[1] Following his death, Strughold's activities in Germany during World War II came under greater scrutiny in the media and evidence of his involvement in Nazi-era human experimentation greatly damaged his legacy.
While continuing his studies at Würzburg, Strughold served as a research assistant to the eminent physiologist Dr. Maximilian von Frey and later to Dr. Paul Hoffmann at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, completing his habilitation (Dr. med.
After being named an associate professor of Physiology at Würzburg, Strughold's attention was increasingly drawn to the emerging science of aviation medicine and he collaborated with the famed World War I pilot Robert Ritter von Greim to study the effects of high-altitude flight on human biology.
Though he was a civilian researcher, the majority of the studies and projects Strughold's institute undertook during this time were commissioned and financed by the German armed forces (principally the Luftwaffe) as part of the Nazi's ongoing policy of re-armament preceding World War II.
With the outbreak of war in 1939, the organization was absorbed into the German military and incorporated into the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe where it was rechristened as the "Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine" and placed under the command of Surgeon-General (Generaloberstabsarzt) Erich Hippke.
In February 1942, Schutzstaffel (SS) physician Hauptsturmführer Sigmund Rascher collaborated with Luftwaffe aviation scientists Hermann Becker-Freyseng, Siegfried Ruff and Hans-Wolfgang Romberg [de] to plan and carry out a number of aeromedical experiments in which inmates from the Dachau concentration camp served as human test subjects.
In October 1942 Rascher delivered a presentation to a medical conference in Nuremberg in which he detailed the findings of his freezing experiments at Dachau to the attendees, Hubertus Strughold and Luftwaffe Surgeon-General Erich Hippke among them.
In addition, several Luftwaffe officials associated with Strughold's Institute for Aviation Medicine, including his former research assistant Dr. Hermann Becker-Freyseng and his ex-commanding officer Oskar Schröder, were convicted of crimes against humanity in connection with the Dachau experiments at the 1946–1947 Nuremberg Doctor's Trial.
He also began working on behalf of the US Army Air Force, becoming Chief Scientist of its Aeromedical Center, which was located on the campus of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research.
[3] It was while at Randolph Field that Strughold began conducting some of the first research into the potential medical challenges posed by space travel, in conjunction with fellow "Paperclip Scientist" Dr. Heinz Haber.
[6] Under Strughold, the School of Aviation Medicine conducted pioneering studies on issues such as atmospheric control, the physical effects of weightlessness and the disruption of normal time cycles.
Between 1952 and 1954 he would oversee the building of the space cabin simulator, a sealed chamber in which human test subjects were placed for extended periods of time in order to view the potential physical, biological and psychological effects of extra-atmospheric flight.
During his collaboration with NASA, Strughold played a central role in designing the pressure suit and onboard life support systems used by both the Gemini and Apollo astronauts.
In 1983 he was awarded the Federal Order of Merit by the government of West Germany and the Texas State Senate declared June 15 "Hubertus Strughold Day" in his honor in 1985.
During his work on behalf of the US Air Force and NASA, Strughold was the subject of three separate US government investigations into his suspected involvement in war crimes committed under the Nazis.
A 1958 investigation by the Justice Department turned up no derogatory information and fully exonerated Strughold, while a second inquiry launched by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1974 was later abandoned citing a lack of evidence.
While, unlike the Dachau experiments, all the test subjects survived the research process, this revelation led the Society of Air and Space Medicine to abolish a major award bearing Strughold's name.
The move was met with opposition from defenders of Strughold, citing his many notable contributions to the American space program and the lack of any formal proof of his direct involvement in war crimes.