Werner Holzmüller

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Werner Holzmüller

Werner Holzmüller (born December 15, 1912 in Leipzig ; † February 26, 2011 ) was a German physicist and honorary senator of the University of Leipzig.

With his research in the fields of high-frequency technology in connection with polymer physics, Holzmüller laid the foundations for many of today's widespread applications as early as the 1930s and 1940s. His work on the heating effects of molecules in alternating electric fields form the basis of applications such as microwave technology or diathermy in medicine.

Life

Holzmüller was born in Leipzig in 1912 . From 1932 to 1937 he studied physics at the Theoretical-Physical and Physical Institute in Leipzig's Linnéstrasse. His teachers included u. a. Werner Heisenberg and Peter Debye , who each received a Nobel Prize during this period . In his autobiography, Werner Holzmüller speaks with pride and the greatest respect of his teachers, who, in addition to the personalities mentioned, included other outstanding scientists such as Friedrich Hund in physics, Leon Lichtenstein , Ludwig Otto Hölder and Bartel Leendert van der Waerden in mathematics and Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer in chemistry. In 1937 Holzmüller received his doctorate under Peter Debye with the dissertation “Dielectric losses in ketones as a function of the constitution and size of the molecules”. He joined the NSDAP in 1937 , but held no other function here.

He then had the opportunity to pursue the ideas developed by Debye on the mobility of organic molecules at the newly founded Institute for Plastics Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in Dahlem and to expand them to include macromolecules. In 1941 Holzmüller completed his habilitation in the field of the dielectric properties of plastics. The main direction of his later scientific work, the uncovering of the connections between the structure and mobility of the macromolecules on the one hand and the macroscopic physical properties of organic plastics on the other, was already apparent during this activity in Berlin-Dahlem. Fundamental work was carried out on the theory of change of place of molecular processes and on the plastic-elastic behavior of high polymers.

During the Second World War, Holzmüller was drafted into Potsdam for the scientific weather service. After the war, Holzmüller was brought to the Soviet Union for reparations as part of the Ossawakim campaign . In Gorky , the "closed city", today's Nizhny Novgorod, Holzmüller worked as a high-frequency physicist on the development of the radio industry.

In 1952 Holzmüller returned to Leipzig and became a professor at the university there. Here he set up the “Technical Physics” department and devoted himself to polymer research until his retirement in 1977. From 1954 the director of the Physics Institute was the Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz, who had also returned from the USSR .

In 1959 Holzmüller received the GDR National Prize, 2nd class, in the field of science and technology .

As a university lecturer, Holzmüller orientated himself towards his teacher Heisenberg. According to his own statements, he practiced his way of being a professor with his students. His most prominent student was Chancellor Angela Merkel today . His numerous book publications testify to the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of Holzmüller's research. After his retirement he turned to an even broader range of topics in other books.

Holzmüller was last honorary senator of the Leipzig University and lived in a suburb of Leipzig.

He was buried on March 8, 2011 at the Gundorf / Böhlitz-Ehrenberg cemetery.

Fonts

  • Werner Holzmüller, Kurt Altenburg: Physics of plastics. Akademie-Verlag, 1961
  • Werner Holzmüller: Technical Physics. a three-volume textbook, VEB Verlag Technik, 1959–1966
  • Werner Holzmüller: Our environment - its development and conservation. 1977
  • Werner Holzmüller: Macromolecules as carriers of life processes. 1981
  • Werner Holzmüller: A physicist experienced the 20th century. 1993, ISBN 3-7848-3907-X .
  • Werner Holzmüller: The end - warning of a nuclear war. 1994, ISBN 3-86137-129-4 .
  • Werner Holzmüller: The world around us - its creation and maintenance. 1995, ISBN 3-86137-262-2 .
  • Werner Holzmüller: Synergy, syntropy, non-linear systems. Is Einstein right? 2000, ISBN 3-933531-20-9 .
  • Werner Holzmüller: Happy hours in serious times. 2002, ISBN 3-933531-24-1 .
  • Werner Holzmüller: Experienced history. 2003, an autobiography. ISBN 3-933531-26-8 .
  • Werner Holzmüller: Natural sciences and humanities - one unit. 2005
  • Werner Holzmüller: Natural science, cosmic religion and our future. From physicist to philosopher. Self-published Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028015-3 .

literature

  • Thomas Mayer: In the spirit of Einstein-An interview with Prof Dr Holzmüller. Leipziger Volkszeitung, Leipzig February 11, 2008.
  • Tilman Butz; Dieter Michel: At the festive colloquium of the Faculty of Physics and Geosciences on February 11, 2008 in honor of Prof. em. Dr. Werner Holzmüller's University of Leipzig, Leipzig February 11, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 147.
  2. ^ Obituary notice in the Leipziger Volkszeitung from March 5, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Holzmüller, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 2011