Page numbers in italics indicate figures.
Abitur examinations, 15
accelerating systems, 102
activation energy, 71
Adams, Douglas, 66
Annalen der Physik, 5, 55, 117, 119, 124, 131
Anschluss, 24
Anschütz, Ottomar, 115
anti-Semitism, 17, 63, 97, 100, 109–10, 144
Appeal of the 93 Intellectuals, 140–42
“Appeal to the Cultured Peoples of the World” (decree), 140
Ardenne, Manfred von, 202
Arnaud, Rene, 88
Arrhenius, Svante, 71, 115, 186–87
arrow of time. See time’s arrow
atomic spectrum, 173
atom-independent thermal radiation, 173
atomism, 114
atoms
existence of, 20
Planck’s view on, 71
Auschwitz concentration camp, 179
Avagadro’s number, 124
Battle of Berlin, 65
Battle of Ypres, 84
Baur, Johanna, 69
The Beauty and the Sorrow (Englund), 82
Beer Hall Putsch, 18
Beethoven, Ludwig, 83
Beevor, Antony, 196
Bell Labs, ix
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 189–190
Big Bang theory, 108
Bismarck, Otto von, 14
black body, 117
black-body radiation, 4–5, 47–49, 50, 115–19, 122, 167, 193–94, 211
Bohr, Harald, 150
Bohr, Niels, 79, 167–69, 168, 172
Bolsheviks, 91
Boltzmann, Ludwig, 19–20, 70, 116, 119, 121, 124, 187, 192
Boltzmann’s constant, 123–24, 217
Bonhöffer, Karl, 159
Born, Max, 91, 109, 150, 169, 172–73, 185
Bose, Debendra Mohan, 30
Bose, Satyendra Nath, 217
Bose-Einstein distribution, 217
Brieftagebuch (letter diary), 67–75, 80, 92, 191
Buchenwald, 190
“Causation and Free Will” (essay), 176
cavity radiation, 47. See also black-body radiation
chlorine gas weapons, 18
Churchill, Winston, 29, 195–96
Clark, Frieda, 205
classical theory, 128
Clay, Lucius, 208
Cleveland, Grover, 190
Columbia University, 190
complementarity principle, 172
Comptom, Arthur, 169
concentration camps
at Auschwitz, 179
proliferation of, 25
“The Concept of Causality in Physics” (essay), 176–77
Copenhagen interpretation (of quantum mechanics), 172–74
Copley Medal, 207
cosmological constant, 132–33, 218
Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), 42–43
Curie, Marie, 22
The Current Crisis in German Physics (Stark), 110
curved spacetime, 106
Dean, Martin, 25
Debye, Peter, 159
Decline of the West (Spengler), 43
density of states, 216
determinism vs. free will, 66
Deutsche Physics movement, 18, 51, 99, 143, 194
Deutsches Museum, 185
Deutsche Volkspartei, 142
Dodd, William, 185
Doppler, Christian Johann, 61
Drexler, Anton, 18
Eckert, Michael, 185
Edison, Thomas, 48
Ehrenfest, Paul, 83, 106, 129, 146, 149
Ehrlich, Paul, 141
Einstein, Albert
on aging, 171
Born and, 175
divorce of, 89
as emissary for German science, 142
on ether, 57
foreign appointments of, 146–47
“On the Influence of Gravity on the Propagation of Light,” 104
as keynote for Society of German Scientists and Physicians, 109
Laub and, 103
on Lenard, 99
Max Planck medal recipient, 148
on Nationalism, 144
on Newton’s gravity, 88
Nobel Prize, 111
photograph of, 108
on Planck, 53, 60, 127, 142, 146
on Planck’s birthday celebration, 91
on postwar Berlin, 92
on quantum mechanics, 174
on quantum theory, 127
Rabel on, 31
relative theory and, 6
severs ties with Germany, 63, 101, 110–11
stomach ailment of, 89
struggles with learning, 54
touring the world, 109
university days, 54
Weyland and, 98
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 189, 190, 195–96
Eldena, Germany, 11
electric resonators, 118
Electric Waves: Being Researches on the Motion of Electric Action with Finite Velocity through Space (Hertz), 42
electrolyte science, 71
electron-positron pairs, 159
electrons, 118, 124–26, 168, 170–72
energy quantum for light, 125–26
entagled particles, 175
EPR paradox, 175
Equilibrium States of Isotropic Bodies at Different Temperatures (Planck), 51
equivalence principle, 102–3, 104
Fehling, Emmerle (Max’s granddaughter), 77, 94
Fehling, Ferdinand, 77, 86, 93
Fehling, Grete Marie (Max’s granddaughter), 90
Fehling, Margarete. See Planck, Margarete (Grete)
Fokker, Adriaan, 107
Fokker-Planck equation, 107
forced labor camps, 25
Ford, Henry, 99
Franck, James, 127, 150, 156, 181
Frederick III, Emperor, 70
free will vs. determinism, 66
Freisler, Roland, 3, 162–63, 189
Fulda, Ludwig, 140
Furtwängler, Wilhelm, 9
Gearheart, Clayton, 127
General Electric, 98
general relativity, 104–7, 133. See also relativity theory
geopolitics, 43
German Physical Society (originally the Berlin Physical Society), 72, 120, 181
German physics, 4, 83, 101, 115, 131, 181, 206
Germany
as center of physics, 5
war orphans, 197
at war’s end, 197
Gessler, Otto, 187
Gestapo, 1–2, 33, 134, 137–38, 152, 179, 187–88, 201
Gleichschaltung movement, 156
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 44–45
Gogarten, Friedrich, 210
Goudsmit, Samuel, 197–99, 199, 201
gray body, 117
Grunewald, 5–6, 10, 72–74, 94, 125, 180, 195
h (quantum of action), 4–5, 126–127
Haber, Charlotte, 17
Haber, Fritz, 17, 18, 63, 98, 149, 150, 155, 182
Haeckel, Ernst, 141
Hahn, Edith, 181
Hahn, Otto, 21–27, 23, 88, 149–151, 181, 198–99, 206–8
Harnack, Adolf von, 67, 72, 82, 98, 141, 145
Harnack, Axel von, 78
Harris, Arthur “Bomber,” 65
Hartmann, Hans, 178
Hawking, Stephen, 47
Hawking radiation, 47
heat radiation theory, 193
Heisenberg, Werner, 28, 113, 151, 159, 161, 169–173, 175–76, 185, 200–201, 206
Helmholtz, Hermann von, 40–41, 42, 48, 49, 68, 114, 115, 186, 190–95
Hertz, Heinrich, 42, 49, 70, 115
Hertz, Mathilde, 154
Hertz resonators, 118
Hesse, Hermann, 110
Himmler, Heinrich, 7, 96, 137, 153–54, 161, 178, 179
Hindenburg, Paul von, 147, 155, 182
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams), 66
Hitler, Adolf
assassination attempt on, 2, 96–97, 137
attempted coup in Munich, 112
as chancellor, 147
nervous condition of, 184
as NSDAP member, 18
photograph of, 182
Planck’s audience with, 183–84
in Weimar Germany, 96
public appearances of, 34
retreat to Berlin bunker, 179
Hoesslin, Marga von. See Planck, Marga (von Hoesslin)
Hoshi, Hajime, 98
“How the Energy Distribution of Black-Body Radiation Was Really Found” (article), 157
inertial reference frame, 58
Institute for Theoretical Physics, 168–69
Invariance Theory, 6
irreversibility, 115–16, 131, 167, 193
Isaacson, Walter, 53
Jeans, James, 128
Jewish Physics, 51, 55, 63, 158, 181, 194
Jordan, Pascual, 177
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, 90, 155, 159
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physical Chemistry, 182
Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 28, 79, 145, 151, 154, 206, 208–9
Karsten, Bernhard, 68
Kaufmann, Walther, 60
Keynes, John Maynard, 92
Kindermord, 84
Kirchhoff, Gustav, 40, 49, 70, 117
Klein, Felix, 141
Klein, Martin, 127
Kragh, Helge, 218
KWG. See Kaiser Wilhelm Society
Lake Tegernsee, 97
laser, 107
Laub, Jakob, 103
Laue, Max von, 37–38, 38, 63, 99, 110, 129, 158, 174, 179, 199, 206, 210
Laue, Theodore von, 158
Law Against Overcrowding in Universities, 181
Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service, 150, 181
laws of physics, 58, 60, 102
law of thermodynamics. See thermodynamics
least action principle, 60
Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (Weinberg), 174
Lectures on the Theory of Thermal Radiation (Planck), 45
Lenard, Philip, 1, 18, 99–100, 110, 141, 149, 158, 199
letter diary (Brieftagebuch), 67–75, 80, 92, 191
Levenson, Thomas, 108
Lewis, Gilbert, 169
Liebknecht, Wilhelm, 120
light
bundled, 129
corpuscular picture of, 56
mechanism for, 125
Planck’s view on, 194
quantized, 129
wave theory of, 56
light quanta. See photons
Lipmann, Gabriel, 129
locality, 175
Lorentz, Hendrik, 57, 59, 85, 94, 107, 108, 125, 128–130, 141, 169
Loschmidt’s number, 124
Lowell, Percival, 193
Ludwig Maximilian University (of Munich), 14
Macrakis, Kristie, 183
Marconi, Guglielmo, 42
Maric, Mileva, 89
Maschinenbauanstalt Schweffel & Howaldt, 13
matrix mechanics, 170
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Society, 159, 209
Maxwell, James Clerk, 15, 42, 115–16, 118, 167, 194
“The Meaning and Exact Limits of Science” (essay), 176–77
Mechanical Theory of Heat, 39–40
The Mechanical Theory of Heat (Clausius), 39
Meitner, Lise
attending Planck’s lecture in Vienna, 20
Boltzmann and, 19
in Chicago, 28
compared to Helmholtz, 40
critical of German scientists, 25–26
Einstein’s special relativity theory and, 63
as first woman lecturer at University of Berlin, 111
Hahn and, 25–26, 149–150, 181–82, 207–8
on Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 208–9
photograph of, 23
as Planck’s assistant, 23
on postwar Berlin, 92
as Privatdozent in physics, 23
at Royal Society of London, 207
views of war, 83
Merck, Marie Eugenie. See Planck, Marie
Mercury, orbit of, 106
Mölders, Werner, 161
Mommsen, Theodor, 140
Montenegro, 86
Moorehead, Alan, 197
Müller, Hermann, 15
Murphy, James, 134
Murrow, Edward R., 190
Mussolini, Benito, 137
Nationalism, 144
National Socialist German Workers Party, 18
National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). See NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
natural radiation, 119
Nazi camps. See concentration camps
Nazis (National Socialists)
chasing away scientists, 7
creating totalitarian state, 138
Deutsche Physics movement and, 51
Erwin as opponent of, 138
Gleichschaltung movement, 156
Law Against Overcrowding in Universities, 181
Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service, 181
Lenard and Stark’s support for, 18, 98
Max Planck and, 10, 19–20, 26, 33, 154–56, 158
nuclear project, 208
Prussian Academy of Sciences and, 159
rise of, 144
Schrödinger and, 150
student sympathy for, 145
Nernst, Walther, 83, 103, 129, 155
Neuberg, Carl, 155
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 81
Night of the Long Knives, 138
Nobel Prize
Bohr’s, 169
Einstein’s, 111
Hahn’s, 207
Hitler on, 158
Stark’s, 17
von Laue’s, 38
non-Euclidean surfaces, 106
non-inertial reference frames, 102
Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft, 98, 166
NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), 18, 97, 112, 145, 148
nuclear fission, 26–28, 198, 202
“On Irreversible Radiation Processes” (papers), 167
“On the Influence of Gravity on the Propagation of Light” (Einstein), 104
On the Natural History of Destruction (Sebald), 36
Oseen, Carl Wilhelm, 126
Ossietzky, Carl von, 158
Pais, Abraham, 109
particles, 166
Paschen, Friedrich, 49
Pauli, Wolfgang, 169, 176, 177
Penzias, Arno, ix–xiii
People’s Court, 3, 162–63, 189
“Phantom Problems in Science” lecture, 65–66
physical chemistry, 71
“Physics and the Struggle for a World View” lecture, 156
Physikalish-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR), 48
Pischna Exercises, 14
Pius XII, Pope, 28
Planck, Adalbert, 11–12, 12, 69, 205
Planck, Emma, 6, 11, 70, 71, 83, 86–87, 87, 93, 190–92
Planck, Erwin
at battle of the Marne, 86
career in diplomacy, 93
as Chancellor von Schleicher’s chief of staff, 147
earning Leutnantspatent, 86
as father’s favorite child, 6
favorite book, 43
first birthday of, 115
and Hitler plot, 2, 96–97, 137
on Karl, 80
marriage of, 111
Max’s operation and, 95
Max’s special relationship with, 4, 10, 35–36, 90, 109–10, 135
postwar search for, 200
as State Secretary, 146
working in Defense ministry, 97
Planck, Gottlieb Jakob, 205
Planck, Grete-Marie, 77
Planck, Hermann, 11, 12, 14, 78, 203
Planck, Hildegard, 11, 12
Planck, Hugo, 11
Planck, Karl Wilhelm Hugo, 6, 34, 70, 71, 80–81, 142
Planck, Margarete (Grete), 6, 70, 71, 80, 86, 87, 89–90, 94
Planck, Marga (von Hoesslin)
as bedrock to Max, 78
correspondence with Frieda, 205–6
Ehrenfest and, 149
on Erwin’s execution, 179
in Göttingen, 205
in Kassel, 29
meeting Max, 75
Meitner and, 209
photograph of, 79
Rabel and, 210
von Laue and, 95
Planck, Marie
death of, 195
Max’s proposal to, 67
as musician, 67
photograph of, 69
Planck, Max
60th birthday celebration, 91
Abitur examinations and, 15
accepting atomism, 114
addressing Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 184–85
allegiance to Nazi bureaucracy, 150–52
in Amorbach, 95
as associate professor, 67
bachelor life in Kiel, 68
in Berlin, 153
on black-body radiation, 4–5, 193, 211
Boltzmann and, 20
Brieftagebuch (letter diary), 67–68
“Causation and Free Will” (essay), 176
collaboration with wartime government, 29–30
“The Concept of Causality in Physics” (essay), 176–77
contributions to science, 130–32
Copley Medal awarded to, 207
criticizing Nazi regime, 51–52
as director of Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 90–91
dissertation work, 40
as editor, 55
Einstein and, 1, 6, 54–55, 101, 148, 151, 180
Equilibrium States of Isotropic Bodies at Different Temperatures, 51
Erwin’s close relationship with, 4, 10, 35–36, 90, 109–10, 135
on Erwin’s trial, 163
fear of atomic bomb, 28
fleeing Rogätz, 190
flight from Berlin, 9
at forefront of German science, 93
frailty of, 207
on general relativity, 104
Getapo investigating heritage of, 1–2
grandchildren of, 77
Hartmann and, 178
health of, 95
on Helmholtz, 68
“On Irreversible Radiation Processes” (papers), 167
Jewish heritage rumor, 158
Kaiser Wilhelm Society and, 159
in Kassel, 29
on Kepler, 133
lectures at Columbia University, 190–95
lectures of, 30–33, 45, 65–66, 71, 80, 156
on Lorentz, 128
loss of diary, 36
as Lutheran Church elder, 32
marriage to Marga, 75
marriage to Marie, 69
at Maximilians Gymnasium, 15
“The Meaning and Exact Limits of Science” (essay), 176–77
meeting with Grover Cleveland, 190
Meitner and, 2
as monarchist, 142
motto of, 165
as mountaineer, 72–73, 97, 145
mural featuring, 44
as musician, 6–7, 14, 67, 189, 206
on natural units, 132
Nazi camps and, 25
to Nelly, 165
on nuclear fission, 202
on one’s own conscience, 66
“Phantom Problems in Science” lecture, 65–66
on philosophy, 51
photograph of, 12, 38, 41, 44, 69, 73, 79, 136, 157, 206
“Physics and the Struggle for a World View” lecture, 156
“Physics Struggling for a Worldview” lecture, 51–52
Pihl on, 51
playful, 24
as president of Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 145, 155
proposal to Marie, 67
Prussian Academy of Sciences and, 113–14
public attacks on, 158, 159, 186–87
on quantum mechanics, 170–71, 174, 177
on quantum theory, 126–28, 130, 166, 169
Rabel on, 31
radiation law, 132
on relativity theory, 194
“Religion and Natural Sciences” lecture, 32
religious beliefs of, 32–33, 94
resisting Gleichschaltung movement, 156
as secretary at Prussian Academy of Sciences, 79
as secretary of Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 88
as secretary of Prussian Academy of Sciences, 159
on special relativity, 62–63, 194
Stark on, 18
struggle against pessimism, 10
struggling with depression, 108–9
at Stuttgart, 157
The Theory of Heat Radiation, 130
on thermal radiation, 46–47, 193, 211
thermodynamics and, 114, 166–167
on ultimate truth, 52
on uncertainty principle, 172
on unified field theory, 192–93
at University of Berlin, 70, 80–81
“Vaporization, Melting and Sublimation” (paper), 114–15
on von Laue, 37
at Wangenheimstrasse 21 (See Wangenheimstrasse 21)
zero-point energy and, 123
Planck, Nelly, 10, 65, 95, 111, 161–62, 179
Planck, Otto, 11
Planck, Wilhelm, 2, 11, 14, 61–62, 120
Planck curve of light, 45–47, 50
Planckian phantom problem, 66
Planck medal. See Max Planck medal
Planck mission, 211
Planck’s constant, 123–27, 172, 177
Planck’s Principle, 72
Planck’s resonators, 118
Planck tower, 159
Planck units. See natural units
Plenipotentiary for Total War Deployment, 34
P.O.W. camps, 25
principle of least action, 60
Pringsheim, Ernst, 46, 49, 121, 158
probability calculus, 119
Prussian Academy of Sciences, 79, 103, 113, 159
quantized light, 129
quantum atoms, 169
quantum mechanics, 170–74, 176–77
quantum of action. See Planck’s constant
quantum of energy, 126–27, 194, 218
quantum physics, 66
quantum theory, 5, 98, 122, 127, 129–130, 167
Rabel, Gabriele, 11, 30–31, 185, 209–10
Rathenau, Walther, 110
Rayleigh, Lord, 128
Rayleigh-Jeans law, 128
reference frame, 58
Reichstag, 146
Reich Student Command, 159
relativity theory, 6, 55–58, 100, 104–7, 126, 133, 194. See also special relativity
resonators, 118
Respondek, Erwin, 28
Rhenius, Helmuth, 188
Rockefeller Foundation, 98, 155
Roosevelt, Franklin, 190
Royal Society of London, 206–7
Rubens, Heinrich, 121
Runge, Bernhard, 85
Runge, Iris, 68
Rust, Bernhard, 150
Sauer, Emil von, 14
Savoy Theater, 48
Schlabrendorff, Fabian von, 187–88
Schleicher, Kurt von, 97, 111, 138, 147
Schoeller, Nelly. See Planck, Nelly
Schrödinger, Erwin, 143, 150, 169, 170
Schumann, Robert, 6
Seidel, Hildegard “Hilde,” 205
Sidhartha (Hesse), 110
simultaneity, 60
Soldner, Johann von, 104
Solvay, Ernest, 129
special relativity, 59, 61, 102, 125, 194
Speer, Albert, 96
Spengler, Oswald, 43
Stark, Johannes, 1, 17–18, 63, 93, 98, 110, 141, 149, 155
Stark effect, 93
starlight deflection, 105
The State as a Living Form (Kjellén), 43–44
statistical mechanics, 55
Steiner, Rudolf, 43
stimulated emission, 107
Stone, A. Douglas, 174
Stresemann, Gustav, 144
Studies in Chemical Dynamics (Hoff), 115
Studnitz, Hans-George von, 96
“Study Group of German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science” lecture series, 99
Sturmabteilung, 138
Surviving the Swastika (Macrakis), 183
Szilard, Leo, 181
The Theory of Heat Radiation (Planck), 130
theory of relativity. See relativity theory
thermal radiation. See also black-body radiation
atom-independent, 173
black holes and, 47
Einstein’s approach to, 107
electric lighting and, 48
Hawking on, 47
PTR studying, 48
statistical approach to, 119
world experts in, 49
thermodynamics, 15, 39, 41, 71, 114–19, 121, 131–32, 166–67
Thomas, Georg, 187
Treitschke, Heinrich von, 140
universal constants, 5, 101–2, 132, 193–94, 215
universal principle, 43
University of Berlin, 159, 181
University of Munich, 40
University of Vienna, 20
uranium weapon efforts, 28
“Vaporization, Melting and Sublimation” (Planck), 114–15
Versailles, treaty of, 92, 109
Volta, Alessandro, 143
von Stauffenberg, Colonel, 137
Wangenheimstrasse 21, 5–6, 9, 37, 39, 65, 66–67
Warburg, Lotte, 26, 155, 186, 187
Warburg, Otto, 26
war orphans, 197
wave mechanics, 170
Weimar government, 97–98, 110–11, 142–47, 163
Weinberg, Steven, 174
Wien, Wilhelm (Willy), 74–75, 82, 88, 119–20, 121, 139, 141, 143
Wilhelm I, Emperor, 13
Wilhelm II, Emperor, 92
Wilhelm I of Prussia, 15
Wilson, Robert Woodrow, ix
Wilson, Woodrow, 89
The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, 42
X-ray crystallography (X-ray diffraction), 38
Zermelo, Ernst, 187