Manfred von ardenne

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Manfred von Ardenne

1955-1990 A New Home in Dresden

After ten years of internment in the Soviet Union, Manfred von Ardenne decided on a life in the socialist part of Germany. Looking back in his biography of 1997, he explained that this choice prevented him having to give up the equipment which came from the laboratory at Lichterfelde. This had the highest priority with regard to his future research work. But the memories of the rule of terror of the National Socialist regime and the resulting hope of actively influencing the young socialist state played a significant part in the making of the decision.

The new beginning in the German Democratic Republic was made easier by a series of concessions and privileges on the part of leading politicians, who promised themselves an international image triumph thanks to the decision of the scientist. The researcher chose Dresden as a new home for himself and his family as well as a new location for his institute. He had already begun planning during internment in 1951 and he asked his brother in law Otto Hartmann, who lived in West Berlin, to find a suitable property. He in his turn engaged Johannes Richter, an engineer from Zwickau, who found two attractive properties at "Weißer Hirsch", a suburb of Dresden. The answer from the Soviet Union was positive and clear; and although von Ardenne only got to see photographs of the house, he pressed for an immediate purchase. A short time later he set up his research institute at “Weißer Hirsch”, and also lived there with his family.
25th anniversary of the Research Institute in Weißer Hirsch

Manfred von Ardenne Institute

Manfred von Ardenne led the institute that bore his name from 1955 to 1990, at times employing about 500 staff. It acquired an international reputation as the birthplace of important innovations.

At the beginning, the focus of the work was in electron, ion, nuclear physics and over microscopy, and later in medical electronics and basic research in biomedicine. The institute pursued research in close connection with industry. Industrial facilities using melting, cutting and coating were developed from different materials, all based on electron and ion sources.
The biochemist Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1931.

Research in Medicine

In the 1960s, von Ardenne met the Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg several times. Inspired by Warburg’s research into aerobic changes in fermenting agents in cancer cells, he turned to a completely new area of interest: medicine, and especially cancer therapy. After a period of research over several years, the polymath scientist and his staff developed the systemic Cancer Multi-step Therapy (sKMT), in which cancer cells and metastases were combated in a defined combination of steps, using chemotherapy where necessary. The basis of this therapy is an extreme hypothermia of the whole body combined with targeted over-acidification of the tumor and an oxygen feed. Manfred von Ardenne worked on cancer research up to the end of his life.
Elements of the Oxygen Multi-step Therapy

Oxygen Multi-step Therapy

In the 1970s, regular clashes with the authoritarian state and the uncertain outcome for the institute which resulted took their toll: Manfred von Ardenne suddenly became severely bedridden without however losing his mental capacities. The doctors treating him could not discover any organic cause and estimated he would live for two more years. Von Ardenne accepted that his illness was a “general lack of energy” and hit up on the idea of inhaling from an oxygen gas cylinder several times a day. Thanks to his research in cellular energy status while working on systemic cancer multi-step therapy, he knew the importance of oxygen as an agent against debilities and was proved right. With a few days he regained his old quality of life, and from this experience developed Oxygen Multi-step Therapy, which is today an internationally well known and widely used natural medical treatment.

The scientist was able to protect his institute - which as a private enterprise was unique among the socialist states - from nationalization and survived as a businessman under socialism up to German reunification.

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Manfred von ardenne

1955-1990 A New Home in Dresden

Manfred von Ardenne Institute

Research in Medicine

Oxygen Multi-step Therapy