Gerhard Hoffmann (physicist)

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Max Friedrich Gerhard Hoffmann (born August 4, 1880 in Lübeck , † June 18, 1945 in Halle / Saale ) was a German physicist. He was best known for his precision measurements in the fields of radioactivity and cosmic rays .

Life

Gerhard Hoffmann was the child of the Lübeck high school professor Maximilian Hoffmann (1844-1910) from Neuruppin and his wife Luise (1849-1902), born Bender, from Greifswald . After studying physics, chemistry and mathematics at the Universities of Göttingen, Leipzig and Bonn, Hoffmann received his doctorate in 1906 under Walter Kaufmann in Bonn. In 1907 Kaufmann went to Königsberg and Hoffmann followed him in 1908 as an assistant. Hoffmann completed his habilitation in 1911 at the Albertus University in Königsberg , where he initially worked as a private lecturer and was appointed full professor for experimental physics in 1917. In the same year Gerhard Hoffmann married Edith, born in 1890 in Goldap (East Prussia), a daughter of the Gehlweiden manor owner Arthur Stoessel von der Heyde (1858–1916). Hoffmann had two daughters with his wife Edith.

In 1928 Gerhard Hoffmann accepted an offer at the United Friedrichs University in Halle. As the successor to Gustav Hertz, he became a full professor of experimental physics and director of the Institute for Experimental Physics. At the same time, the Institute for Theoretical Physics was established under the direction of Adolf Smekal . Hoffmann continued the systematic investigations into cosmic radiation in Halle and later also in Leipzig, which began in 1925 on the Muottas Muragl (Upper Engadin), which is over 2400 m high , including the use of free balloons . One of Hoffmann's students was Wilhelm Messerschmidt , who left Halle in 1937, but continued his work on cosmic rays in Halle after the Second World War.

After disputes with Smekal, Hoffmann left Halle and was appointed to the University of Leipzig in 1937 as the successor to Peter Debye . He lost his home and laboratories in bombing raids in 1942 and 1944. He was given leave of absence in 1944 because of a nervous condition and went to a sanatorium in the summer of 1944. Hoffmann died in June 1945 at the age of 64.

Even during his lifetime, the vacuum quantum electrometer invented and further developed by Hoffmann was called the Hoffmann electrometer. The first indications of nuclear shattering processes caused by cosmic rays were known as Hoffmann collisions.

In 1930 the German Academy of Sciences elected Leopoldina Gerhard Hoffmann to its member. In addition, Hoffmann was a member of the Königsberg learned society and since 1937 a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Messerschmidt:  Hoffmann, Gerhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 418 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Gerhard Hoffmann (1906): Diffusion von Thorium X. Annalen der Physik 326 (12): 239-269. doi : 10.1002 / andp.19063261204
  3. ^ Max Friedrich Gerhard Hoffmann. In: Professor catalog of the University of Leipzig. Ed .: Chair of Modern and Contemporary History. Historical seminar at the University of Leipzig. (there also picture) (accessed on March 7, 2013)
  4. ↑ Wolfram Hergert (1993): Physics in a free balloon. Research on cosmic radiation and the physics of the atmosphere at the Physics Institute of the University of Halle in the years 1910–1937. Physical Sheets 49 (11): 1007-1010. doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19930491107
  5. ^ Entry on Gerhard Hoffmann in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis (accessed on March 26, 2013)
  6. ↑ Ch. Fischer (1948): Gerhard Hoffmann †. Physical sheets 4 (8): 347. doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19480040807
  7. ^ Gerhard Hoffmann (1917): About a high sensitivity electrometer. II. Annals of Physics 357 (7): 665-708. doi : 10.1002 / andp.19173570702
  8. ↑ J. Bøggild & A. Karkov (1937): Hoffmann shocks and radiation multiplication. The natural sciences 25 (10): 158. doi : 10.1007 / BF01492487
  9. ^ Heinz Pose (1940): Gerhard Hoffmann 60 years. Science 28 (31-32): 513-514. doi : 10.1007 / BF01482111
  10. ^ Member entry by Gerhard Hoffmann at the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina , accessed on March 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ Gerhard Hoffmann, Prof. Dr. phil. habil. in the membership directory of the Saxon Academy of Sciences (accessed March 7, 2013)

literature

personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Max Friedrich Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1945
Place of death Halle (Saale)