Johannes Classen (physicist)

Johannes Wilhelm Classen (born February 12, 1864 in Rostock , † December 7, 1928 in Hamburg ) was a German physicist .

Live and act

Johannes Classen was a son of the ophthalmologist August Classen . The theologian Walter Classen was his older brother. In 1873 he moved to Hamburg, where in 1883 he passed the school leaving examination at the Johanneum School of Academics . Childhood and youth were shaped by the family's Christian faith, the German classics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant , which the parents particularly emphasized. Confirmation lessons with his Lutheran pastor Hermann Spörri also had a lasting influence on him.

After graduation, Classen studied physics and mathematics at the University of Breslau and the University of Jena . In his doctoral thesis for Dr. phil. In 1889 he dealt with the specific heat of liquid sulfur. At that time he was considered to be a very good athlete: as a preliminary gymnast, he was a member of the first squad of the Hamburg Gymnastics Association from 1816 and took part in the German Gymnastics Festival of the German Gymnastics Association in Munich in 1889 , where he led the model squad on parallel bars.

In 1887 Classen got a position as a scientific assistant at the State Physical Laboratory in Hamburg. As the founder of the electrical examination office, he took over the post of first supervisor in 1902 and received the title of professor a year later. From 1902 to 1916 he taught physics at the general lecture system of the high school authority. Among other things, he dealt with the nature of light. In 1924 he retired due to health problems. Two years later he was appointed Scientific Counselor. He also wrote textbooks mainly explaining mathematical optics and the theories of electricity and magnetism.

In addition to his activities as a scientist, Classen was involved in the church. In 1922 he joined the board of directors of the parish of St. Lukas in Fuhlsbüttel and acted as its chairman from 1927. He belonged to the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hamburg state and from 1922 to its new church faction. He also worked as a deputy member in the Church Disciplinary Court. He represented the entire Hamburg regional church at the German Evangelical Church Days , which took place in Bethel in 1924 and in Königsberg in 1927 .

Even outside of his professional activities, Classen attached great importance to combining Christianity, church and natural sciences. He gave a speech in front of the Hamburg branch of the German Monist Union , in which he criticized monism. He also spoke in the Hamburg Protestant Association. His lecture there on knowledge from the natural sciences and belief in God was widely noticed and printed.

literature

• Rainer Hering: Classen, Johannes . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 83-84 .

Web links

Wikisource: Johannes Wilhelm Classen  - Sources and full texts