A University Professor, and Establishing New Institutes

Abstract

AbstractWhen Herwig arrived in Erlangen in 1956, it was a town of some 60,000 inhabitants, dominated by the university, and the industrial powerhouse, Siemens. Historically, the town had been a seat of nobility, and the Margrave’s castle is still a dominant feature. In 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, the Margrave gave refuge to Huguenots fleeing France, even going so far as to build an entire new quarter, Erlangen Neustadt, to house them. It set the town on a course of growth. Another development that shaped the modern-day town came the following century, with the establishment of the university in 1743. Today, housed in a new modern campus, the Friedrich-Alexander University bears the names of the Margrave who established it, and another who later expanded it, cementing its place in the fabric of the town. Many famous scientists have worked at the university including Georg Simon Ohm, whose name became the unit for electrical resistance, and mathematician Emmy Noether, whose eponymous theorem links symmetry to conservation laws—a tenet that underpins much of modern physics.