Illustrations
Unless otherwise specified, all the photographs are reproduced with kind permission of the Archives of the Max Planck Society, Berlin-Dahlem. Chapter 1, relating to the foundational era, is the only chapter with illustrations.
1
The Farm Hall house, near Cambridge, where ten German physicists (Erich Bagge, Kurt Diebner, Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Werner Heisenberg, Horst Korsching, Max von Laue, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Karl Wirtz) were detained from July 1945 to early January 1946 (photo by Erich Bagge).
2
Left to right: Werner Heisenberg, Max von Laue, and Otto Hahn in Göttingen, soon after their return to Germany on January 3, 1946.
3
Left to right: Otto Hahn, Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, Werner and Elisabeth Heisenberg, and Werner Hoppenstedt. Göttingen, March 8, 1949.
4
The Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen on Bunsenstrasse, housed since the summer of 1946 in Building No. 10 of the Aerodynamics Research Institute (AVA), which formerly contained a cooling tunnel.
5
The library of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen.
6
Werner Heisenberg (right) at CERN in 1960 with Edoardo Amaldi and Giuseppe Fidecaro (left). Fidecaro was one of the first physicists to work at the Geneva international laboratory (© CERN Archives).
7
Left to right: Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Louis Leprince-Ringuet, and Bruno Rossi during the Summer School on “Nuclear Physics and Cosmic Rays” held in Varenna, Lake Como from July 26 to August 2, 1954.
8
Otto Hahn and Frédéric Joliot-Curie in Lindau, 1958, at the 8th Nobel Laureate Meeting dedicated to chemistry. Joliot-Curie died only a few weeks later.
9
Max Planck (left) and Max von Laue (right) in Göttingen, 1947.
10
The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin-Dahlem, with the laboratory for low-temperature physics visible on the right. Photo taken at the institute’s inauguration in 1938.
11
The Cockcroft-Walton accelerator in the tower building of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin-Dahlem, 1938.
12
Max Planck congratulates Otto Hahn for having been awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry “for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei.” Max von Laue, Adolf Windaus, and Werner Heisenberg are visible in the background.
13
Göttingen at the beginning of the 1950s. Klaus Gottstein and Werner Heisenberg, on the left Fritz Houtermans.
14
Inflation of the balloons that would lift the weight of photographic plates in order to study the nuclear reactions generated by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere, April 17, 1952.
15
Göttingen, October 1951. The Federal President, Theodor Heuss, during a visit to the Max Planck Institute for Physics, sitting at a microscope and observing a photographic plate with Martin Teucher; behind them stands Ms. Baumbach.
16
Fritz Houtermans observing a photographic plate through a microscope in April 1948.
17
The working group for the study of nuclear processes in photographic plates on a lunch break, March 1952. Left to right: Ms. Ahrens, Juan Roederer, Christa Schriel, Alfred Gierer, Xula Vigon, Klaus Gottstein, and Ms. Baumbach.
18
Institute’s excursion in “the old eagle,” (Heisenberg’s old car). Left to right: Juan Roederer, H.M. Mayer, ?, ?, Klaus Gottstein.
19
Women scanning nuclear emulsions with microscopes, March 12, 1954. From left to right: Ms. Bischoff, Ahrens, S. Koebe, Behm, Baumbach, Arndt, and Pätzold.
20
Max Planck Institute for Physics, spring 1954. Left to right: Klaus Gottstein, Ms. Baumbach, Schriel, Ahrens, Lindenberger, Bette, and H.-M. Mayer.
21
Klaus Gottstein on the ship used for the recovery of photographic plates, from which balloons were launched in the Mediterranean Sea.
22
Naples, early 1950s. Departure of two darex balloons, in the background is the Göttingen group’s hut.
23
International collaboration in Sardinia. Filling of darex balloons, June-August 1953
24
The wreath-laying ceremony on the hundredth birthday of Max Planck, Göttingen, April 23, 1958. From left to right: Otto Hahn, Ludwig Biermann, Werner Heisenberg, and Ernst Telschow.
25
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (left) and Karl Wirtz (right) during the General Meeting of the Max Planck Society in Munich in 1951.
26
Ludwig Prandtl in the wind tunnel at the Aerodynamics Research Institute, Göttingen, 1940.
27
Biermann sitting at his desk in Göttingen, April 1948.
28
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker at his desk in Göttingen, April 1948.
29
Laboratory of the Max Planck Institut für Instrumentenkunde in 1948, where Heinz Billing invented the first magnetic storage system for computers.
30
Heinz Billing standing near the computing machine, G1.
31
Heinz Billing and Hermann Oehlmann at the G2 computer in 1954.
32
Heinz Billing near the computing machine, G3, beginning operations. At the console is Arno Carlsberg. Göttingen, 1960.
33
Heinz Billing and Ludwig Biermann in 1972 at the shutdown of the G3 machine.
34
Apparatus for simulating the trajectories of charged cosmic ray particles in the Earth’s magnetic field, built at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen in the very early 1950s.
35
Workshop of the Max Planck Institute for Physics directed by Heisenberg (March 1954).
36
Ludwig Biermann at the blackboard during a seminar at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, Göttingen, 1956.
37
Göttingen, early 1950s, from left: Ms. Kugel, Reimar Lüst, ? Schulten, Stefan Temesváry (with a bicycle), Eleonore Trefftz (Courtesy of Milian Trefftz).
38
Erich Bagge working on cosmic rays in Göttingen, end of the 1940s.
39
Model of nuclear reactor. Max Planck Institute for Physics, July 16, 1956.
40
Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger sitting in a cafe.
41
Walther Bothe, Otto Haxel, and Hans Kopfermann in the late 1930s.
42
The Van de Graaff electrostatic generator at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, 1936.
43
Van de Graaff accelerator: flashover due to electric discharge of high current made through the air between the spheres at very high electric potential.
44
Wolfgang Gentner (left) and Walther Bothe (right) in Paris with Frédéric Joliot-Curie in 1937 during the physicists’ meeting organized on the occasion of the World Fair. Behind Joliot-Curie is Bruno Pontecorvo.
45
Wolfgang Gentner with Peter H. Jensen (on his right) and Arnold Flammersteld (left) during WWI, evaluating measurements of the energy of fission neutrons, whose pulses were recorded on photographic paper strips via oscillographs.
46
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, 1943. Transportation of the cyclotron magnet for Bothe’s Institute for Physics.
47
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg. The cyclotron magnet ready for installation, 1943. Russian prisoners of war were employed for transport and installation operations.
48
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research, Bothe’s Institute for Physics, Heidelberg, 1943. The cyclotron with its vacuum chamber.
49
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research, Bothe’s Institute for Physics, Heidelberg. The cyclotron vacuum chamber where particle trajectories are bent by the magnetic field and repeatedly accelerated by an electric field.
50
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research, Bothe’s Institute for Physics, Heidelberg, 1940–1941. Graphite sphere for measuring the absorption cross-section of neutrons in carbon.
51
From left to right: Wolfgang Gentner, with Werner Heisenberg and Alexander Hocker (both German delegates to the Conference on the Establishment of the European laboratory) in 1955, during the meeting held on June 11 to sign the agreement between the Council of CERN and the Swiss Federal Council defining the legal status of the organization in Switzerland.
52
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Mainz. Mass spectrograph.
53
Josef Mattauch at the mass spectrograph for precise measurement of the masses of atomic nuclei, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, 1956.
54
From left: Josef Mattauch, Otto Hahn, and Daniel Jensen, Eltville am Rhein, October 27, 1954.
55
Friedrich Paneth with apparatus for the microanalysis of noble gases, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, June 6, 1956.
56
Van de Graaff accelerator, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, June 16, 1953.
57
Van de Graaff generator for 3 up to 5 million volts. Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, June 6, 1956.
58
1.5 million-volt Cockcroft-Walton accelerator, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, June 6, 1956.
59
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz. Lower end of the Cockcroft-Walton cascade generator with deflecting magnet, June 6, 1956.
60
Josef Zähringer.
61
Oliver Adam Schaeffer.
62
Inauguration of the experimental hall containing the tandem accelerator, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, 1962. From left: Wolfgang Gentner, Otto Hahn, Siegfried Balke (then Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy), Adolf Butenandt (then President of the Max Planck Society), Werner Heisenberg.
63
Brigitte Huck at the control panel of the tandem accelerator. Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg.
64
Maria Goeppert Mayer and Hans D. Jensen in Heidelberg, in 1957.
65
Werner Heisenberg and Ludwig Biermann on August 21, 1956, at the ceremony for laying the foundation stone of the new headquarters of the new Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich.
66
Inauguration ceremony of the new Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, May 9, 1960. From left: the Secretary of State, Fritz Staudinger, Otto Hahn, Ludwig Biermann, and Werner Heisenberg.
67
From left: Georg Pfotzer and Erich Regener around 1950 in Weissenau.
68
Walther Bothe and Erich Regener in 1955, in front of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg.
69
Rare image of the fully equipped ‘Regener Tonne,’ the first scientific rocket payload designed to reach the upper part of the atmosphere.
70
Preparation for the launch of an A-4 rocket, 1942: the control section of the world’s first large rocket, which was 14 meters high and weighed 12.9 tons with full tanks, is open; above there is space for a payload of one ton.
71
Research Center for Stratospheric Physics, Weissenau, early post-war years. Preparing the launch of a Regener’s balloon tandem.
72
Research Center for Stratospheric Physics, Weissenau. Balloon ascent in early 1951.
73
Research Center for Stratospheric Physics, Weissenau. Observation of the balloon tandem flight.
74
Julius Bartels, May 11, 1956.
75
Weissenau, early 1950s. From right: Alfred Ehmert, Erich Regener, and an unknown person in Weissenau, at the Research Center for Stratospheric Physics from which the Max Planck Institute for Stratospheric Physics originated in 1952.
76
Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, Katlenburg-Lindau: preparation of a balloon ascent in the hangar, on the left in a white lab coat is Georg Pfotzer. May 1965.
77
Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, Katlenburg-Lindau: preparation of a balloon ascent in the hangar, far left: Georg Pfotzer, May 1965.
78
Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, Lindau/Harz, assembly of parts of Experiment 8 of the Helios solar probe, around 1975.
79
General Meeting of the Max Planck Society in Saarbrücken, 1959. From left: Otto Hahn, Ludwig Biermann, and Walter Dieminger.
80
Rudolf Mössbauer and B. Schimmer at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, around 1955–1958.
81
Mössbauer’s apparatus at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, around 1958.
82
Reimar Lüst with Ludwig Biermann in 1963, at the time of the foundation of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
83
Arnulf Schlüter.
84
From left: Otto Hahn, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Max von Laue in the 1950s, at the time of signing the Göttingen Manifesto with 15 other leading nuclear scientists.
85
Werner Heisenberg and Reimar Lüst in the 1960s.
86
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz with Ewald Fünfer in the 1960s.
87
Ludwig Biermann and Werner Heisenberg in 1967.