Clemens Schaefer (physicist)

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Clemens Apollinarius Hubert Maria Schaefer (born March 24, 1878 in Remscheid , † July 9, 1968 in Cologne ) was a German physicist .

life and work

Schaefer was the son of a lawyer, attended high school in Cologne and then studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin . He was an active member of the Catholic student associations Arminia Bonn and Askania (now K.St.V. Askania-Burgundia Berlin ) in the KV . In Berlin, Schaefer received his doctorate in 1900 with Emil Warburg with an experimental work and was from 1903 private lecturer. In 1910 he became associate professor for theoretical physics in Breslau , after he was assistant to Otto Lummer and Ernst Pringsheim , and in 1917 he was appointed full professor as successor to Pringsheim. From 1920 to 1926 he was a professor for experimental physics in Marburg , where he was also rector in 1923/24. In Marburg he became an honorary philistine of the Thuringia Catholic student union in the KV . In 1926 Schaefer went back to Breslau as a professor (for experimental physics) and director of the Physics Institute , where Fritz Reiche was his colleague. After the expulsion in January 1945, Schaefer lived in Cologne and in 1946 received the chair for general physics at the University of Cologne .

Schaefer researched in very different areas from optics (his "The ultrarote spectrum" appeared in 1930 via infrared spectroscopy ), color theory, elasticity (for example, ultrasound in crystals) to thermodynamics, both theoretically and experimentally. Together with his Marburg and Wroclaw colleague Ludwig Bergmann, he published the well-known textbook on experimental physics (first edition in 1943 by de Gruyter), the successor of which as "Bergmann-Schaefer" is still being re-edited today. With Bergmann he also wrote the "Basic Tasks of the Physics Practical" in 1942. His three-volume “Introduction to Theoretical Physics” by de Gruyter (first in 1921) was also known. In 1919 his “Principles of Dynamics” appeared. He also wrote a commentary and published the geomagnetic works of Carl Friedrich Gauß in his work edition.

Schaefer was a member of various academies of science ( Halle / Saale , Bologna, Göttingen and Munich ). He has received numerous honors, including the Gauss-Weber Medal from the Georg-August University of Göttingen and the Great Federal Cross of Merit . Festschriften were published on his 75th and 80th birthday. Karl Wirtz is one of his doctoral students .

Schaefer was married to Ruth Amalie Maria Weiß since 1950. He died at the age of 90 in his Cologne apartment.

His son is the ancient historian Hans Schaefer .

literature

  • Ludwig Bergmann : Clemens Schaefer on his 80th birthday. In: Natural Sciences. Volume 45, 1958, p. 121.
  • Siegfried Koß: Clemens Schaefer. In: Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 5th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 6). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1998, ISBN 3-89498-055-9 , p. 107f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Death certificate no. 1335 from July 10, 1968, registry office Cologne old town. In: LAV NRW R civil status register. Retrieved June 4, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Schaefer, Clemens
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaefer, Klemens; Schaefer, Clemens Apollinarius Hubert Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Remscheid
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1968
Place of death Cologne