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| Max Planck - a biography |
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Max Planck - a biography - originator of the quantum theory
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Max Planck’s life reflects the upheaval and tragedy
of
two centuries. By Lorenz Friedrich Beck
“I could equally have become a linguist or a historian.
What brought me to the exact natural sciences was a mathematics
lecture I attended at the university, and which I found emotionally
satisfying and inspiring.” These words were written by
the world-famous physicist Max Planck, the 150th anniversary
of whose birth we are celebrating this year. Planck’s long
life and his contribution to science are a singular reflection
of the upheaval and tragedy of the preceding two centuries, the
belief in science and its failure.
 Planck
was born in Kiel on April 23, 1858 into a Swabian family that
had produced important theologians and lawyers. The family moved
to Munich where the spiritual and artistic influences Planck
encountered there were to shape the rest of Planck’s life.
The young Planck was known to be a hardworking and talented student
who developed a strong sense of duty early on, and who was well-liked
for his warm-hearted and kind nature. After passing his final
school examinations with flying colours, he enrolled at the university
in Munich. He also spent some time studying in Berlin, where
he attended lectures by the leading physicists like Hermann von
Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff, and which made a lasting impression
on him.
In 1879 Planck was awarded his doctorate in Munich for his thesis “Über
den zweiten Hauptsatz der Wärmetheorie [On the Second Law
of the Mechanical Theory of Heat]”. He earned a senior
post-doctorate qualification at the young age of 22, and lectured
unpaid as a reader at the University in Munich, where he continued
working on the theory of thermodynamics. In 1885, he was invited
to become an associate professor at the university in Kiel: Planck
always maintained a close relationship with the city of his birth.
Four years later he moved to Berlin, where he became a tenured
professor in 1892 and in 1894 became a full member of the Prussian
Academy of Sciences. His scientific career received significant
momentum with the publication of his award-winning work “Das
Prinzip der Erhaltung der Energie [The Principle of Energy Conservation]”.
In 1905 the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft [German Physics
Society] appointed him Chairman, in 1913, he became Rector of
the University, in 1915 he became a Knight of the Order Pour
le mérite for Science and the Arts, and finally in 1921
he was appointed Chairman of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher
und Ärzte [Society for German Natural Scientists and Doctors].
His most important scientific achievement was the discovery in
1899 of the natural constant, “Planck’s constant”,
from which he developed his law of radiation and founded quantum
theory, which revolutionized modern Physics. He received the
Nobel Prize for this in 1918.
Initially, Planck also enjoyed good fortune in his domestic life.
He had four children with his first wife, a banker’s daughter
named Marie Merck. The couple enjoyed a lively, musical, sociable
lifestyle in the Berlin suburb of Grunewald. Writing about the
Plancks’ hospitality, his assistant Lise Meitner said: “Planck
loved cheerful relaxed company and his home was at the center
of such a circle.” However, his private happiness did not
last. Planck lost his wife in 1909; their elder son fell at Verdun,
and both their twin daughters died giving birth to their first
child, one in 1917 and one in 1919. His second wife was able
to provide him with valuable support at this time.
 After
the war, Planck was considered an authority on German physics
and in 1920 was a founder member of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen
Wissenschaft [Emergency Association of German Science] (today
the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Foundation].
In 1930, at the age of 72, he took on another important position
as the President of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement
of Science. He remained President until 1937 and after the National
Socialists came to power was confronted by difficult questions
concerning politics and the organization of science. His actions
were informed by his fundamental loyalty to his country and his
desire to preserve the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its position.
This undertaking meant that some compromises within the Society
were unavoidable. On the other hand, Planck supported colleagues
whose lives were in danger and exhibited courage and steadfastness
in holding a memorial seminar in the Harnack House in Dahlem
for Fritz Haber, who died in exile in 1935. He also managed to
re-employ a number of Jewish scientists for some time at the
institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. On the insistence of
the National Socialists, Planck declined re-election and was
able to delay, but not prevent, the Gleichschaltung, the forced
alignment with the Nazi regime, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.
In 1938, he resigned from his position at the Academy of Sciences
out of protest. As a very old man, after being bombed out of
his villa in Berlin, he was dealt another heavy blow in January
1945 when his son Erwin, who was part of the July 20th 1944 plot,
was arrested and executed.
It was thanks to Planck’s wide international reputation
that the Kaiser Wilhelm Society survived the war as an organization.
In 1945, he temporarily became the President again. In 1946,
he was the only German scientist to attend the Newton anniversary
celebrations at the Royal Society in London and became Honorary
President of the Max Planck Society after it was founded in the
British zone. On October 4, 1947 Planck died at the age of almost
90, a highly regarded man.
The author is the Director of the Archives of the Max Planck
Society
The archive of the Max Planck Society in Berlin holds the historical
records and legacies of the institutes and the Administrative
Headquarters of the Kaiser Wilhelm /Max Planck Society in the
form of text and images, and the papers left by important scientists,
including numerous documents about Max Planck. With 15 holdings,
it is the largest Nobel Prize winner archive in Germany and therefore
indispensable for research into the history of science and for
public relations work on behalf of the MPS, for which it maintains
its own series of publications. On the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of Max Planck’s birth, the archive is publishing
a German-language handbook: „Max Planck und die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft“ (“Max
Planck and the Max Planck Society”). For more information,
please go to:  www.archiv-berlin.mpg.de
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