Max von Laue facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Max von Laue
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Laue in 1929
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| Born |
Max Theodor Felix Laue
9 October 1879 |
| Died | 24 April 1960 (aged 80) |
| Alma mater | University of Strasbourg University of Göttingen University of Munich University of Berlin |
| Known for | X-ray diffraction |
| Awards | Nobel Prize for Physics (1914) Matteucci Medal (1914) Max Planck Medal (1932) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Zürich University of Frankfurt University of Berlin Max Planck Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Max Planck Arnold Sommerfeld |
| Doctoral students | Leó Szilárd Friedrich Beck |
| Other notable students | Fritz London |
Max Theodor Felix von Laue (born October 9, 1879 – died April 24, 1960) was a German physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914. He received this award for his amazing discovery of how X-rays bend and spread out when they pass through crystals. This is called diffraction.
Besides his scientific work in areas like optics, crystallography, and theory of relativity, he also held important jobs. He helped guide German science for over 40 years. Max von Laue was strongly against Nazism. He played a big part in rebuilding and organizing German science after World War II.
Contents
Max von Laue's Life
Early Years and Education
Max von Laue was born in Pfaffendorf, which is now part of Koblenz, Germany. His parents were Julius Laue and Minna Zerrenner. After finishing high school in 1898, he joined the military for a year.
In 1899, he started studying science at different universities. He went to the University of Strassburg, the University of Göttingen, and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). At Göttingen, he was inspired by physicists Woldemar Voigt and Max Abraham, and mathematician David Hilbert.
In 1902, he moved to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Berlin. There, he studied with Max Planck. Planck was a famous scientist who started the idea of quantum theory in 1900. Laue earned his doctorate degree in 1903. His research was about how light waves behave.
His Career in Physics
In 1906, Laue became a teacher and assistant to Max Planck in Berlin. This is where he first met Albert Einstein. They became good friends. Their friendship helped people accept and develop Einstein's theory of relativity. Laue worked with Planck until 1909.
From 1909 to 1912, Laue taught at the University of Munich. It was here, in 1912, that he had a key idea. He was talking to a student, Paul Peter Ewald, about crystals. Laue wondered what would happen if very small waves, like X-rays, hit a crystal.
Just a few months later, Laue, along with Paul Knipping and Walter Friedrich, successfully showed that X-rays do diffract when they pass through crystals. This amazing discovery earned Laue the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914. While in Munich, he also started writing his first book about relativity.
In 1912, Laue became a professor at the University of Zurich. In 1913, his father was given a special title, so Max Laue became 'Max von Laue'.
From 1914 to 1919, Laue was a professor at the University of Frankfurt. During World War I, he also helped develop vacuum tubes for military communication.
In 1919, he became a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. He stayed there until 1943. At the university, he worked with other famous scientists like Walther Nernst and James Franck. Laue helped organize the weekly Berlin Physics Colloquium. He often sat in the front row with Nernst and Einstein.
Laue also worked as a consultant for a national physics lab. There, he met Walther Meissner, who was studying superconductivity. Superconductivity is when certain materials can conduct electricity with no resistance. Laue wrote 12 papers and a book about superconductivity.
The Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft (now called the Max-Planck Gesellschaft) was founded in 1911 to support science. One of its institutes was the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik (KWIP), started in 1914 with Einstein as its director. Laue became a trustee in 1917. In 1922, he became the deputy director, taking over many of Einstein's management duties.
When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Einstein was traveling and did not return to Germany. Laue then became the acting director of the KWIP. He held this role until 1946 or 1948. In 1943, the KWIP moved to Hechingen to avoid damage from the war. In Hechingen, Laue wrote his book about the history of physics.
Standing Up to Nazism
Max von Laue was strongly against Nazism. He especially disliked the idea of Deutsche Physik (German Physics). This idea said that Einstein's theory of relativity was "Jewish physics" and not real science. Laue believed that "science has no race or religion."
Laue and his friend Otto Hahn secretly helped Jewish scientists escape Germany. Laue also openly spoke out against the Nazis. Here are some examples:
- In 1933, Laue gave a speech at a physics meeting. He compared the Nazis' attacks on Einstein to how Galileo was treated for supporting Copernicus's ideas about the solar system.
- Johannes Stark, a Nazi supporter, tried to become the leader of German physics. Laue successfully stopped Stark from becoming a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
- Fritz Haber, a Nobel Prize winner, was forced to leave Germany because he was Jewish. Laue wrote a public obituary praising Haber. This was a direct challenge to the Nazi government.
- In 1935, Laue, Max Planck, and Otto Hahn organized a memorial for Haber. The government had forbidden professors from attending. But Laue and one other professor bravely went anyway.
Because of his strong actions, Laue received warnings from the government. He was also fired from his job as an advisor to a physics lab in 1933.
Hidden Nobel Prize
During World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark, a chemist named George de Hevesy did something clever. He dissolved the Nobel Prize gold medals of Laue and James Franck in a special acid called aqua regia. This was to stop the Nazis from finding them. It was illegal to take gold out of Germany, and Laue could have been in trouble. Hevesy hid the solution in his lab. After the war, he found the solution untouched. He got the gold back from the acid, and the Nobel Society made new medals using the original gold.
After the War
In April 1945, Laue was taken into custody by Allied troops. He was sent to England and held at Farm Hall with other German scientists. They wanted to find out about Germany's nuclear research.
While he was held, Laue wrote a scientific paper. He was a good example to the other scientists, showing that one could survive the Nazi era without giving in to their ideas.
Laue returned to Germany in early 1946. He went back to being the acting director of the KWIP, which had moved to Göttingen. In 1946, the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft was renamed the Max-Planck Gesellschaft. The KWIP also became the Max-Planck Institut für Physik. Laue also became a professor at the University of Göttingen. He continued to write and revise his scientific books.
In July 1946, Laue was the only German scientist invited to an international conference in England. This was a great honor, showing how much he was respected.
After the war, Laue played a big role in rebuilding German science. He helped restart the German Physical Society. He also worked to bring together different parts of a national physics lab that had been spread out during the war. In 1950, he helped create a new association for German physics societies.
In 1951, Laue became the director of the Max-Planck Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie. In 1953, at his request, the institute was renamed the Fritz Haber Institut, honoring his friend who was forced to leave Germany.
Personal Life
In 1913, Max Laue's father was given a special title, which is why Max Laue became Max von Laue. Max von Laue married Magdalene Degen, and they had two children. Their son, Theodor Hermann von Laue, later moved to the United States and became a history professor.
Laue enjoyed many hobbies, including mountaineering, driving his car and motorbike, sailing, and skiing. He loved hiking in the Alps with his friends.
On April 8, 1960, while driving in Berlin, Laue's car was hit by a motorcyclist. The motorcyclist died, and Laue's car overturned. Laue died from his injuries sixteen days later, on April 24. He was a very religious person and asked that his gravestone say he died trusting in God's mercy.
Organizations
Max von Laue was a member of many important scientific organizations:
- 1919: Corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
- 1921: Regular member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
- From 1921: Chairman of the physics commission of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (an organization supporting German science)
- From 1922: Member of the Board of Trustees of the Potsdam Astrophysics Observatory
- 1925 – 1933: Advisor to the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (a national physics lab). He was fired from this job in 1933 by Johannes Stark because Laue opposed the Nazis.
- 1931 – 1933: Chairman of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Society)
- He was also a member of academies and societies in Russia, Austria, the United States, France, Italy, and the Royal Society of London.
Honours and Awards
- 1914: Nobel Prize for Physics
- 1932: Max-Planck Medal from the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
- 1952: Knight of the Order Pour le Mérite
- 1953: Grand Cross with Star for Federal Services
- 1957: Officer of the Legion of Honour of France
- 1959: Helmholtz Medal of the East-Berlin Academy of Sciences
- Landenburg Medal
- Bimala–Churn–Law Gold Medal of the Indian Association at Calcutta
Images for kids
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Max von Laue's signature, around 1914
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Max von Laue's grave in Göttingen
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In Spanish: Max von Laue para niños
