The virus on its way to Germany

The virus reaches Berlin

Since 1937 what was initially loose cooperation in viral research had begun to take on a clearer profile. Finally, in 1941 the Workshop for Virus Research was founded at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for Biochemistry and Biology.

The group took the tobacco mosaic virus as its model organism. Stanley's virus crystals provided the incentive to investigate the protein-based “building blocks” more closely. Georg Melchers, for instance, compared naturally occurring variants of the tobacco mosaic virus. Gerhard Schramm's experiments indicated that the infection did not originate from the protein at all. As early as 1936 two British scientists had found components of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in addition to protein in the tobacco mosaic virus. The Berlin group was also experimenting on TMV. Yet as they still firmly believed that Stanley was right in his assumptions, it was in Tübingen that the infectious effect was first demonstrated – the second stage of the virus on its journey to Stuttgart.