Fritz Hintze (April 18, 1915 – March 30, 1993) was an Egyptologist , Nubiologist , and German archaeologist. He is the founder of Sudanese archaeology in Germany.
99-504: Hintze studied at Humboldt University of Berlin under Hermann Grapow and received his doctorate in 1944. In 1957, he founded the Institute of Egyptology at Humboldt University. He retired in 1980. Hintze's main area of research was the study of meriotic culture in Nubia . He undertook field research projects at Butana (1957–58) and Musawwarat es-Sufra (1960–1970). Among his students were
198-538: A habilitation . With the completion of his habilitation thesis, Planck became an unpaid Privatdozent (German academic rank comparable to lecturer/assistant professor) in Munich, waiting until he was offered an academic position. Although he was initially ignored by the academic community, he furthered his work on the field of heat theory and discovered one after another the same thermodynamical formalism as Gibbs without realizing it. Clausius's ideas on entropy occupied
297-449: A quarantine house for Plague at the city gates, which in 1727 was rechristened by the "soldier king" Friedrich Wilhelm: "Es soll das Haus die Charité heißen" (called Charité [French for charity ]). By 1829 the site became Friedrich Wilhelm University's medical campus and remained so until 1927 when the more modern University Hospital was constructed. The university started a natural history collection in 1810, which by 1889, required
396-508: A "resistance movement at the University of Berlin", as well as espionage, and were sentenced to 25 years of forced labor. From 1945 to 1948, 18 other students and teachers were arrested or abducted, many missing for weeks, and some were taken to the Soviet Union and executed. Many of the students targeted by Soviet persecution were active in the liberal or social democratic resistance against
495-609: A celebration, during which the Max-Planck medal (founded as the highest medal by the DPG in 1928) was awarded to French physicist Louis de Broglie . At the end of 1938, the Prussian Academy lost its remaining independence and was taken over by Nazis ( Gleichschaltung ). Planck protested by resigning his presidency. He continued to travel frequently, giving numerous public talks, such as his talk on Religion and Science, and five years later he
594-457: A central role in his work. In April 1885, the University of Kiel appointed Planck as associate professor of theoretical physics . Further work on entropy and its treatment, especially as applied in physical chemistry , followed. He published his Treatise on Thermodynamics in 1897. He proposed a thermodynamic basis for Svante Arrhenius 's theory of electrolytic dissociation . In 1889, he
693-707: A generation of Egyptologists, many of whom specialize in the Sudan of antiquity, including Erika Endesfelder, Liselotte Honigmann-zinserling, Irene Shirun-Grumach, Karl-Heinz Priese, Walter-Friedrich Reineke and Steffen Wenig. His wife was German archaeologist Ursula Hintze . Hintze was killed on March 30, 1993, by a car accident. This biographical article about an Egyptologist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (German: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin , abbreviated HU Berlin )
792-416: A model for institutions like Johns Hopkins University . Further, it has been claimed that "the 'Humboldtian' university became a model for the rest of Europe [...] with its central principle being the union of teaching and research in the work of the individual scholar or scientist." In addition to the strong anchoring of traditional subjects, such as science, law, philosophy, history, theology and medicine,
891-630: A much larger number of permanent assistant professors, lecturers and other middle level academic positions. After reunification, these positions were abolished or converted to temporary posts for consistency with the West German system. As a result, only 10% of the mid-level academics in Humboldt-Universität still had a position in 1998. Through the transformations, the university's research and exchange links with Eastern European institutions were maintained and stabilized. Today, Humboldt University
990-563: A new rise." In February 1944, his home in Berlin was completely destroyed by an air raid, annihilating all his scientific records and correspondence. His rural retreat was threatened by the rapid advance of the Allied armies from both sides. In 1944, Planck's son Erwin was arrested by the Gestapo following the attempted assassination of Hitler in the 20 July plot . He was tried and sentenced to death by
1089-405: A passion for work, such an interest for things that are not petty student intrigues, such an inclination for the sciences, such calm and such silence. Compared to this temple of work, the other universities appear like public houses." The university has been home to many of Germany's greatest thinkers of the past two centuries, among them the subjective idealist philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte ,
SECTION 10
#17328512237531188-505: A phenomenon which defies explanation by classical physics. Planck and Walther Nernst , seeking to clarify the increasing number of contradictions, organized the First Solvay Conference (Brussels 1911). At this meeting Einstein was able to convince Planck. Meanwhile, Planck had been appointed dean of Berlin University, whereby it was possible for him to call Einstein to Berlin and establish a new professorship for him (1914). Soon
1287-400: A photon of frequency ν will have its own specific and unique energy. The total energy at that frequency is then equal to hν multiplied by the number of photons at that frequency. At first Planck considered that quantisation was only "a purely formal assumption ... actually I did not think much about it ..."; nowadays this assumption, incompatible with classical physics , is regarded as
1386-483: A physicist rests primarily on his role as the originator of quantum theory and one of the founders of modern physics , which revolutionized understanding of atomic and subatomic processes. He is known for the Planck constant , which is of foundational importance for quantum physics, and which he used to derive a set of units , today called Planck units , expressed only in terms of fundamental physical constants . Planck
1485-668: A separate building and became the Museum für Naturkunde . The preexisting Tierarznei School, founded in 1790 and absorbed by the university, in 1934 formed the basis of the Veterinary Medicine Facility (Grundstock der Veterinärmedizinischen Fakultät). Also the Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin (Agricultural University of Berlin), founded in 1881 was affiliated with the Agricultural Faculties of
1584-583: A somewhat provocative style an official commemorative meeting for Haber. He also succeeded in secretly enabling a number of Jewish scientists to continue working in institutes of the KWG for several years. In 1936, his term as president of the KWG ended, and the Nazi government pressured him to refrain from seeking another term. As the political climate in Germany gradually became more hostile, Johannes Stark , prominent exponent of
1683-515: A young student during his stay in Berlin, successfully applied this new law of nature to mechanical, thermoelectric and chemical processes. In his dissertation in 1879, Planck summarized Clausius' writings, pointing out contradictions and inaccuracies in their formulation and then clarifying them. In addition, he generalized the validity of the second law to all processes in nature, Clausius had limited its application to reversible processes and thermal processes. Furthermore, Planck dealt intensively with
1782-453: Is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin , Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt , Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher as the University of Berlin ( Universität zu Berlin ) in 1809, and opened in 1810. From 1828 until its closure in 1945, it was named
1881-487: Is a state university with a large number of students (36,986 in 2014, among them more than 4,662 foreign students) after the model of West German universities, and like its counterpart the Freie Universität Berlin . The university consists of three different campuses, namely Campus Mitte, Campus Nord and Campus Adlershof. Its main building is located in the centre of Berlin at the boulevard Unter den Linden and
1980-632: Is based. In a discussion with his son in December 1918 Planck described his discovery as 'a discovery of the first rank, comparable perhaps only to the discoveries of Newton'. In recognition of Planck's fundamental contribution to a new branch of physics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1918; (he received the award in 1919). Subsequently, Planck tried to grasp the meaning of energy quanta, but to no avail. "My unavailing attempts to somehow reintegrate
2079-513: Is divided into nine faculties including its medical school shared with the Freie Universität Berlin. The university has a student enrollment of around 35,000 students, and offers degree programs in some 171 disciplines from undergraduate to post-doctorate level. Its main campus is located on the Unter den Linden boulevard in central Berlin. The university is known worldwide for pioneering
SECTION 20
#17328512237532178-536: Is the heart of Campus Mitte. The building was erected on order by King Frederick II for his younger brother Prince Henry of Prussia . All the institutes of humanities are located around the main building together with the Department of Law and the Department of Business and Economics. Campus Nord is located north of the main building close to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and is the home of the life science departments including
2277-489: The Deutsche Physik ("German Physics", also called "Aryan Physics") attacked Planck, Arnold Sommerfeld , and Heisenberg for continuing to teach the theories of Einstein, calling them "white Jews". The "Hauptamt Wissenschaft" (Nazi government office for science) started an investigation of Planck's ancestry, claiming that he was "1/16 Jewish", but Planck denied it. In 1938, Planck celebrated his 80th birthday. The DPG held
2376-518: The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) anymore since 2008. In the 2023 QS Subject Ranking, Humboldt University ranks first in Germany in the arts and humanities and the social sciences. In the 2024 THE Subject Ranking, Humboldt University ranks second in Germany in the arts and humanities, law, psychology, and social sciences. In the 2023 ARWU Subject Ranking, Humboldt University ranks first in Germany in geography. Measured by
2475-622: The Brothers Grimm . The main building of Humboldt-Universität is the Prinz-Heinrich-Palais (English: Prince Henry's Palace ) on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic centre of Berlin . It was erected from 1748 to 1753 for Prince Henry of Prussia , the brother of Frederick the Great , according to plans by Johann Boumann in Baroque style . In 1809, the former Royal Prussian residence
2574-587: The German reunification , the university was radically restructured under the Structure and Appointment Commissions, which were presided by West German professors. For departments on social sciences and humanities, the faculty was subjected to a "liquidation" process, in which contracts of employees were terminated and positions were made open to new academics, mainly West Germans. Older professors were offered early retirement. The East German higher education system included
2673-980: The Humboldtian model of higher education , which has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. It was generally regarded as the world's preeminent university for the natural sciences during the 19th and early 20th century, as the university is linked to major breakthroughs in physics and other sciences by its professors, such as Albert Einstein . Past and present faculty and notable alumni include 57 Nobel Prize laureates (the most of any German university), as well as scholars and academics including Albert Einstein , Hermann von Helmholtz , Emil du Bois-Reymond , Robert Koch , Theodor Mommsen , Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels , Otto von Bismarck , W. E. B. Du Bois , Arthur Schopenhauer , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Walter Benjamin , Max Weber , Georg Simmel , Karl Liebknecht , Ernst Cassirer , Heinrich Heine , Eduard Fraenkel , Max Planck , Wernher von Braun and
2772-643: The Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin (German: Königliche Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin ). During the Cold War , the university found itself in East Berlin and was de facto split in two when the Free University of Berlin opened in West Berlin . The university received its current name in honour of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1949. The university
2871-551: The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences . During the interwar period, Planck became a member of the Deutsche Volks-Partei ( German People's Party ), the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Gustav Stresemann , which aspired to liberal aims for domestic policy and rather revisionistic aims for politics around the world. Planck disagreed with the introduction of universal suffrage and later expressed
2970-530: The University of Bonn , the University of Berlin was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III on 16 August 1809, during the period of the Prussian Reform Movement , on the initiative of the liberal Prussian philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt . The university was located in a palace constructed from 1748 to 1766 for the late Prince Henry , the younger brother of Frederick the Great . After his widow and her ninety-member staff moved out,
3069-465: The University of Vienna . Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck ForMemRS ( / ˈ p l æ ŋ k / ; German: [maks ˈplaŋk] ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as
Fritz Hintze - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-446: The photoelectric effect , was initially rejected by Planck. He was unwilling to discard completely Maxwell 's theory of electrodynamics . "The theory of light would be thrown back not by decades, but by centuries, into the age when Christiaan Huygens dared to fight against the mighty emission theory of Isaac Newton ..." In 1910, Einstein pointed out the anomalous behavior of specific heat at low temperatures as another example of
3267-470: The second law of thermodynamics as a way of gaining a more fundamental understanding of the principles behind his radiation law. Planck was deeply suspicious of the philosophical and physical implications of such an interpretation of Boltzmann's approach; thus his recourse to them was, as he later put it, "an act of despair ... I was ready to sacrifice any of my previous convictions about physics". The central assumption behind his new derivation, presented to
3366-436: The 1840s, several researchers independently discovered and formulated the law of conservation of energy, which is now also known as the first law of thermodynamics . In 1850, Rudolf Clausius formulated the so-called second law of thermodynamics , which states that a voluntary (or spontaneous) transfer of energy is only possible from a warmer to a colder body, but not vice versa. In England at this time William Thomson came to
3465-458: The 1920s to 1930s, renowned Jewish orientalist Eugen Mittwoch was director of the school, before being forced to emigrate to London after Kristallnacht in 1938. Friedrich Wilhelm University became an emulated model of a modern university in the 19th century. After 1933, like all German universities, Friedrich Wilhelm University was impacted by the Nazi regime . The rector during this period
3564-538: The DPG on 14 December 1900, was the supposition, now known as the Planck postulate , that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in quantized form, in other words, the energy could only be a multiple of an elementary unit: where h is the Planck constant , also known as Planck's action quantum (introduced already in 1899), and ν is the frequency of the radiation. Note that the elementary units of energy discussed here are represented by hν and not simply by ν . Physicists now call these quanta photons, and
3663-481: The Maximilians gymnasium school. There, his mathematical talents emerged early and he later came under the tutelage of Hermann Müller, a mathematician who took an interest in the youth, and taught him astronomy and mechanics as well as mathematics . It was from Müller that Planck first learned the principle of conservation of energy. Planck graduated early, at age 17. This is how Planck first came in contact with
3762-535: The Oriental Seminary) to prepare public servants for posting to Kamerun (later Cameroon ), then part of the German colonial empire . Various Asian languages were taught there, and in 1890, there were 115 students, which belonged to various faculties, including law; philosophy, medicine and physical sciences; and theology (as part of their training to be missionaries). Teachers included Hermann Nekes [ de ] (1909–1915) and Heinrich Vieter . In
3861-547: The Princip of the Increase of Entropy". In his study of the concept of entropy, Planck did not follow the molecular, probabilistic interpretation that prevailed at the time, as these do not provide absolute proof of universality. Instead, he pursued a phenomenological approach and was also skeptical of atomism. Even though he later abandoned this attitude in the course of his work on the law of radiation, his early work impressively shows
3960-622: The Second Law of Mechanical Heat Theory ). He briefly taught mathematics and physics at his former school in Munich. By the year 1880, Planck had obtained the two highest academic degrees offered in Europe. The first was a doctorate degree after he completed his paper detailing his research and theory of thermodynamics. He then presented his thesis called Gleichgewichtszustände isotroper Körper in verschiedenen Temperaturen ( Equilibrium states of isotropic bodies at different temperatures ), which earned him
4059-634: The Soviet-imposed communist dictatorship. The German communist party had long regarded the social democrats as their main enemies, dating back to the early days of the Weimar Republic. During the Berlin Blockade , the Freie Universität Berlin was established as a de facto western successor in West Berlin in 1948, with support from the United States, and retaining traditions and faculty members of
Fritz Hintze - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-488: The action quantum into classical theory extended over several years and caused me much trouble." Even several years later, other physicists such as Rayleigh , Jeans , and Lorentz set the Planck constant to zero in order to align with classical physics, but Planck knew well that this constant had a precise nonzero value. "I am unable to understand Jeans' stubbornness – he is an example of a theoretician as should never be existing,
4257-417: The behaviour at high frequencies, but failed at low frequencies. The Rayleigh–Jeans law , another approach to the problem, agreed with experimental results at low frequencies, but created what was later known as the " ultraviolet catastrophe " at high frequencies, as predicted by classical physics . However, contrary to many textbooks, this was not a motivation for Planck. Planck's first proposed solution to
4356-466: The birth of quantum physics and the greatest intellectual accomplishment of Planck's career. ( Boltzmann had been discussing in a theoretical paper in 1877 the possibility that the energy states of a physical system could be discrete). The discovery of the Planck constant enabled him to define a new universal set of physical units (such as the Planck length and the Planck mass), all based on fundamental physical constants, upon which much of quantum theory
4455-456: The center of the square. It consists of a glass panel embedded in the pavement that looks into a large, subterranean white room with empty shelf space for 20,000 volumes, along with a plaque bearing an epigraph taken from an 1820 work by the great German-Jewish writer Heinrich Heine : " Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen. " ("This
4554-456: The chancellor replied "but we don't have anything against the Jews, only against communists". Planck was therefore unsuccessful, since this reply "took from him every basis for further negotiation", as to Hitler "the Jews are all Communists, and these are my enemies." In the following year, 1934, Haber died in exile. One year later, Planck, having been the president of the KWG since 1930, organized in
4653-431: The coexistence of aggregate states and the equilibrium of gas reactions, for example. This work on the frontier of chemical thermodynamics also received great attention due to the rapidly expanding chemical work at that time. Independently of Planck, Josiah Willard Gibbs had also discovered almost all the knowledge Planck gained about the properties of physicochemical equilibria and published them from 1876 onwards. Planck
4752-556: The collection was relocated to the building of the Berlin State Library . During the Weimar Period the library contained 831,934 volumes (1930) and was thus one of the leading university libraries in Germany at that time. During the Nazi book burnings in 1933, no volumes from the university library were destroyed. The loss through World War II was comparatively small. In 2003, natural science-related books were outhoused to
4851-487: The date of its opening. In 1810, at the time of the opening, the university established the first academic chair in the field of history in the world. From 1828 to 1945, the school was named the "Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin", in honor of its founder. Ludwig Feuerbach , then one of the students, made a comment about the university in 1826: "There is no question here of drinking, duelling and pleasant communal outings; in no other university can you find such
4950-470: The economist Hermann Kranold , to emigrate to London after his arrest. He hoped the crisis would abate soon and the political situation would improve. Otto Hahn asked Planck to gather well-known German professors in order to issue a public proclamation against the treatment of Jewish professors, but Planck replied, "If you are able to gather today 30 such gentlemen, then tomorrow 150 others will come and speak against it, because they are eager to take over
5049-605: The field of physics. Planck was gifted when it came to music. He took singing lessons and played piano, organ and cello, and composed songs and operas. However, instead of music he chose to study physics . Planck enrolled at the University of Munich in 1874. Under professor Philipp von Jolly 's supervision, Planck performed the only experiments of his scientific career, studying the diffusion of hydrogen through heated platinum , but transferred to theoretical physics . Jolly advised Planck against going into theoretical physics. Planck recalls that in 1878, Jolly argued that physics
SECTION 50
#17328512237535148-632: The first unofficial lectures were given in the building in the winter of 1809. Humboldt faced great resistance to his ideas as he set up the university. He submitted his resignation to the King in April 1810, and was not present when the school opened that fall. The first students were admitted on 6 October 1810, and the first semester started on 10 October 1810, with 256 students and 52 lecturers in faculties of law, medicine, theology and philosophy under rector Theodor Schmalz. The university celebrates 15 October 1810 as
5247-470: The first version of the famous Planck black-body radiation law , which described clearly the experimentally observed black-body spectrum. It was first proposed in a meeting of the DPG on 19 October 1900 and published in 1901. (This first derivation did not include energy quantisation, and did not use statistical mechanics , to which he held an aversion.) In November 1900 Planck revised this first version, now relying on Boltzmann 's statistical interpretation of
5346-481: The infamous " Manifesto of the 93 intellectuals ", a pamphlet of polemic war propaganda (while Einstein retained a strictly pacifistic attitude which almost led to his imprisonment, only being spared thanks to his Swiss citizenship). In 1915, when Italy was still a neutral power, Planck voted successfully for a scientific paper from Italy, which received a prize from the Prussian Academy of Sciences , where Planck
5445-429: The intensity of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body (a perfect absorber, also known as a cavity radiator) depend on the frequency of the radiation (i.e., the color of the light) and the temperature of the body?". The question had been explored experimentally, but no theoretical treatment had agreed with the experimentally observed evidence. Wilhelm Wien proposed Wien's law , which correctly predicted
5544-545: The light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Planck was 74 years old. He witnessed many Jewish friends and colleagues expelled from their positions and humiliated, and hundreds of scientists emigrate from Nazi Germany . Again he tried to "persevere and continue working" and asked scientists who were considering emigration to remain in Germany. Nevertheless, he did help his nephew,
5643-449: The listeners would from time to time drop to the floor, but this did not disturb the lecture." Planck did not establish an actual "school"; the number of his graduate students was only about 20, among them: Thermodynamics , also known as the "mechanical theory of heat" at the end of the 19th century, had emerged at the beginning of this century from an attempt to understand the functioning of steam engines and to improve their efficiency. In
5742-597: The money the organization would distribute was raised abroad. Planck held leading positions at Berlin University, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the German Physical Society, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (which became the Max Planck Society in 1948). During this time economic conditions in Germany were such that he was hardly able to conduct research. In 1926, Planck became a foreign member of
5841-466: The name Max and used this for the rest of his life. He was the sixth child in the family, though two of his siblings were from his father's first marriage. War was common during Planck's early years and among his earliest memories was the marching of Prussian and Austrian troops into Kiel during the Second Schleswig War in 1864. In 1867 the family moved to Munich , and Planck enrolled in
5940-663: The national level. Additionally, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024, it was placed at 87th worldwide and 4th within the country. Because of an unresolved dispute over the counting of Nobel laureates before the Second World War – both Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin claim to be the rightful successor of the Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin – both do not appear in
6039-423: The new concept of entropy and emphasized, that entropy is not only a property of a physical system, but at the same time a measure of the irreversibility of a process: If entropy is generated in a process, it is irreversible, since entropy cannot be destroyed according to the second law. In reversible processes, the entropy remains constant. He presented this fact in detail in 1887 in a series of treatises entitled "On
SECTION 60
#17328512237536138-514: The newly founded library at the Adlershof campus, which is dedicated solely to the natural sciences. Since the premises of the State Library had to be cleared in 2005, a new library building was erected close to the main building in the center of Berlin. The "Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm-Zentrum" (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Centre, Grimm Zentrum, or GZ as referred to by students) opened in 2009. In total,
6237-546: The number of top managers in the German economy, Humboldt-Universität ranked 53rd in 2019. In 2020, the American U.S. News & World Report listed Humboldt-Universität as the 82nd best in the world, climbing eight positions, being among the 100 best in the world in 17 areas out of 29 ranked. HU students can study abroad for a semester or a year at partner institutions such as the University of Warwick , Princeton University , and
6336-562: The old Friedrich Wilhelm University. The name of the Free University refers to West Berlin's perceived status as part of the Western " free world ", in contrast to the "unfree" Communist world in general and the "unfree" communist-controlled university in East Berlin in particular. Because the historical name, the Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, had monarchic origins, the school
6435-603: The physicians Johannes Peter Müller , Emil du Bois-Reymond , Albrecht von Graefe , Rudolf Virchow , and Robert Koch , contributed to Berlin University's scientific fame. During this period of enlargement, the university gradually expanded to incorporate other previously separate colleges in Berlin. An example would be the Charité , the Pépinière and the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum. In 1710, King Friedrich I had built
6534-501: The positions of the others." Under Planck's leadership, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG) avoided open conflict with the Nazi regime, except concerning the Jewish Fritz Haber. In May of 1933 Planck requested and received an interview with the recently appointed Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler to discuss the issue, telling him that the "forced immigration of Jews would kill German science and Jews could be good Germans", to which
6633-571: The possibilites of the phenome of thermodynamics in solving concrete physicochemical problems. Planck's understanding of entropy included the realization that the maximum of entropy corresponds to the equilibrium state. The accompanying conclusion that knowledge of the Entropy allows all laws of thermodynamic equilibrium states to be derived corresponds to the modern understanding of such states. Planck therefore chose equilibrium processes as his research focus and, based on his habilitation thesis, researched
6732-464: The problem in 1899 followed from what he called the "principle of elementary disorder", which allowed him to derive Wien's law from a number of assumptions about the entropy of an ideal oscillator, creating what was referred to as the Wien–Planck law. Soon, however, it was found that experimental evidence did not confirm the new law at all, to Planck's frustration. He revised his approach and now derived
6831-447: The same as Hegel was for philosophy. So much the worse for the facts if they don't fit." Max Born wrote about Planck: "He was, by nature, a conservative mind; he had nothing of the revolutionary and was thoroughly skeptical about speculations. Yet his belief in the compelling force of logical reasoning from facts was so strong that he did not flinch from announcing the most revolutionary idea which ever has shaken physics." In 1905,
6930-437: The same conclusion. Clausius generalized his formulation further and further and came up with a new formulation in 1865. To this end, he introduced the concept of Entropy , which he defined as a measure of the reversible supply of heat in relation to the absolute temperature. The new formulation of the second law, which is still valid today, was: "Entropy can be created, but never destroyed". Clausius, whose work Planck read as
7029-606: The staff were fired by the Nazis. It was from the university's library that some 20,000 books by " degenerates " and opponents of the regime were taken to be burned on 10 May of that year in the Opernplatz square (now called the Bebelplatz ) for a demonstration that was protected by the SA and featured a speech by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels . A monument to this tragic event called The Empty Library can now be found in
7128-482: The theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher , the absolute idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel , the Romantic legal theorist Friedrich Carl von Savigny , the anti-optimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer , the objective idealist philosopher Friedrich Schelling , cultural critic Walter Benjamin , and famous physicists Albert Einstein and Max Planck . The founders of Marxist theory Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels attended
7227-578: The three epochal papers by Albert Einstein were published in the journal Annalen der Physik . Planck was among the few who immediately recognized the significance of the special theory of relativity . Thanks to his influence, this theory was soon widely accepted in Germany. Planck also contributed considerably to extend the special theory of relativity. For example, he recast the theory in terms of classical action . Einstein's hypothesis of light quanta ( photons ), based on Heinrich Hertz's 1887 discovery (and further investigation by Philipp Lenard ) of
7326-527: The two scientists became close friends and met frequently to play music together. At the onset of the First World War Planck endorsed the general excitement of the public, writing that, "Besides much that is horrible, there is also much that is unexpectedly great and beautiful: the smooth solution of the most difficult domestic political problems by the unification of all parties (and) ... the extolling of everything good and noble." Planck also signed
7425-525: The university after its founder's death. However, these terms were ignored. In 2001, the university acquired the Archive for Sexology from the Robert Koch Institute, which was founded with a large private library donated by Erwin J. Haeberle . This has now been housed at the new Magnus Hirschfeld Center. According to the 2024 QS World University Rankings , the university ranked 120th globally and 7th at
7524-477: The university developed to encompass numerous new scientific disciplines. Alexander von Humboldt , brother of the founder William, promoted the new learning. The construction of modern research facilities in the second half of the 19th century aided the teaching of the natural sciences. Famous researchers, such as the chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann , the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz , the mathematicians Ernst Eduard Kummer , Leopold Kronecker , Karl Weierstrass ,
7623-525: The university library contains about 6.5 million volumes and 9,000 held magazines and journals, and is one of the biggest university libraries in Germany. The books of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft were destroyed during the Nazi book burnings, and the institute destroyed. Under the terms of the Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, the government had agreed to continue the work of the institute at
7722-468: The university medical center Charité . The natural sciences, together with computer science and mathematics, are located at Campus Adlershof in the south-east of Berlin. Furthermore, the university continues its tradition of a book sale at the university gates facing Bebelplatz. The university is divided ino 9 faculties: Graduate schools provide structured PhD programmes: Furthermore, there are four central institutes ( Zentralinstitute ) that are part of
7821-473: The university, as did poet Heinrich Heine , novelist Alfred Döblin , founder of structuralism Ferdinand de Saussure , German unifier Otto von Bismarck , Communist Party of Germany founder Karl Liebknecht , African American Pan Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois and European unifier Robert Schuman , as well as the influential surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach in the early half of the 1800s. The structure of German research-intensive universities served as
7920-510: The university, requiring lectures to be submitted for approval by Socialist Unity Party officials, and piped Soviet propaganda into the cafeteria. This led to strong protests within the student body and faculty. NKVD secret police arrested a number of students in March 1947 as a response. The Soviet Military Tribunal in Berlin-Lichtenberg ruled the students were involved in the formation of
8019-634: The university. In August 1870, in a speech delivered on the eve of war with France, Emil du Bois-Reymond proclaimed that "the University of Berlin, quartered opposite the King's palace, is, by the deed of our foundation, the intellectual bodyguard of the House of Hohenzollern (das geistige Leibregiment des Hauses Hohenzollern)." In 1887, chancellor Otto Bismarck established the Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen [ de ] (SOS), (usually known in English as
8118-470: The university: Each year, students elect the student parliament ( Studierendenparlament ), which serves as the body of student representatives under German law ( AStA ). When the Royal Library proved insufficient, a new library was founded in 1831, first located in several temporary sites. In 1871–1874 a library building was constructed, following the design of architect Paul Emanuel Spieker. In 1910
8217-512: The view that the Nazi dictatorship resulted from "the ascent of the rule of the crowds". At the end of the 1920s, Niels Bohr , Werner Heisenberg , and Wolfgang Pauli had worked out the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, but it was rejected by Planck, and by Schrödinger, Laue, and Einstein as well. Planck expected that wave mechanics would soon render quantum theory – his own child – unnecessary. This
8316-575: Was Eugen Fischer . The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (German "Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums") resulted in 250 Jewish professors and employees being fired from the university during 1933–1934, as well as numerous doctorates being withdrawn. Students and scholars, and other political opponents of Nazis, were ejected from the university and often deported. During this time nearly one third of all of
8415-467: Was a law professor at the University of Kiel and Munich . One of his uncles was also a judge. Planck was born in 1858 in Kiel , Holstein (now Schleswig-Holstein ), to Johann Julius Wilhelm Planck and his second wife, Emma Patzig. He was baptized with the name of Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck ; of his given names, Marx was indicated as the "appellation name" . However, by the age of ten he signed with
8514-509: Was almost complete, being a "highly developed, nearly fully matured science, that through the crowning achievement of the discovery of the principle of conservation of energy will arguably soon take its final stable form". In 1877, he went to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin for a year of study with physicists Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff and mathematician Karl Weierstrass . He wrote that Helmholtz
8613-574: Was but a prelude; where they burn books, they ultimately burn people"). During the Cold War , the university was located in East Berlin . It reopened in 1946 as the University of Berlin, but faced repression from the Soviet Military Administration in Germany , including the persecution of liberal and social democrat students. Almost immediately, the Soviet occupiers started persecuting non-communists and suppressing academic freedom at
8712-626: Was converted into a university building. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II , it was rebuilt from 1949 to 1962. In 1967, eight statues from the destroyed Potsdam City Palace were placed on the side wings of the university building. Currently there is discussion about returning the statues to the Potsdam City Palace, which was rebuilt as the Landtag of Brandenburg in 2013. Similar to
8811-770: Was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914. He retired from Berlin on 10 January 1926, and was succeeded by Erwin Schrödinger . He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1926 and the American Philosophical Society in 1933. As a professor at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin , Planck joined the local Physical Society. He later wrote about this time: "In those days I
8910-411: Was essentially the only theoretical physicist there, whence things were not so easy for me, because I started mentioning entropy, but this was not quite fashionable, since it was regarded as a mathematical spook". Thanks to his initiative, the various local Physical Societies of Germany merged in 1898 to form the German Physical Society ( Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft , DPG); from 1905 to 1909 Planck
9009-818: Was named the successor to Kirchhoff's position at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin – presumably thanks to Helmholtz's intercession – and by 1892 became a full professor. In 1907 Planck was offered Ludwig Boltzmann 's position in Vienna , but turned it down to stay in Berlin. During 1909, as a University of Berlin professor, he was invited to become the Ernest Kempton Adams Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at Columbia University in New York City . A series of his lectures were translated and co-published by Columbia University professor A. P. Wills . He
9108-578: Was never quite prepared, spoke slowly, miscalculated endlessly, and bored his listeners, while Kirchhoff spoke in carefully prepared lectures which were dry and monotonous. He soon became close friends with Helmholtz. While there he undertook a program of mostly self-study of Rudolf Clausius's writings, which led him to choose thermodynamics as his field. In October 1878, Planck passed his qualifying exams and in February 1879 defended his dissertation Über den zweiten Hauptsatz der mechanischen Wärmetheorie ( On
9207-399: Was not to be the case, however. Further work only served to underscore the enduring central importance of quantum theory, even against his and Einstein's philosophical revulsions. Here Planck experienced the truth of his own earlier observation from his struggle with the older views during his younger years: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see
9306-518: Was officially renamed in 1949. Although the Soviet occupational authorities preferred to name the school after a communist leader, university leaders were able to name it the "Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin", after the two Humboldt brothers, a name that was also uncontroversial in the West and capitalized on the fame of the Humboldt name, which is associated with the Humboldtian model of higher education . After
9405-486: Was one of four permanent presidents. In the turbulent post-war years, Planck, now the highest authority of German physics, issued the slogan "persevere and continue working" to his colleagues. In October 1920, he and Fritz Haber established the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (Emergency Organization of German Science), aimed at providing financial support for scientific research. A considerable portion of
9504-505: Was sufficiently fit to climb 3,000-metre peaks in the Alps . During the Second World War the increasing number of Allied bombing missions against Berlin forced Planck and his wife to temporarily leave the city and live in the countryside. In 1942, he wrote: "In me an ardent desire has grown to persevere this crisis and live long enough to be able to witness the turning point, the beginning of
9603-425: Was the president. Planck started a six-semester course of lectures on theoretical physics, "dry, somewhat impersonal" according to Lise Meitner , "using no notes, never making mistakes, never faltering; the best lecturer I ever heard" according to an English participant, James R. Partington , who continues: "There were always many standing around the room. As the lecture-room was well heated and rather close, some of
9702-457: Was twice president of the German scientific institution Kaiser Wilhelm Society . In 1948, it was renamed the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) and nowadays includes 83 institutions representing a wide range of scientific directions. Planck came from a traditional, intellectual family. His paternal great-grandfather and grandfather were both theology professors in Göttingen ; his father
9801-488: Was unaware of these essays, and they did not appear in German until 1892. However, both scientists approached the topic in different ways, while Planck dealt with irreversible processes, Gibbs looked at equilibria. This approach was finally able to prevail because of its simplicity, but Planck's approach is attributed the greater universality. In 1894, Planck turned his attention to the problem of black-body radiation . The problem had been stated by Kirchhoff in 1859: "how does
#752247