Paul Knipping

Paul Knipping (born May 20, 1883 in Neuwied am Rhein as Paul Karl Moritz Knipping, † October 26, 1935 in Darmstadt ) was a German physicist .

Live and act

Knipping was born in Neuwied in 1883 as the son of Dr. Paul Knipping and his wife Emilie Hatzfeld were born. From 1904 to 1913 he studied physics at the Universities of Heidelberg (two semesters) and Munich (sixteen semesters). In 1912 he interrupted his diploma thesis with Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in order to carry out the experiment together with Walter Friedrich in the basement of the Sommerfeld Institute in Munich, with which Max von Laue's theory of X-ray interference was proven. This enabled the wave nature of the X-rays to be proven experimentally. For his theory, Max von Laue received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 . On May 26, 1913, Knipping received his PhD. phil. at the University of Munich .

After completing his doctorate (doctorate) , Knipping initially began working at Siemens in Berlin, but after a brief war deployment in 1914, he switched to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem (today's Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck) -Gesellschaft ) under the direction of Fritz Haber and later James Franck . In 1923 he went to Heidelberg as a research assistant to Philipp Lenard for a semester .

In 1924 he completed his habilitation at the TH Darmstadt and was appointed private lecturer in physics. As an assistant at the Physics Institute with Hans Rau (physicist) , he held lectures at the TH Darmstadt from 1924. On June 1, 1928, he became an adjunct professor for X-ray physics and technology. Since 1924 he devoted himself to the establishment of an institute for X-ray physics, which was finally set up in an earlier barracks in 1929/30 (Leib-Garde-Infanterie-Reg, No 115, Magdalenenstrasse 17). The equipment should have been surprisingly good. On December 17, 1929 it consisted of a transformer, electrical measuring instruments, pumps and X-ray tubes and cost 50,293 marks (including furniture). Donations from the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt and industry were added to the state's funds . On April 1, 1934 he was appointed associate professor.

Paul Knipping died in a motorcycle accident through no fault of his own in downtown Darmstadt on October 26, 1935. He had been with the doctor since 1918. phil. Theresa Krüger married.

Works

• 1912: Walther Friedrich , Paul Knipping, Max von Laue : interference phenomena in X-rays. A quantitative test of the theory of interference phenomena in X-rays. In: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, session reports 1912. pp. 303–322, 363–373.
• 1913: About the influence of prehistory on various properties of lead. Borna-Leipzig, Diss. Phil. Munich.
• 1924: About ionization of molecules by electron impact. Habilitation thesis dated February 7, 1924.

literature

• Paul Knipping in: "Physics and its applications in technology and the environment", by Ulrich Menschen, 2004, page 339
• Otto Scherzer: Physics in Darmstadt , in: Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (Ed.): 100 Years of Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, yearbook 1976/77, Darmstadt 1977, pp. 181–192.
• Christa Wolf / Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 106.

Web links

• Knipping, Paul Karl Moritz. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).