Walter Graffunder

Walter Graffunder (born January 7, 1898 in Frankfurt am Main ; † August 12, 1953 in the Engadine ) was a German physicist.

Life

His father Wilhelm Graffunder (1860-1909) was a detective inspector in Falkenburg, Pomerania . Walter Graffunder studied natural sciences at the TH Darmstadt and the University of Frankfurt am Main , where he received his doctorate in 1922 under Richard Wachsmuth with one of the first experimental tests of Deby's theory of the dielectric properties of liquids . From 1925 to 1934 he was an assistant at the Physics Institute under Richard Wachsmuth, Walther Gerlach , Gustav Schmaltz and Karl Wilhelm Meissner and researched the dependence of dielectric constantsorganic liquids and binary liquid mixtures on the temperature. With Karl Grahe, senior physician at the University Ear, Ear and Nose Clinic in Frankfurt am Main, he examined the after-effects of strong progressive accelerations (linear acceleration in a constant direction, as opposed to angular acceleration). He completed his habilitation thesis in 1933, but was not admitted to lectureship due to an objection by the National Socialist German Lecturer Association .

Graffunder started at Telefunken in 1934 and became head of the development laboratory for ultra-short waves. In 1939 he did his habilitation after all. In 1943 his department was moved to Silesia. He developed new measurement methods in the fields of electron tubes and high frequency technology and examined the sparkling effect in receiver tubes .

After fleeing from Silesia, he moved to Switzerland in 1946, where he became assistant to Friedrich Dessauer , private lecturer in 1948 and associate professor at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) in 1950 . On a mountain tour to Piz Languard , he suffered cardiac paralysis and found his final resting place in Zollikon .

Fonts (selection)

• About the dependence of the dielectric constants of benzene, acetone and glycerine on the temperature . In: Annals of Physics . F. 4, Vol. 70 (1923), pp. 225-249 (dissertation, University of Frankfurt am Main, November 29, 1922).
• The tube noise at low frequency. Abstract. In: The Telefunken tube. H. 15, 1939, pp. 41–63 (excerpt from: Habilitation thesis, University of Frankfurt am Main, 1939).

literature

• Friedrich Dessauer , in: Physical sheets . Vol. 9 (1953), p. 465 f.
• Adolf Faller : Professor Walter Graffunder in memoriam. In: Bulletin de la Société Fribourgeoise des Sciences Naturelles. 42: 321-323 (1952) ( online ).
• Werner Kleen :  Walter Graffunder. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 734 ( digitized version ).