Walther Gerlach (1889–1979): Precision Physicist, Educator and Research Organizer, Historian of Science

Abstract

AbstractWalther Gerlach’s numerous contributions to physics include precision measurements related to the black-body radiation (1912–1916) as well as the first-ever quantitative measurement of the radiation pressure (1923), apart from his key role in the epochal Stern-Gerlach experiment (1921–1922). His wide-ranging research programs at the Universities of Tübingen, Frankfurt, and Munich entailed spectroscopy and spectral analysis, the study of the magnetic properties of matter, and radioactivity. An important player in the physics community already in his 20s and in the German academia in his later years, Gerlach was appointed, on Werner Heisenberg’s recommendation, Plenipotentiary for nuclear research for the last sixteen months of the existence of the Third Reich. He supported the effort of the German physicists to achieve a controlled chain reaction in a uranium reactor until the last moments before the effort was halted by the Allied Alsos Mission. The reader can find additional discussion of Gerlach’s role in the supplementary material provided with the online version of the chapter on SpringerLink. After returning from his detention at Farm Hall, he redirected his boundless elan and determination to the reconstruction of German academia. Among his high-ranking appointments in the Federal Republic were the presidency of the University of Munich (1948–1951) and of the Fraunhofer Society (1948–1951) as well as the vice-presidency of the German Science Foundation (1949–1961) and the German Physical Society (1956–1957). As a member of Göttinger Achtzehn, he signed the Göttingen Declaration (1957) against arming the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons. Having made history in physics, Gerlach became a prolific writer on the history of physics. Johannes Kepler was his favorite subject and personal hero—as both a scientist and humanist.