From Karstology to War Crimes: Third Reich’s Military and Scientific Exploitation of the Dinaric Karst

This study focuses on the Dinaric Karst under the occupation of the Third Reich from 1943 to 1945. Even before Italy’s capitulation in September 1943, Waffen-SS formed a specialized mountain unit, Karstjäger, for warfare on rugged karst terrain. The unit was proposed and initially led by Hans Brand, a speleologist, and a geologist, who explored this area for military purposes during the First World War as part of the German military-geological unit, sent here to help Austro-Hungarian troops in a fight with Italians. Karstjäger were, and are still, the only military unit created for the sole purpose of warfare in karst area(s). After his dismissal as a commander, Brand established a research center that continued the scientific exploration of the Dinaric Karst for military purposes. Using wartime documents and post-war literature, the author presents this unique science-military nexus, which started with the geographical exploration in Austria-Hungary, peaked during the Isonzo front of the First World War, and ended with numerous war crimes committed by the Karstjäger upon civilians and partisans alike. Current literature on this topic is scarce, focusing only on the military aspect or the military-geological aspect, while at the same time ignoring the archival documents dealing with this subject.