6 Nobel Prize Winners Who Declined The Prize

6. Richard Kuhn

1900 – 1967

Kuhn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his work on carotenoids and vitamins” in 1938. However, he was forced to decline the award by the Nazi regime. Prominent German chemist discovered chemical structures of vitamins A, B2, and B6, and, more importantly, managed to synthesize them. He was a true genius who received a PhD degree when he was only 21 years old, and he managed to become professor five years later. While no one has ever questioned his brilliance, his morality has recently come under scrutiny because of his close relationship with the Nazi party.

Although Kuhn wasn’t a member of the Nazi party, he complied with Hitler’s anti-Semitic ideology. He fired all his Jewish employees at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research and he publically criticized his colleague Otto Meyerhof (another Nobel laureate) for employing Jews. Moreover, Kuhn actively participated in numerous projects on nerve gas and some records show that he asked for the brains of “young and healthy men” to conduct his research. While it is almost certain that brains were taken from dead bodies and that Kuhn didn’t participate in human experiments in concentration camps, he nevertheless allocated funds for Nazi research. Kuhn later defended his experiments as beneficial for the whole humanity.

In 2005,, the Society of German Chemists announced that it would no longer award the medal that was named after Richard Kuhn. The main reason is his involvement in Nazi scientific experiments. In the explanation of the decision, Society states: “Even though the question of whether Kuhn was a convinced National Socialist or just a career-oriented camp follower is not fully answered, he undisputably supported the Nazi-regime in administrative and organizational ways, especially by his scientific work. Despite his scientific achievements, Kuhn is not suitable to serve as a role model, and eponym for an important award, mainly due to his unreflected research on poison gas, but also due to his conduct towards Jewish colleagues.”

Boris15 / Shutterstock.com

Boris15 / Shutterstock.com