Heinz Brücher

Who was Heinz Brücher?

Heinz Brücher was a member of special science unit SS Ahnenerbe, PhD in botany.

In June 1943, 28-year-old Untersturmführer Brücher was tasked with an expedition to the Soviet Union. Hauptsturmführer Konrad von Rauch and an interpreter identified as 'Steinbrecher' were also involved in the expedition. Brücher is also known as the person who saved and preserved a significant part of the scientific legacy of Nikolai Vavilov.

In February 1945, Brücher was ordered to destroy the 18 research facilities that were being studied, to avoid their capture by advancing Soviet forces. He refused, and after the second world war Brücher emigrated to Argentina and received there in 1948 a professorship in genetics and botany at University of Tucumán, then in Caracas, Asunción and later in Mendoza and Buenos Aires.

Brücher wrote a number of books on the history of grain, origin, evolution and domestication of tropical plants as well as the monograph Useful plants of neotropical origin and their wild relatives.