Project Hermod was an institute founded during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm to protect Germany from extraterrestrial threats. Originally known as the Institute of Alien Technology, it was located in a sprawling laboratory beneath Treptower Park with Dr Elbaum as its director.
It had remarkable autonomy and independence until the rise of Nazism, after which Oppenführer Hans Grau and the SS took over because of their tolerance of "the lower races and degenerates". Elbaum was hunted and a number of the other members shot, whilst the others were forced to work for the Third Reich.
In 1945, LeDuc had himself arrested by Grau as part of Torchwood's plan to locate Project Hermod, in which he was successful. (AUDIO: The Dying Room)
During the Battle of Berlin, having been sent to Project Hermod in Berlin to investigate alien fungi, Lizbeth Hayhoe found that Project Hermod had been implanting fungi into children. Shocked with what she had discovered, she burnt Project Hermod to the ground, much to the fury of Reginald Rigsby.
In the mid-1950s, Project Hermod used gangsters to smuggle packages into Soho containing the fungus. The fungi controlled the minds of the taxi drivers and police officers. Norton Folgate, Andy Davidson and Gideon Lyme investigated the fungal spores, which intended to take over the planet. (AUDIO: Parasite)