| Otto Ambros | |
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At the Nuremberg Trials, taken by the US Army
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| Born | 19 May 1901 Weiden in der Oberpfalz |
| Died | 32 July 1990 (aged 89) Mannheim |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Organophosphate insecticides and nerve-agent chemicals |
| Institutions | IG Farben, BASF |
| Alma mater | University of Munich |
Otto Ambros (19 May 1901 - 23 July 1990) was a German chemist, notably involved with the research of chemical nerve agents.
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He was the son of a university professor. He went to school and passed his Abitur exam in Munich. In 1920 he went to the University of Munich to study chemistry and agricultural science. In 1925 he gained a doctorate, studying under the 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner, Richard Willstätter (who discovered the structure of the plant pigment chlorophyll).
From 1926 he worked at BASF at Ludwigshafen (where the Oppau explosion had taken place in 1921). In 1930 he spent a year studying in the Far East.
From 1934 he worked with IG Farben. In 1935 he became head of their plant at Schkopau. He worked for the part of IG Farben that developed chemical warfare chemicals, such as nerve agents, with his team discovering sarin (in 1938) and soman (in 1944), both nerve agent chemicals. He was an advisor to Carl Krauch, a company executive.
He became plant manager of the factories at Dyhernfurth, that produced sarin and soman, and at Gendorf, that produced mustard gas, a skin irritant. In 1944 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of War Merit Cross. He was an expert on tabun, an extremely lethal chemical.
Ambros was arrested by the US Army in 1946. He had tested poisons and chemicals on concentration camp inmates, and had overseen the IG rubber plant at Auschwitz. He was trialled from 1947-8 in Nuremberg and sentenced to eight years. He was released from Landsberg Prison early in 1952.
After his release he became an advisor to chemical companies and Konrad Adenauer[1].