One of the brightest minds to emerge from the Soviet-influenced society of East Germany, Lukas Kaufmann excelled as a scientist in biological fields and headed a secret weapons project that involved the testing of viruses on living humans. He came to know Dr. Elsa Weissinger several years later at the Immunologie Universitat of Hamburg where he lectured her, resulting in a brief romantic relationship between the two. Kaufmann explained that they were developing biological weapons and he began to imagine eradicating all diseases from the world.