DESSAUER, FRIEDRICH

DESSAUER, FRIEDRICH (1881–1963), German engineer, biophysicist, and philosopher. Born in Aschaffenburg, Dessauer originally worked in the X-ray industry, and in 1921 became professor of biophysics at Frankfurt. He was a Center Party member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933, and editor of the Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung und Handelsblatt. When   the Nazis came to power he fled to Istanbul, where in 1934 he set up the biophysical and radiological institute. He became professor of experimental physics at Fribourg, Switzerland, 1937, but returned to Frankfurt in 1950 and was reappointed to a professorship there. Dessauer wrote numerous scientific books and articlesas well as many philosophical works. The chief of these were Leben, Natur, Religion (1924, 19262), Philosophie der Technik (1927, 19333), Mensch und Kosmos (1948), Die Teleologie in der Natur (1949), Prometheus und die Weltuebel (1959), and Wasist der Mensch? Die vier Fragen des Immanuel Kant (1959). He analyzed the assumptions of science and technology and their connections with philosophical and religious principles. (Richard H. Popkin)