Erich Wagner

Erich Wagner (15 September 1912 – 22 March 1959) was a German-Austrian SS-Sturmbannführer and camp doctor in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Life Wagner was born on 15 September 1912 in Komotau, Austria-Hungary (now Chomutov, Czech Republic). After completing his school career, Wagner studied medicine at the University of Graz and Innsbruck, among others, and completed his studies in December 1938 with the state examination. Even before Austria's annexation to the German Reich in March 1938, he was involved with the NSDAP and SS, which were banned in Austria.

Eugen Kogon – The SS state: The system of the German concentration camps – Kindler, Reinbek near Hamburg 1974, p. 161f

In June 1940, his thesis, A Contribution to the Tattoo Question was accepted by Friedrich Timm, who had been head of the Institute for Forensic Medicine and Scientific Criminology at the University of Jena since 1938 . At the end of November 1940, Wagner submitted his dissertation, which was later rated “very good”. Wagner graduated with a medical doctorate in September 1941. For this study, 800 tattooed Buchenwald prisoners were examined according to reasons for imprisonment, origin, motivation for tattooing and type of tattoo. In particular, connections between “tattoos and criminality” should be researched. The work was probably mainly written by the Buchenwald prisoner Paul Grünewald and was only accompanied by Wagner. However, the University of Jena was not aware of this. Wagner was ultimately charged by the Offenburg regional court for his crimes committed in Buchenwald and committed suicide while in custody in Oberkirch prison in March 1959.