Jonathan Zenneck

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Zenneck 1951

Jonathan Adolf Wilhelm Zenneck (born April 15, 1871 in Ruppertshofen in today's Ostalbkreis; † April 8, 1959 in Althegnenberg ; buried in the Bogenhausen cemetery in Munich ) was a German physicist , radio pioneer, ionosphere researcher and co-inventor of the cathode ray tube .

Life

School and study

Zenneck initially spent his school days in Crailsheim . Then he attended from 1885 the Protestant - theological seminars (schools) in the monastery Maulbronn and from 1887 in Blaubeuren , where he the languages Latin , French , Greek and Hebrew (see Evangelical seminar Maulbronn and Blaubeuren ) learned until finally, after a further period of study from 1889 passed his teaching degree in mathematics and natural sciences in Tübingen . In 1894 he was promoted to Dr. rer. nat. PhD.

As a student he became a member of the Tübingen royal society Roigel .

Important activities

From 1895 to 1905 Zenneck was assistant to Ferdinand Braun in Strasbourg . Together with Braun he developed the cathode ray tube in 1897 , which was later also called the Braun tube. From 1898 to 1900, Zenneck made the first attempts on German soil with wireless telegraphy in Cuxhaven (see also coast radio station ). Zenneck is therefore considered a pioneer of German radio technology. To continue the work, the Society for Wireless Telegraphy, System Prof. Braun and Siemens & Halske mbH was founded in 1901 (see Telefunken ). In 1905 Zenneck was appointed associate professor at the Technical University of Danzig. In 1913 he moved to the Technical University of Munich.

During the First World War , he was summoned to the United States by the Foreign Office to act as an appraiser to fend off American patent appeals that had been raised against the only German radio link to the United States. After the United States entered World War I , Zenneck was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp as a German reserve officer . He did not return to Germany until 1920. He turned down a call to the University of Würzburg .

From 1930 he studied the spread of shortwave with his students . With Georg Goubau he was the first in Germany to undertake echo sounding of the ionosphere and thus became the father of this geophysically important area. His research group at the radio station at the Herzogstand , which initially belonged to the Technical University of Munich and later to the German Research Institute for Aviation , continuously measured vertical profiles of electron density from 1937 to 1946.

In 1901 he wrote the article Gravitation in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences . In the 1930s he became interested in room acoustics: a working group developed methods for recording disturbing reflections that were eliminated by covering them with fabric. This was u. a. the very poor acoustics of the Munich Prinzregententheater significantly improved. Zenneck is the author of the first German textbook on wireless telegraphy (later co-author Hans Rukop ) and was editor of the magazine for high frequency technology and electroacoustics. His numerous students have made important contributions to high-frequency engineering, technical acoustics and exploration of the ionosphere .

After Oskar von Miller's resignation in May 1933, Zenneck became head of the Deutsches Museum , at times together with Hugo Bruckmann . With Fritz Todt joining the board of directors and commissioning him to set up a new road construction exhibition and the new automobile exhibition that also opened in 1938, the cooperation with the Nazi state became increasingly visible. As a member of the DNVP , Zenneck certainly had an intersection of political agreements. But since he never joined the NSDAP , he was able to stay in office from 1945 to 1953. The partial reopening of the museum in 1948 fell during his term of office.

Further life dates

Offices and Awards

Zenneck's monument in Cuxhaven-Döse near the Kugelbake

Quote

“ Duty is not enough, you have to enjoy your work. "

- Jonathan Zenneck

“ Organization is the art of letting others work for you. Overorganization is the art of preventing others from working. "

- Jonathan Zenneck

Publications (selection)

  • Jonathan Zenneck: Electromagnetic Oscillations and Wireless Telegraphy. Enke, Stuttgart 1905.
  • Jonathan Zenneck: Textbook of Wireless Telegraphy. Enke, Stuttgart 1912.
  • Jonathan Zenneck, Walter Dieminger , Georg Goubau : The disturbances of the ionosphere. In: high frequency technology and electroacoustics. 44, Leipzig 1943, ISSN  0018-2958 , pp. 2-17.
  • Jonathan Zenneck, Friedrich Klemm: Fifty Years of the German Museum in Munich. Deutsches Museum, Munich 1953.

literature

  • Jonathan Zenneck: Memories of a Physicist. Munich 1961.
  • Walter Dieminger: Jonathan Zenneck. R.Oldenbourg, Munich 1961.
  • Georg Schmucker: Jonathan Zenneck 1871–1959 A technical-scientific biography. Stuttgart 1999.
  • Stefan L. Wolff: Jonathan Zenneck as director of the Deutsches Museum. In: Elisabeth Vaupel and Stefan L. Wolff, The German Museum in the Time of National Socialism, Göttingen 2010, pp. 78–126.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst Teichmann : The development of "physics" in the 4th Saeculum of the University of Würzburg explained using the history of an institute building. In: Peter Baumgart (Ed.): Four hundred years of the University of Würzburg. A commemorative publication. Degener & Co. (Gerhard Gessner), Neustadt an der Aisch 1982 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Volume 6), ISBN 3-7686-9062-8 , pp. 787-807; here: p. 804.
  2. ↑ Honorary doctoral students of the TH / TU Dresden. Technical University of Dresden, accessed on January 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ 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. 266.
personal data
SURNAME Zenneck, Jonathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zenneck, Jonathan Adolf Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist, radio pioneer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Ruppertshofen
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1959
Place of death Althegnenberg