Johannes Stark

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Johannes Stark (before 1919)

Johannes Nikolaus Stark , also Johann Nikolaus Stark (born April 15, 1874 in Schickenhof , today part of Freihung ; † June 21, 1957 at Gut Eppenstatt near Traunstein ), was a German physicist , winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics and a supporter of National Socialism and a representative the so-called German physics .

Life

Johannes Stark, born in the hamlet of Schickenhof in the former municipality of Thansüß (today part of Freihung ) in the Amberg district as the son of a farmer, first attended the Christian-Ernestinum grammar school in Bayreuth , then the old grammar school (today Albertus-Magnus grammar school ) in Regensburg . After graduating from high school with very good grades in all examination subjects, he studied physics , mathematics , chemistry and crystallography at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . There he did his doctorate in 1897 under Eugen von Lommel with a dissertation on the subject of investigations into some physical, especially optical properties of carbon black and then stayed as an assistant to his doctoral supervisor in Munich.

In 1900 he taught at the University of Göttingen , where he soon completed his habilitation and was appointed associate professor in 1906. In 1905 he discovered the optical Doppler effect in canal rays . In 1908, after a three-year interlude at the TH Hannover, he was appointed full professor at the RWTH Aachen . In 1913 he demonstrated the splitting of the spectral lines in electric fields, which is now known as the Stark effect . In the same year he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1917 he went to the University of Greifswald . In 1919 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his two discoveries. In 1920 he went to the University of Würzburg . There he met resistance from colleagues in 1921 in connection with a failed habilitation attempt by his student Ludwig Glaser . After his defeat in this conflict, Stark resigned his professorship in protest in 1922. He retired to his home in Ullersricht near Weiden in the Upper Palatinate , founded a private laboratory with his Nobel Prize money and worked as an entrepreneur, first as a porcelain manufacturer, then as a brick factory owner. When the President of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR) was appointed during this time, he was not taken into account, as was other appointments, which probably made him increasingly bitter.

With the transfer of power to the NSDAP and its allies in 1933, a new situation arose for him, because as a National Socialist, which he had been since 1930, he firmly welcomed the end of the Weimar constitutional state and the establishment of the Nazi system: “At last” is “the time come because we can bring our view of science and researchers to bear. ”He had already actively advocated this ten years earlier. For a long time he had pioneered as a political publicist and was involved in party campaigns in the region around his new place of residence at Gut Eppenstatt near Traunstein .

For Dieter Hoffmann and Mark Walker, Stark, who with a few others like Philipp Lenard had left the “physical mainstream”, represented “the most famous and most infamous example of the National Socialist influence on physics”, namely with his attempt to create a “movement of the so-called German Physics ", which should be" Aryan "and" less Jewish ". Appointments, grants and publications served him for this purpose.

In May 1933 he was appointed President of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR) in Berlin by Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick as the successor to Friedrich Paschen, who was dismissed as an opponent of the regime due to the law to restore the civil service . In September 1933, at a conference of German physicists, Stark stated that just as the “Führer would take responsibility for the German people, he [Stark] would take responsibility for physics”. Stark intended a complete reorganization of the subject of physics in Germany under the control of the Reichsanstalt. The Prussian Academy of Sciences wanted to accept him as a member in autumn 1933, but this was prevented by the physicist Max von Laue . From 1933 to 1934 Stark was a member of the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society . Stark gained further power when he became President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 1934 . During his presidency, the Nazi chief ideologist Alfred Rosenberg was appointed patron and honorary president of the DFG. The DFG funded scientific projects based on project proposals from scientists. Stark is said to have often rejected applications from scientists by means of a personal vote: President Stark orders rejection . In 1934 he became a member of the Leopoldina , from which he resigned in February 1938, in protest against the membership of the Leopoldina President Emil Abderhalden in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He promoted other things. In 1934 he declared that "in conjunction with the Reich Ministry of the Interior ... extensive research into racial hygiene had been initiated." They would "help support and shape legislation in this area". This affected "anti-social", "gypsies", "hereditary diseases" and others as " ballast existences " which are undesirable in terms of race hygiene. One of his favorite projects was his misguided attempt to extract gold from the Bavarian moors, which devoured considerable funding.

By taking sides in internal National Socialist conflicts, he occasionally exposed himself to difficulties. In 1936 he was forced to hand over the management of the DFG to the "military chemist" Rudolf Mentzel . Yet he never questioned his party membership.

In 1937 he published a full-page article in the organ of the SS Das Schwarze Korps under the title White Jews in Science , in which he referred to Heisenberg as " Ossietzky of Physics" and complained that after the "elimination" of Jewish scientists at the universities these had now found "defenders and continuers in the Aryan Jewish comrades and Jewish pupils". In doing so, he took up the pairing “Jews and friends of Jews”, which has long been common in modern anti-Semitism, of which the latter were considered “Jewish”.

After the end of the war, Stark was a defendant in a panel proceedings in Bavaria . He had several top German physicists, including Max von Laue , Werner Heisenberg and Arnold Sommerfeld , as witnesses against him. On July 20, 1947, he was classified as a main culprit (war criminal) and sentenced to four years in a labor camp. As in general in the denazification proceedings, the appeal hearing led in 1949 to the milder classification as a follower and to a fine. The reasoning stated that Stark had “never acted unilaterally to the detriment of non-National Socialists” among the employees in his offices and that his “ideological advocacy for National Socialism” had “never led him to reprehensible acts”. On the contrary, in 1935 he even prevented a law establishing a Reich academy for research . That was supposed to limit science and align it with the Nazis. In addition, a large number of “ Persilscheine ” were presented by Stark's lawyers at the hearing , according to which he had supported two Jewish colleagues, among other things.

Albert Einstein had been asked for an assessment during the proceedings. He attested to Stark that he was "always a highly egocentric person with an unusually strong sense of validity". He has a "paranoid personality".

Stark spent the last years of his life on his Gut Eppenstatt near Traunstein in Upper Bavaria, where he died in 1957 at the age of 83.

Awards and honors

  • 1919: Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Name of the Dr.-Johann-Stark-Straße in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate
  • Name of Johannes-Stark-Straße in Amberg (later renamed Heinrich-Hertz-Straße )
  • Name of Johannes-Stark-Straße in Hahnbach.
  • Name of the Johannes-Stark-Straße in Poppenricht.
  • Naming of the Professor-Stark-Straße from Tanzfleck to Stark's birthplace Schickenhof.

Fonts (selection)

Physical fonts:

  • with Paul Sophus Epstein : The Stark Effect. Battenberg Verlag 1965 (reprint of his work on the Stark effect)
  • The Discharge of Electricity from Glowing Coal into Dilute Gas. (Reprint from Annals of Physics and Chemistry. New series, Volume 68). Leipzig 1899
  • The electric current between galvanically glowing carbon and a metal through dilute gas. (Reprint from Annals of Physics and Chemistry. New series, Volume 68). Leipzig 1899
  • Change in the conductivity of gases due to a steady electric current. (Reprint from Annalen der Physik. 4th part, Volume 2). Leipzig 1900
  • About the influence of heating on the electrical glow of a dilute gas. (Reprint from Annalen der Physik. 4th part, Volume 1). Leipzig 1900
  • On the electrostatic effects of the discharge of electricity in dilute gases. (Reprint from Annalen der Physik. 4th part, Volume 1). Leipzig 1900
  • Critical comments on Messrs Austin and Starke communication on cathode ray reflection. (Reprint from negotiations of the German Physical Society. Volume 4, No. 8). Brunswick 1902
  • Principles of atomic dynamics. Part 1: The electrical quanta. Leipzig 1910
  • Principles of atomic dynamics. Part 2: The elementary radiation. Leipzig 1911
  • Difficulties for the light quantum hypothesis in the case of the emission of series lines. (Reprint from negotiations of the German Physical Society. Volume XVI, No. 6). Braunschweig 1914
  • Comment on the arc and spark spectrum of helium . (Reprint from negotiations of the German Physical Society. Volume XVI, No. 10). Braunschweig 1914
  • Conclusions from a valence hypothesis. III. Natural rotation of the plane of oscillation of light. (Reprint from the yearbook of radioactivity and electronics. Issue 2, May 1914), Leipzig 1914
  • Method for the simultaneous splitting of a line by the electric and the magnetic field. (Reprint from negotiations of the German Physical Society. Volume XVI, No. 7). Braunschweig 1914
  • Principles of atomic dynamics. Part 3: The electricity in the chemical atom. Leipzig 1915
  • Nature of chemical valence forces. 1922
  • The axiality of light emission and atomic structure. Berlin 1927
  • Atomic structure and atomic bond. A. Seydel, Berlin 1928
  • Atomic structure basics of nitrogen chemistry. Leipzig 1931
  • Advances and Problems in Atomic Research. Leipzig 1931
  • Physics of the atomic surface. 1940

Political Writings:

  • The current crisis in German physics. 1922
  • with Philipp Lenard: Hitler spirit and science. 1924
  • The Judaization of German universities. In: National Socialist Monthly Issues, Issue 8 (November 1930)
  • National Socialism and the Catholic Church. 1931
  • Center politics and Jesuit politics. 1931
  • National Socialism and the Catholic Church. Part II: Response to rallies by the German bishops. 1931
  • National Socialism and Teacher Training. 1931
  • National upbringing, center rule and Jesuit politics. 1932
  • Adolf Hitler's goals and personality. 1932
  • Adolf Hitler and German Research. Speeches at the meeting of the German Research Foundation in Hanover. Berlin, 1934.
  • National Socialism and Science. 1934
  • The Pragmatic and the Dogmatic Spirit in Physics. In: Nature 141 (1938), pp. 770-772
  • with Wilhelm Müller : Jewish and German Physics. Lectures at the University of Munich, 1941

Others:

literature

  • Gertrud Benker: Home Upper Palatinate. 5th edition, Verlag Pustet, Regensburg 1981, pp. 382-385.
  • Klaus Hentschel (Ed.) Physics and National Socialism. An Anthology of Primary Sources. , Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel, 1996; 2nd edition 2011, ISBN 3034802021
  • Klaus Hentschel: On the mentality of German physicists 1945–1949, Heidelberg: Synchron, 2005, especially pp. 90–95.
  • Dieter Hoffmann : "Johannes Stark - a personality in the field of tension between scientific research and fascist ideology". Philosophy and natural sciences in the past and present, no. 22, Berlin 1982, pp. 90-101.
  • Andreas Kleinert: The arbitration chamber proceedings against Johannes Stark. In: Sudhoff's archive. Volume 67, No. 1, Wiesbaden 1983, pp. 13-24.
  • Andreas Kleinert: The axiality of light emission and atomic structure. Johannes Stark's alternative to quantum theory. In: Chemistry - Culture - History. Festschrift for Hans-Werner Schütt on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Berlin / Diepholz 2002, pp. 213–222.
  • Andreas Kleinert: Lenard, Stark and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. Excerpts from the correspondence of the two physicists between 1933 and 1936. In: Physikalische Blätter. Volume 36, No. 2, 1980, pp. 35-42 online
  • Lothar Mertens : "Only those who are politically worthy". DFG research funding in the Third Reich 1933–1937. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-003877-2 , pp. 71–117.
  • Mark Walker : Nazi Science - Myth, Truth, and the German Atomic Bomb. Perseus Publ., Cambridge (Mass.) 1995, ISBN 0-7382-0585-0 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Johannes Stark  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The delicate handling of the Nazi legacy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.projektgruppe-zwangsarbeit.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , "Forced Labor" project group, "Forced Labor" project group e. V., Berlin. July 3, 2010.
  2. ↑ Bernd Mayer: "Albert Einstein: The genius with the always smiling mouth" in the Heimatkurier of the North Bavarian Courier, 1/2005, p. 6
  3. ↑ Benker 1981, p. 383.
  4. ↑ Hoffmann 1982, p. 91.
  5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 231.
  6. ^ Documents submitted to Les Prix Nobel
  7. ↑ Hoffmann 1982, p. 94; Walker 1995, p. 12.
  8. ↑ Kleinert 1980, p. 37.
  9. ↑ Hoffmann 1982, p. 96.
  10. ↑ Walker 1995, p. 16.
  11. ↑ All information according to: Dieter Hoffmann / Mark Walker (eds.), Physicist between autonomy and adaptation. The German Physical Society in the Third Reich, Hoboken 2012, see also Physik Journal 5 (2006), no. 3, pp. 53–58, [1] .
  12. ↑ quote? Where from? Document obligation!
  13. ↑ Johannes Stark: On the reorganization of physical education. In: teaching sheets for mathematics and science. Volume 45, 1939, p. 81 ff.
  14. ↑ Walker 1995, p. 22.
  15. ↑ Ernst Piper , Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 355.
  16. ^ Armin Hermann: Leader of the researchers. Nobel laureate Johannes Stark died 50 years ago. He was an opponent of Einstein's. In: Berliner Zeitung. June 21, 2007, p. 12.
  17. ^ Member entry by Johannes Stark at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.
  18. ↑ Benno Parthier and Dietrich von Engelhardt (eds.): 350 years Leopoldina - claim and reality Halle (Saale) 2002, p. 259.
  19. ↑ See exhibition “Science - Planning - Displacement” by the DFG, [2] .
  20. ↑ An organization adapts. Notgemeinschaft im National Socialism , website of the DFG on its history
  21. ^ Ernst Piper : Alfred Rosenberg . Hitler's chief ideologist, Munich 2005, p. 355; Walker 1995, p. 31ff.
  22. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler's chief ideologist. Munich 2005, p. 355 f.
  23. ↑ Kleinert 1983, p. 23.
  24. ↑ Walker 1995, p. 24; Kleinert 1983, p. 20.
  25. ↑ All information in this section according to: Guide of the researchers. Nobel laureate Johannes Stark died 50 years ago. He was an opponent of Einstein's. In: Berliner Zeitung. June 21, 2007, p. 12.
  26. ↑ a b c Street names of the city of Amberg and the municipalities in the Amberg-Sulzbach district . In: Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg (Hrsg.): The Eisengau . tape 47 . Self-published, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Strong, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stark, Johannes Nikolaus (full name); Stark, Johann Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics and supporter of National Socialism as well as representative of so-called German physics
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Schickenhof , Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1957
Place of death near Traunstein