Fritz Bopp

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Fritz Bopp (actually Friedrich Arnold Bopp; born December 27, 1909 in Frankfurt am Main , † November 14, 1987 in Munich ) was a German physicist who worked primarily in the fields of nuclear physics and quantum field theory .

Life

Adolescence and the time of National Socialism

Bopp began studying physics and mathematics at the University of Frankfurt . In 1932 he went to the University of Göttingen to study theoretical physics with Max Born and Hermann Weyl . Before there were diploma and master's theses, state examination theses were common as introductory theses for doctorates. He completed a mathematical state examination with Hermann Weyl. This was followed by a state examination in physics with Hertha Sponer (estate of the Deutsches Museum, Munich). He passed the scientific state examination for higher teaching post in 1934.

Theoretical physics in Göttingen was largely destroyed by the National Socialists in 1933. After Max Born was expelled as director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Göttingen in 1933, Fritz Sauter became his acting successor. 1937 Bopp was at Sauter with a thesis on the twice Compton scattering at the University of Goettingen to the Dr. phil. PhD.

From 1937 to 1944 he was a regular assistant to Erwin Fues at the University of Breslau , where he completed his habilitation in 1941 with a work on quantum field theory, "A linear theory of the electron" and was appointed private lecturer.

After being drafted into the Wehrmacht in April 1940 (radio operator with the Air Force near Breslau), he was posted to the UK in January 1941 to work on the German nuclear research project ( Uranium Association ). In the following years he worked as a commuter between the University of Breslau , where he lectured, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin-Dahlem. On February 1, 1945, the institute with the nuclear reactor project was relocated to Hechingen and Haigerloch . The results of this research, the then secret " Nuclear Physics Research Reports ", have since been published by various sites. For various reasons a critical reactor condition was not reached before the end of the war.

Since nothing was known of the Manhattan Project in Germany , there was the idea of ​​playing a leading role in a new key industry after the war, and the hope of being able to save the reactor experiment after the war ended. The laboratory in Haigerloch was first reached by the American Army ( Alsos Mission ) and the Haigerloch research reactor was removed. Many of the leading physicists were interned at Farm Hall, England , as part of Operation Epsilon .

Haigerloch was in the French zone. As a remaining member, Bopp was appointed acting director. The central problem was that the French military administration was very interested in the project and did not believe in the complete evacuation, while the American side did not provide sufficient information about the evacuation. This created serious difficulties with both military authorities.

Post-war period, academic achievements, students

From 1946 Bopp was an assistant at the University of Tübingen . In 1947 he became an associate professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1950 he succeeded Arnold Sommerfeld (1868–1951) as holder of the chair for theoretical physics. After the dismissal of Wilhelm Müller , a representative of German Physics , who had been appointed by the Nazis, Sommerfeld initially represented himself after the war.

Bopp tried to continue the Sommerfeld tradition. In accordance with Sommerfeld's request, he worked with Josef Meixner and Erwin Fues as editor and editor (more recent editions) of Sommerfeld's famous book series "Lectures on theoretical physics". Despite some difficulties, Bopp's institute was one of the leading places in theoretical physics in post-war Germany.

Like other former members of the uranium association, Bopp was a member of the nuclear physics working group of the German Atomic Energy Commission in the mid-1950s , which was responsible for building nuclear technology in Germany. In 1957 he was one of the Göttingen Eighteen , a group of leading scientists who issued a joint declaration against the planned nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr.

In 1964/1965 Bopp was founding president of the German Physical Society (DPG), which was newly constituted in the West as a successor to the Association of German Physical Societies (VDPG), and was accepted into the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1954 and into the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1965.

Fritz Bopp was the editor of Festschriften both for Werner Heisenberg in 1961 and for Arnold Sommerfeld in 1969. The latter also contains a biography of Sommerfeld written by Bopp.

Bopp has made important contributions in numerous publications in various areas of physics.

In 1978 Friedrich A. Bopp retired.

Among the graduates and doctoral students at his institute were professors Friedrich L. Bauer , Walter Karl Blum, Gerhard Börner , D. Castrigiano, Mario Dal Cin, Henning Genz , Rudolf Haag , Armin Hermann , Franz Himpsel , G. Holzwarth, Hans A. Kastrup , Bjong Ro Kim, Klaus Lagally, Gerhard Mack, G. Obermair, Herbert Pfister , Peter Ring , R. Rückl, Klaus Samelson , D. Schildknecht and Wolfgang Wild .

Professors Friedrich Beck , G. Höhler, Hans A. Kastrup, H.-J. Meister, Harald JW Müller , Georg Süssmann , F. Wahl, EG Weidemann, K. Wildermuth were assistants or post-doctoral candidates at his institute.

Bopp had six children. His son Fritz Wilhelm Bopp is professor of physics at the University of Siegen .

The estate of Fritz Bopp with a total of 102 boxes is kept in the archive of the Deutsches Museum (NL194).

Fonts

  • with Oswald Riedel: The physical development of the quantum theory. Schwab, Stuttgart 1950
  • (Ed.): Werner Heisenberg and the physics of our time. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1961
  • with Arnold Sommerfeld: Fifty years of quantum theory. In: Science . Vol. 113, 1951, pp. 85-92
  • with Hans Kleinpoppen (Ed.): Physics of one and two electron atoms. Proceedings of the Arnold Sommerfeld Centennial Memorial Mecting and of the International Symposium on the Physics of the one- and two-electron atoms, Munich, 10-14 Sept. 1968. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam 1969

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Text of the Göttingen Declaration 1957 at uni-goettingen.de.
  2. ^ Deutsches Museum: bequests: Bopp, Friedrich (Fritz) Arnold (1909–1987)
personal data
SURNAME Bopp, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bopp, Friedrich Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1987
Place of death Munich