of the hormont. of the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, en
a small scale;
Tuterculines 'Cpurified) and diagnostic tuberculin ointments.
37. Artibietics mere not given out for veterinary medic inc purposes up to October
3,951 btt preliminary negotiatione with Jenepharm had been conducted for this
perposce Since depot drugs are necessary for veterinary medicine and Jenaeharm
did not produce enough procaine penicillin, the Deseau serum plant did not give
cut even one mega of penicillin to the veterinarians of East Germany until late
1951, Streptomycin and aureomycin are scarcely available for humans and amulet
even be considered for the treatment of animals,
? 38. :!,h,e production capacity of the Deosau lant is limited both from the standpoint
suptly and from the asandpointof the purchasers. The eituation was such that
eten a particular kind of serum OT vaccine was needed, the necessary raw and
auxiliary materials .Noreed, agar, meat) could not be procured in time hence the
physicians and. -veterinarians resorted to some other meaas. After production had
25X1 startee, the specialized demand frequently vaniehed because the need no longer
existed, and it became .difficult to sell the materials,
39 the size of the installations and the existence of a large
staff of more or less well-trained, competent personnel would,, with proper
management and with the availability of the necessary raw and auxiliary materials,
make poseible a very laree production. During World War IT the Asid Serum institute
produced a considerable eart of all vaccines required: hy the Wehrmacht with much
enallee installations then the ones available todaye
40. luey estimates would Of neceosity be inaccurate, lleseever,by outfitting the plant with
Gond e;ecul;ive person4t\ and eetablishing an adequate supply of raw materiels, pre-
deetion could probably b-a increased to eeveral ttmes the present amount without
difficelty.
41? At the present time the eroduction of the Dessau plant
factory and insufficient.
In any case, up to October
excepteen,
42. Up to ehat time production difficulties at the serum plant in Deescu repeatedly
caused sharp arguments between the plant manager and the technical tanager,
25X1 Dr. Hoenig, after the departure of DraeUeinig, mho,pecording
25X1 has changed over to aiems Island, production
25X1 difficulties stlU persesteu. I iot knoe who the present technical
menage:, is.
is in many regards untati
1951 caps in the supply erre
the rale rather than tae
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Comments:
1 According to the U.S. Army Air Forces Dictionary, one morgen of land is
equal to 0.8)4 scres, in the south of Germany; end 0,631 acres, in the north.
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The "Richtfestli, G feast customarily given to German workmen when the
framework of e 'atAlding is completed, took place in mid-summer 1952
3. A brief biograpAy of Dr. Kurt Herzberg is given by Kuerschner's in
column 792,
4. I. the United Stetes all sera offered comaerclally are purified, in
Western Europe 5r4, of that offered commercially may be purified, whereas
In Eastern Europq?.: no attempt appears to be made to purify the Gera.
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