Hans-Jürgen Treder

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Hans-Jürgen Treder, student drawing

Hans-Jürgen Treder (born September 4, 1928 in Berlin ; † November 18, 2006 in Potsdam ) was one of the leading theoretical physicists and astrophysicists in the GDR and an internationally recognized authority in the field of gravitational physics ( general relativity theory and its extensions) and cosmology . He also dealt with the history and philosophy of science.

Life

Treder became interested in physics at an early age and showed his great talent. In 1944, while still at school, he sought contact with Werner Heisenberg in Berlin, who also received him and discussed with him. Used as a youth for courier services in the Volkssturm , he memorized arrest lists thanks to his photographic memory and warned those affected. After the war he studied physics and philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1956 he received his doctorate and from 1957 was a research assistant at the Research Institute for Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences. Immediately after his habilitation in 1962, he became Professor of Theoretical Physics at Humboldt University and Director of the Academy Institute for Pure Mathematics in 1963. At the time, he achieved international recognition for his work on gravitational radiation. In 1965 he was instrumental in organizing the conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Einstein's field equations.

In 1966 he became a full member of the German Academy of Sciences and became director of the Babelsberg observatory of the Academy of Sciences. After the reorganization in 1969, he headed the newly founded Central Institute for Astrophysics (ZIAP), in which the previously independent observatories in Potsdam, the Babelsberg observatory, the Sonneberg observatory and the Karl Schwarzschild observatory Tautenburg were combined. Until 1973 he also headed the research area Cosmic Physics of the Academy of Sciences, in which astrophysics and geophysics were combined. Then he gave up for health reasons and concentrated on running the ZIAP. He not only made it a center of theoretical gravitational physics, but also integrated, for example, magnetohydrodynamics (in collaboration with Max Steenbeck ) - which in astrophysics played an important role in modeling immediately after gravitation theory - and geophysics (in collaboration with Hans Ertel ), which was also formative later in Potsdam. On Einstein's 100th birthday in 1979, in coordination with Einstein's administrator Otto Nathan , he succeeded in securing Einstein's summer house in Caputh as the academy's guest house. In 1982 he handed over the ZIAP to his successor Karl-Heinz Schmidt . Treder became director of the Einstein Laboratory he founded at the Academy in Potsdam-Caputh, which he remained until 1992. In the last years of his life he published with his friend, the geophysicist Wilfried Schröder, a lot of papers on geo- and cosmysics, including solar variability. In addition, there is the edition of the book Einstein and geophysics as well as some volumes of the works of Hans Ertel. Her work also focused on the solar minima (Spörer, Maunder and Dalton minima) and the physical consequences for solar activity. Treder was chairman of the international society "History of Geophysics and Cosmical Physics".

Treder enjoyed high recognition in the GDR (he received the GDR National Prize, among others ) and the full confidence of the political leadership, and he enjoyed privileges such as full freedom of travel and his own car with a chauffeur.

Decisions made by Treder as head of the ZIAP were controversial in the scientific community. In 1969, for example, he ordered all astronomers in the GDR to leave the Astronomical Society , the professional representation of astronomers responsible for the entire German-speaking area. In 1969, he decided to close the Sonneberg observatory and pronounced a ban on observing the large telescopes of the observatory, which, if heeded , would have led to the termination of one of the longest photographic observation series in the world ( Sonneberg Photo Plate Archive ). After the intervention of Wolfgang Wenzel and international protests, however, he later corrected both decisions.

Treder refused requests from the West; he was not only an avowed Marxist , but also felt closely connected to the history of science in Berlin, about which he later wrote several books. He developed a high level of scientific productivity and published almost 500 individual articles and more than 20 monographs. Among other things, he dealt intensively (initially at the suggestion of Gustav Hertz ) with Mach's principle , on which he published a monograph in 1972.

He later lived on the premises of the Babelsberg observatory, but became increasingly solitary and could not keep his leading role in the scientific organization after the fall of the Wall ; from which he had already withdrawn in the 1980s, when he increasingly turned to the history of science and the philosophy of science (he exchanged letters with Karl Popper , for example ).

Treder was a member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin .

Works

Monographs on gravitational physics:

  • Gravitational shock waves. Non-analytical wave solutions of Einstein's gravitational equations , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962
  • with Horst-Heino von Borzeszkowski , Alwyn van der Merwe , Wolfgang Yourgrau : Fundamental principles of general relativity theories: local and global aspects of gravitation and cosmology . Plenum Press, New York 1980
  • The relativity of inertia . Berlin 1972
  • Gravitation theory and equivalence principle , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971
  • with Eckhard Kreisel , Dierck-Ekkehard Liebscher : On Quantengeometrodynamik - Collected Works , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1967 (series of publications by the Institute for Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences)
  • with HH von Borzeszkowski: The meaning of quantum gravity , Dordrecht, Reidel, 1988
  • with Jan Peter Mücket: Large cosmic systems - on the telescopic aspects of gravitation and inertia-free gravidynamics , Akademie Verlag 1981 (publications of the research area Geo- and Cosmos Sciences)
  • with Max Steenbeck: Possibilities of Experimental Gravity Research , Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1984

On the history of science, philosophy of science and more popular writings by Treder:

  • Great physicists and their problems - studies on the history of physics , Akademie Verlag, 1983
  • Relativity and cosmos. Space and time in physics, astronomy and cosmology , Vieweg, Wiesbaden 1982, 119 pages
  • On principles of dynamics by Einstein, Hertz, Mach and Poincare , WTB, Akademie Verlag. Berlin 1974
  • Philosophical problems of physical space: gravitation, geometry, cosmology and relativity , Akademie Verlag 1974
  • Relativity and Cosmos - Space and Time in Physics, Astronomy and Cosmology , WTB, Akademie Verlag 1968
  • with Wilfried Schröder: Einstein and Geophysics , Bremen, Science Edition 2005.

Books with Robert Rompe :

  • Basic questions in physics - history, present and future of basic physical research , WTB, Akademie Verlag 1980
  • Elementary Cosmology , Akademie Verlag 1975
  • Elementary constants and what they mean , WTB, Akademie Verlag 1988
  • Counting and measuring , WTB, Akademie Verlag 1985
  • On the Unity of the Exact Sciences , WTB, 1982
  • About physics , Akademie Verlag 1979
  • with Rompe, Werner Ebeling: On the great Berlin physics (lectures at the annual general meeting 1987 of the Physical Society of the GDR in the anniversary year 750 years of Berlin), Leipzig, Teubner 1987

Treder articles accessible online:

literature

  • Gabriele Goettle: Experts . Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, therein interview with H.-J. Treder pp. 20-33
  • Jürgen Hamel (Ed.): Scientific colloquium for the 75th birthday of Hans-Jürgen Treder . trafo, Berlin 2003. (Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society)
  • For the 65th and 70th birthday of Hans-Jürgen Treder a “Festschrift” was published, edited by Wilfried Schröder with international participation
  • Renate Wahsner, Ulrich Bleyer (editor): Gravitation and Kosmos: Contribution to problems of general relativity. Dedicated to Hans-Jürgen Treder on his 60th birthday. Berlin, Akademie Verlag 1988
  • In 2007 a memorial about Hans-Jürgen Treder "Theoretical Physics and Geophysics", Recollections of Hans-Jürgen Treder, edited by Wilfried Schröder
  • Peter Nötzold:  Treder, Hans-Jürgen . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Gerhard Banse and Horst Kant (eds.): Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary - Historical & Systematic. Colloquia in honor of Lutz-Günther Fleischer , Herbert Hörz , Hans-Jürgen Treder & Siegfried Wollgast . Cosmology and time - on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Hans-Jürgen Treder. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin, Volume 139/140, year 2019. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2019, pp. 161-233, ISBN 978-3-86464-176-3 .

Web links

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b Gregor Eisenhauer: Obituary for Treder. In: Tagesspiegel, February 9, 2007
  2. ↑ Treder (Ed.): Origin, Development and Perspectives of General Relativity - Einstein Symposium from November 2nd to 5th, 1965 in Berlin . Akademie Verlag, 1966
  3. ↑ The name was expressly based on the cosmos term of Alexander von Humboldt used
  4. ↑ T. Weber (editor): 75 years of the Sonneberg observatory 1925–2000. Friends of the Sonneberg Observatory e. V. (2001)
  5. ↑ Quote from Dr. Klaus Retzlaff: “I dedicate these studies and essays to one of the most important gravitational researchers in the GDR and a great role model, Prof. Hans-Jürgen Treder… I would be very happy if I succeed in not forgetting the work of this thinker. "
personal data
SURNAME Treder, Hans-Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 2006
Place of death Potsdam