קהילת יהודי גטינגן

Max Born (1882-1970), physicist, 1954 Nobel Prize winner, born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, in Poland), to Professor Gustav Born, anatomist and embryologist, and his wife Margarete née Kauffmann, who was a member of a Silesian family of industrialists.

Born attended the König Wilhelm's Gymnasium in Breslau and continued his studies at the Universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, Zurich and Göttingen. He studied not only mathematics and physics, but also studied astronomy. He was awarded the Prize of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Göttingen for his work on the stability of elastic wires and tapes in 1906, and graduated at this university a year later on the basis of this work.

Back in Breslau during the years 1908-1909, he studied the theory of relativity. On account of his work on the relativistic electron he began to lecture at Goettingen. In World War I he joined the German Armed Forces and worked in a scientific office of the army. At the conclusion of the war in 1919, Born was appointed Professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main, where a laboratory was put at his disposal. Born went to Göttingen as Professor in 1921 and remained there for twelve years. During these years the Professor's most important works were created; first a modernized version of his book on crystals, and numerous investigations by him and his pupils on crystal lattices, followed by a series of studies on the quantum theory. During the years 1925 and 1926 he published, together with others, investigations on the principles of quantum mechanics (matrix mechanics) and soon after this, his own studies on the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Born's fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wave function. Much of the theoretical power behind the development of the first atomic bomb was due to many of those surrounding Born at Göttingen and working on atomic physics and quantum mechanics.

A practicing Lutheran but classified by the Nazis as a Jew, Born was forced to leave Germany in 1933 (and for this reason was not awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 it was awarded to his “Aryan” colleague Heiselberg). He was invited to Cambridge, where he taught for three years as Stokes Lecturer. In 1936 he was appointed Tait Professor of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh, where he worked until his retirement in 1953.

Born was awarded fellowships at many universities. He was presented with the Stokes Medal of Cambridge, the Max Planck Medaille der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft (i.e. of the German Physical Society); the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, London, the Hugo Grotius Medal for International Law, and was also awarded the MacDougall-Brisbane Prize and the Gunning-Victoria Jubilee Prize of the Royal Society, Edinburgh. In 1953 he was made honorary citizen of the city of Göttingen and a year later was granted the Nobel Prize for Physics. He was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic in 1959.

בניין בית הכנסת ושל המרכז הקהילתי, גוטינגן, גרמניה, 2019

במקור תצלום זה צורף אל Com.unity – חיים יהודיים מסביב לעולם, אחד הפרויקטים של אנו – מוזיאון העם היהודי.

המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, אנו – מוזיאון העם היהודי, באדיבות הקהילה היהודית של גוטינגן

Edward “Ede” Teller (1908-2003), theoretical physicist, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary) to well-to-do parents. He received his PhD in physics at the University of Leipzig, and became a research assistant at Goettingen, Germany. Teller spent a summer in Rome, Italy, with Enrico Fermi, thus orienting his scientific career in nuclear physics. After Nazis' accession to power he left Germany, and spent part of 1934 working under Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, Denmark. In late 1934 and early 1945 he lectured at the University of London and in 1935 moved to the United States.

He taught at Washington University until World War II, when he became involved in the Manhattan project to develop the atomic fission or A-bomb at Los Alamos in New Mexico. He worked first with Fermi, and later in a group headed by Robert Oppenheimer which proved the feasibility of the thermonuclear or hydrogen fusion H-bomb. The key to the H-bomb was, in fact, an invention of Teller's. He became its passionate protagonist, convinced of its overriding importance. During the war he reacted strongly against Oppenheimer's insistence that the A-bomb must have priority. When the war was over he continued to urge that an H-bomb program be pursued on a large scale. The first H-bomb test explosion on a Pacific island in 1952 was quickly followed by a Soviet one. News of the Russian explosion hardened Teller's attitude. He advocated for further testing in the atmosphere, and played down the dangers from fallout. Teller was convinced that it was Oppenheimer alone who prevented the further testing of H-bombs, and this may account for his part in the equivocal treatment Oppenheimer received from the Gray Board after his loyalty was impugned in 1954.

From 1958 to 1960 Teller was director of the Livermore Laboratories, California. After 1960 he held scientific appointments at the University of California at Berkeley.

Among Teller's publications are: “Basic Concepts of Physics” (1960); “The Legacy of Hiroshima” with Allen Brown (1962); “Our nuclear Future” with Albert L. Latter (1958); “The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosions” (1968); “Energy From Heaven and Earth” (1979); “The Pursuit of Simplicity” (1980); “Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics” (1991), and “Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics” (2001).

Denes Konig (1884-1944), mathematician born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), a son of the renowned mathematician Gyula Konig. He studied at Budapest and Goettingen, Germany, obtaining his doctorate in 1907. That year he joined the staff the Technical School of Budapest, where his father was professor.

Denes became full professor of mathematics in 1935. His book "Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen" (1936) was a major factor in the growth of interest in graph theory worldwide. The English version of this work, "Theory of finite and infinite Graphs", translated by R. McCoart, was published in 1990. In addition to essays contributed to mathematical journals in various countries, he also published in book form "Analysis situs" (1918; a publication of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Sciences); "Mathematika" (1922), and a popular work "Mathematikai mulatsagok" (1902-1905).
During World War II, Konig worked to help persecuted mathematicians. This led to his death a few days after the Germans entered Hungary and the Hungarian Nazi party, the "Arrow Cross," took over the country in October 1944.

Michael (Mihaly) Fekete, (1886-1957), mathematician and educator, born in Zenta, Hungary (now Senta, in the Vojvodina region of Serbia, then part of Austria-Hungary). Fekete attended universities at Budapest, Hungary, and at Goettingen, Germany, receiving the Ph.D. degree from the former in 1909. At the same time as being a teacher in secular Jewish secondary schools in Budapest (1910-1928), he was also assistant professor of mathematics (1912- 1918) at the teachers’ training college of the University of Budapest.

In 1928 he was appointed lecturer at the Institute of Mathematics in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. A dedicated teacher, he laid the foundations of mathematical studies and research at the university. In 1935 he was appointed a full professor of mathematics at the Einstein Institute. In 1938 he became dean of the faculty of science of the Hebrew University, succeeding Chaim Weizmann. From 1946 to 1948 Fekete was rector of the university

Fekete's varied contributions to mathematics (written in Hungarian, German, English, French and Hebrew) included the theory of numbers, algebraic equations, the theory of summability, problems of interpolation in the complex domain and transcendental equations and above all the theory of functions of real and complex variables. He considered his greatest achievement to have been the discovery of the transfinite diameter, which won him the Israel Prize for exact sciences in 1955.

Among his principal published works were: "Ket szamelmeleti problema" (1909); "Serie de Dirichlet" (1910); "Szettarto vegtelen sorok" (1911); "Laguerre egy problemaja" (1912); "Racines de moyennes arithmetiques" (1912); "Absolut summabilis sorok" (1914); "Une limit infinite de change de signe d'une fonet" (1914); "Ismeretlen elso egyutthatokkal biro egyenletek gyokerei" (1918); "Wurzeln gewoenliche Minimumpolynome" (1922); "Null- und Einstellen algebraischer Funktionen" (1922); "Wurzeln gewoenliche allgemeine Gleichungen" (1923); "Faktorenfolgen" (1923); "Zum Koebeschen Verzerrungssatz" (1925); "The Zeros of Riemann's Zeta Function" (1926); "Nullstellen-Verteilung bei Polynomen" (1926).

Karl Hermann Schwartz (1843–1921), mathematician, born in Hermsdorf, Germany (now Jerzmanowa, in Poland). Schwartz became well known for his work on complex analysis in which the functions of complex numbers are investigated. This work is useful in many branches of mathematics, including number theory and physics including electrical engineering, hydrodynamics and thermodynamics. At first Schwarz studied chemistry at Berlin University, but his father in law mathematician Ernst Kummer persuaded him to change to mathematics. During the years 1867-1869, he conducted his research in Halle, Germany, from where he moved to Zurich, Switzerland, and then, in 1875, to Goettingen, Germany. In1892 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and a professor at the University of Berlin. He wrote the results of his research in several books including Bestimmung einer speziellen Minimalfläche ("The Determination of a Specific Minimum Area"), which was applauded by the Berlin Academy in 1867 and printed in 1871, and Gesammelte mathematische Abhandlungen ("Collected Mathematical Papers") (1890). He was married to Marie Kummer, a daughter of the mathematician Ernst Kummer, whose wife Ottilie was a granddaughter of Moses Mendelssohn.

Theodore (Tivodar) von Karman (1881-1963), aeronautical engineer, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). After receiving his M.E. degree from the Technical School of Budapest in 1902 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Goettingen, Germany (1909), he was assistant professor at the University of Goettingen between 1909 and 1912 and then professor of aeronautics and director of the Aeronautical Institute at the University of Aachen, Germany (1913-1930).

During World War I Karman was lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian aviation corps. He invented a helicopter with two counter-rotating propellers, a type never developed by industry. After the war he became a consultant to many airplane companies. He first toured the U.S. in 1926 under the auspices of the Guggenheim Institute and in 1930 settled permanently in California and became head of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Von Karman published many papers on aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, elasticity, strength of materials, and vibration phenomena. "Karman Vortex Trail" and "Karman Similarity Theory of Turbulence" are now standard terms in scientific literature. "The Collected Works" of Theodore von Karman were published in four volumes (1956). The development of high speed aircraft owes much to the research of Von Karman. In 1938 he investigated the possibility of using supersonic wind tunnels in ballistic research. He formed the Aerojet Engineering Corporation to manufacture rockets after unsuccessful attempts to interest American industry in this venture. During World War II he was in charge of all jet propulsion research in the USA. Von Karman was chairman of the US Air Force's scientific advisory board (1944), and of the Aeronautical Research and Development Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1951).

David Katz (1884-1953), psychologist, born in Kassel, Germany. He studied and taught at Goettingen University until the beginning of World War I, when he was mobilized in the German army.

In 1919 he was made professor of psychology and pedagogy at the University of Rostock, Germany, which went on to become one of the most important centers for the study of psychological research. In 1933 he was dismissed by the Nazis and went to England. In 1937 he was appointed to the chair of psychology and pedagogy at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, where he developed a psychological laboratory and became one of the pioneers of psychological phenomenology. He is known for his distinction between surface colors and film colors, for his contributions to child and animal psychology.

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (1888-1947), mineralogist, born in Zurich, Switzerland, where his father was a distinguished physical chemist, and educated in Heidelberg, Germany, and Oslo, Norway, universities. In 1905 he became a Norwegian citizen. He taught at the university of Oslo (then Christiana) becoming professor and director of its Mineralogical Institute at age 26. One of the foremost mineralogists and crystallographers of his generation, Goldschmidt founded the science of geochemistry. He established the crystalline structure of over 200 compounds of chemical elements from which he derived the basic laws of geochemical distribution. He was appointed director of the Norwegian Raw Materials Laboratory. In 1929 Goldschmidt became professor of the University of Goettingen's Faculty of Natural Sciences and head of its Mineralogical Institute but resigned in 1935 as a result of Nazi policies and returned to Oslo. In World War II he was twice arrested by the Germans but escaped to Sweden and then to England and after the War went back to Oslo.

Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960), geophysicist, born in Darmstadt, Germany. He studied geophysics at the University of Goettingen, Germany, receiving his Ph.D. there in 1911. His dissertation had been on microseisms, a topic he returned to in the latter years of World War II, when he attempted to use them to track hurricanes and typhoons in the western Pacific.

Fascinated by the Earth's interior, he based his early research on the seismographic material that had previously been assembled for studying the Earth's deep structure. In the best known of his early researh, completed in 1913, he made the first correct determination of the radius of the Earth's core.

In 1913 he joined the German University of Strasbourg, France, which was then the headquarters of the International Seismological Association. He spent a period of service with the Meteorological Service of the German army during World War I, and was then appointed professor at the University of Frankfurt-am-Main. In 1929 Gutenberg visited Pasadena, California, USA, to participate in a conference to plan future projects for the Seismological Laboratory which at that time under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He joined the laboratory in 1930 and became a Professor of Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. The Seismological Laboratory became part of Caltech in 1936. Gutenberg was made director of the laboratory in 1947. Under his leadership the laboratory became a leading center for deep Earth and earthquake studies, a role that has continued under the leadership of later directors.

Gutenberg summarized many of his views on earthquakes and the physics of the Earth's internal structure in the book Physics of the Earth's Interior, published in 1959. In addition, he published two other major books and almost 300 scientific articles during his career. He chaired many committees and sections in the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics, served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Seismological Society of America, and was a foreign member of the Academia dei Lincei and the Royal Society of New Zealand. He received many scientific honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 1933, the Lagrange Prize of the Royal Belgian Academy in 1950, the Wiechert Medal of the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gegellschaft, and an honorary degree from the University of Uppsala in 1955.