Hans Kopfermann

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Hans Kopfermann (1937)

Hans Kopfermann (born April 26, 1895 in Breckenheim near Wiesbaden; † January 28, 1963 in Heidelberg ) was a German experimental physicist.

life and work

Hans Kopfermann (1920)

The pastor's son Hans Kopfermann grew up in the Rhineland, began studying physics at the University of Erlangen and the University of Berlin in 1913, volunteered as a soldier in 1914 and was a staff officer on the Western Front at the end of the war. After the First World War he continued his studies in Erlangen and Göttingen and in the spring of 1919 participated in the Epp Freikorps in the repression of the Soviet Republic in Munich. After the state examination for teaching qualifications, he did his doctorate in 1923 under James Franck and then went to Rudolf Ladenburg as an assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem (later the Fritz Haber Institute ). After completing his habilitation in 1932, he spent a year researching with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen . In 1933 he became Gustav Hertz's senior assistant at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg and was given the title of non-civil servant professor.

In 1937 he took over the full professorship from Heinrich Rausch von Traubenberg (1880-1944) at the University of Kiel . In 1941 he joined the NSDAP and the National Socialist German Lecturer Association and became dean of the philosophical faculty in Kiel.

In 1940 and 1942 he campaigned against attacks by representatives of "Aryan physics" and for the recognition of modern theoretical physics in the arbitration talks organized by Wolfgang Finkelnburg (later referred to as "Munich Religious Talks") .

During the Second World War he was not involved in the German uranium project.

In 1942 he moved to the University of Göttingen , where he became director of the Second Physics Institute. Kopfermann also researched the betatron there , which was completed shortly before the end of the war by the Siemens-Reiniger-Werke under the direction of Konrad Gunds in Erlangen, and which was put into operation in Göttingen on his endeavors.

His last career change took him to the University of Heidelberg in 1953 as director of the I. Physics Institute . He was also the editor of the Annals of Physics .

During his time at Heidelberg University, Kopfermann was active in many national and international commissions, including the Council of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) .

With Ladenburg he dealt with anomalous dispersion in gases and with stimulated emission . From 1931 he began his fundamental investigations into the hyperfine structure in atomic spectra and the knowledge gained from them about nuclear moments.

He was the teacher of Hans Georg Dehmelt , Wolfgang Paul , Hans Ehrenberg , Gisbert Freiherr zu Putlitz , Herbert Walther and Peter Brix, among others .

In 1957 Kopfermann was one of the signatories of the " Göttingen Declaration " by 18 nuclear physicists against the planned nuclear armament of the German armed forces (he was then vice-president of the nuclear physics working group in the German Atomic Energy Commission) .

Kopfermann was a member of the Heidelberg , Göttingen and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences . In 1960 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . The Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse in the university and research center in Garching near Munich is named after him.

Kopfermann was married to the physicist and psychologist Dr. rer. nat. Hertha Kopfermann b. Schwerdtfeger (1902-1987). His gravestone is on the New St. Nikolai Cemetery in Hanover.

Works

  • Kernmomente , Leipzig 1940; 2. rework. Edition: Frankfurt 1956.
  • Physics of Electron Shells , Fiat Review of German Science 1939-1946, Vol. 12, Klemm, Wiesbaden 1948, Petersburg (NY) 1950.
  • Physics of the electron shells, Verlag Chemie 1953
  • On optical pumping of gases, Springer 1960

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Kopfermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and references

  1. ^ According to Hentschel (editor) "Physics and National Socialism", Birkhäuser 1996, he was urged to do so by the university president
  2. ↑ Klaus Schlüpmann, The Past in the Field of View of a Physicist. Hans Kopfermann 1895-1963, 2002, chap. 2.12
  3. ↑ http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz24673.html
  4. ^ Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg: The historical development of quantum theory . tape 6 , no. 1 . Springer, 2001, p. 351 (English, cern.ch ).
  5. ↑ "Investigations into the anomalous dispersion of excited gases II - anomalous dispersion in excited neon", Zeitschrift für Physik, Vol. 48, 1928, p. 26, "Experimental evidence of negative dispersion", Zeitschrift für physical Chemie, Department A, Vol. 139 , 1928, p. 375
  6. ↑ Text of the Göttingen Declaration 1957 at uni-goettingen.de
  7. ^ DNB: Hertha Kopfermann
personal data
SURNAME Kopfermann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German experimental physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Breckenheim near Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1963
Place of death Heidelberg