Jens Scheer

Jens Scheer, was a physicist, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Bremen and one of Germany's best-known anti-nuclear activists. Scheer was member of the Communist Party of Germany party. For reason of his KPD-membership and his political activities, Scheer was threatened in 1975 with the loss of his academic position at the University of Bremen and an interdiction of enacting his profession, as membership in the KPD and his position as university professor were considered incompatible. The legal proceedings lasted for about five years, after which the final verdict was the payment of a fine. One of Scheer's main research interests was low-level radiation and its effects on human beings. He claimed that radiation exposure at critical moments in life weakens the immune system, thus leading to a higher susceptibility to infectious diseases. After the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, he invested considerable efforts in attempting to determine the extent of damage caused in the longer term by this disaster. In an article, Scheer claimed that low-level radiation had caused the death of millions, when all direct and indirect effects of radiation are taken together.