Karl Astel (26 February 1898 – 4 April 1945) was an Alter Kämpfer, rector of the University of Jena, a racial scientist, and also involved in the German Nazi Eugenics program.
Astel was employed by the Technical University Munich as a sports advisor.
After Karl Astel became rector of the University of Jena in 1939 he tried to form the ideal SS-university ("SS-Muster-Universität").
Astel and his like-minded comrades like Heinz Brücher, Gerhard Heberer, Victor Julius Franz, Johann von Leers and Lothar Stengel-von Rutkowski considered Ernst Haeckel as their forerunner.
[citation needed] On 4 April 1945, Karl Astel shot himself in a hospital (that was headed by the rheumatologist Wolfgang Veil).