Hans Baerwald (physicist)

Hans Baerwald (born November 28, 1880 in Berlin , † August 24, 1946 in Hitchin , Hertfordshire ) was a German university professor of physics.

Life

Johann Ludwig Baerwald was born in 1880 as the son of Salomon Baerwald and his wife Helene. Beißner born in Berlin. He was baptized Protestant. He studied from 1900 to 1904 at the TH Berlin and at the University of Munich . In 1904 in Berlin he acquired the title of graduate engineer. He then moved to the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , where he received his doctorate in late October 1906. phil.

From 1907 to 1910 Baerwald was assistant to Philipp Lenard at the Universities of Kiel and Heidelberg University . From 1910 to 1911 he was assistant to Wilhelm Wien at the University of Würzburg , who had received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911 for his work on thermal radiation. His successor at Wilhelm Wien was Hans Rau , who was a year younger than him . From 1911 Baerwald worked as an assistant at the Physics Institute with Karl Schering at the TH Darmstadt . There he completed his habilitation in August 1912 and was appointed private lecturer. His habilitation thesis is titled On the Excitation of the Alkaline Earth Phosphors by Canal Rays . He gave his inaugural lecture on October 31, 1912.

In the First World War, Baerwald took part in the Landsturm from 1914 to 1918. Baerwald was one of the 32 Darmstadt university lecturers who signed the declaration of university lecturers in the German Reich of October 1914.

In August 1920 Baerwald was appointed titular professor of physics at the TH Darmstadt. Two years later, he was made an extraordinary professorship and on April 1, 1930, he was appointed extraordinary professor for theoretical physics. Baerwald worked closely with Hans Rau (physicist) , who had been professor for experimental physics at the TH Darmstadt since November 1922.

Hans Baerwald was the scientific friend and teacher of the later Nobel Prize laureate Gerhard Herzberg , who studied and obtained his doctorate at the TH Darmstadt from 1924 to 1928 and habilitated under Hans Rau (physicist) from 1930 .

After the so-called "Lieser" affair at the TH Darmstadt, Hans Baerwald was dismissed on June 30, 1933, initially with reference to § 4 of the law for the restoration of the civil service . This dismissal was in January 1934 in a retirement transfer according to § 6 of the above. Converted into law.

Baerwald initially continued to live in Darmstadt. He was the victim of the November pogroms in 1938. On November 10, 1938, Hans Baerwald was arrested and, after a short stay in a Darmstadt prison, interned for a month in the Buchenwald concentration camp and obliged to emigrate. His wife was not allowed to accompany him. In May 1939 Baerwald emigrated to England, where his children had already emigrated. There he was arrested again and interned for five months. During the years 1941 to 1944 he was employed as a substitute teacher at the universities of Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Cardiff.

After the Second World War, Baerwald was banned from any academic activity in England. He therefore applied to be allowed to return to the TH Darmstadt, especially since his wife was still living in Darmstadt. Erich Reuleaux , then rector of the TH Darmstadt , informed him on May 15, 1946 that he was to be reinstated. However, he is said to have been refused entry to Germany by the British War Ministry without giving any reason. Hans Baerwald died of a heart attack on August 24, 1946.

Johann Baerwald was married to Ella Fiebrand (1887–1953) since December 1913. The twins Charlotte (1914–1982) and Werner (* 1914) emerged from the marriage.

Honors

• March 15, 2010: In memory of Hans Baerwald, a stumbling block was laid in front of the Physics Institute of the TU Darmstadt in Hochschulstraße in Darmstadt.

Publications

• 1909: On the knowledge of the carriers of electricity in gases (together with A. Becker), Heidelberg.
• 1912: On the excitation of alkaline earth phosphors by canal rays, habilitation thesis, Darmstadt.
• 1913: On the importance of recent natural research for epistemology, inaugural lecture 1912, Darmstadt

literature

• Melanie Hanel: The Technical University of Darmstadt in the “Third Reich” , dissertation, Darmstadt 2013.
• Stumbling blocks in Darmstadt . Darmstadt 2013, pp. 41–42.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 162.