Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 "for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals."
In addition to his scientific endeavors with contributions in optics, crystallography, quantum theory, superconductivity, and the theory of relativity, Laue had a number of administrative positions which advanced and guided German scientific research and development during four decades. A strong objector to Nazism, he was instrumental in re-establishing and organizing German science after World War II.
Education Max Theodor Felix Laue was born on 9 October 1879 in Pfaffendorf (now part of Koblenz), Germany, the son of Julius Laue and Minna Zerrenner. In 1898, after passing his Abitur, Laue did one year of military service, after which he started to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the University of Strassburg. He then went to the University of Göttingen, where he was greatly influenced by Woldemar Voigt and Max Abraham. In 1902, after one semester at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Laue went to the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, where he studied under Max Planck, who gave birth to the quantum theory revolution on 14 December 1900, when he delivered his famous paper before the German Physical Society.Waerden, B. L. van der (ed.) (1968) Sources of Quantum Mechanics. Dover. . p. 1. Cited in Hans Kango, editor, and translated by D. ter Haar and Stephen G. Bush Planck's Original Papers in Quantum Physics: German and English Edition (Taylor and Francis, 1972) p. 60.
At the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, Laue attended lectures by Otto Lummer on heat radiation and interference spectroscopy, the influence of which can be seen in Laue's thesis on interference phenomena in plane-parallel plates, for which he received his Ph.D. in 1903.Max von Laue – Mathematics Genealogy Project. Max von Laue, Ph.D., Universität Berlin, 1903, Dissertation title: Über die Interferenzerscheinungen an planparallelen Platten. In 1906, he completed his habilitationHabilitation title: "Über die Entropie von interferierenden Strahlenbündeln" under Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.Walker, p. 73Max von Laue – American Philosophical Society Author CatalogMax von Laue – Nobel Prize BiographyHentschel, 1996, Appendix F, see entry for Max von Laue.Max von Laue Biography – Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin
Career and research In 1906, Laue became a Privatdozent at the University of Berlin. There, he met Albert Einstein for the first time; their friendship contributed to the acceptance and development of Einstein's theory of relativity. At the University of Berlin, he worked on the application of entropy to radiation fields and on the thermodynamic significance of the coherence of light waves.
In 1909, Laue became a Privatdozent at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. During the 1911 Christmas recess and in January 1912, Paul Peter Ewald was finishing the writing of his doctoral thesis under Arnold Sommerfeld. It was on a walk through the Englischer Garten (English Garden) in Munich in January, that Ewald told Laue about his thesis topic. The wavelengths of concern to Ewald were in the visible region of the spectrum and hence much larger than the spacing between the resonators in Ewald's crystal model. He seemed distracted and wanted to know what would be the effect if much smaller wavelengths were considered. In June, Sommerfeld reported to the Physical Society of Göttingen on the successful diffraction of X-rays by Laue, , and Walter Friedrich at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, which earned Laue the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914. While at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, he wrote the first volume of his book on relativity from 1910 to 1911.
In 1912, Laue became Professor of Physics at the University of Zurich, and in 1914 was appointed Ordinarius Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Frankfurt am Main. From 1916, he was engaged in vacuum tube development at the University of Würzburg for use in military telephony and wireless communication.
From 1919 to 1943, Laue was Ordinarius Professor of Physics at the University of Berlin, where in 1919 other notables were Walther Nernst, Fritz Haber, and James Franck. Laue, as one of the organizers of the weekly Berlin Physics Colloquium, typically sat in the front row with Nernst and Einstein, who would come over from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (KWIP) in Berlin-Dahlem, of which he was the director. Among his students at the university were Leó Szilárd and Fritz London. Laue published the second volume of his book on relativity in 1921.Max von Laue – Mathematics Genealogy Project
As a consultant to the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR), Laue met Walther Meissner, who was working there on superconductivity. Meissner had discovered that a weak magnetic field decays rapidly to zero in the interior of a superconductor, which is known as the Meissner effect. In 1932, he showed that the threshold of the applied magnetic field which destroys superconductivity varies with the shape of the body. He published a total of 12 papers and a book on superconductivity. One of the papers was co-authored with brothers Fritz and Heinz London.Max von Laue Biography – University of Frankfurt am MainFritz London Publications – Duke University Meissner published a biography on him in 1960.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was founded in 1911; its purpose was to promote the sciences by founding and maintaining research institutes. One such institute was the KWIP founded in 1914, with Einstein as its director. Laue was a trustee of the KWIP from 1917, and in 1922 he was appointed deputy director, whereupon he took over the administrative duties from Einstein. Einstein was traveling abroad when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, and Einstein did not return. He then became acting director of the KWIP, a position he held until 1946 or 1948, except for the period 1935–1939, when Peter Debye was director. In 1943, to avoid casualties to the personnel, the KWIP moved to Hechingen. It was at Hechingen that he wrote his book on the history of physics, Geschichte der Physik, which was eventually translated into seven other languages.Hentschel, 1966, Appendix F, see entries for von Laue and Debye.Hentschel, 1966, Appendix A, see entries for KWG and KWIP.
Opposition to Nazism Laue opposed Nazism in general, and Deutsche Physik in particular; the former persecuted the Jews, and the latter, among other things, put down the theory of relativity as "Jewish physics", which he saw as ridiculous: "science has no race or religion". He and his close friend, Otto Hahn, secretly helped scientific colleagues persecuted by Nazi policies to emigrate from Germany. He also openly opposed antisemitism. An address on 18 September 1933 at the opening of the physics convention in Würzburg, opposition to Johannes Stark, an obituary note on Fritz Haber in 1934, and attendance at a commemoration for Haber are examples of Laue's open opposition that earned him multiple government reprimands. Laue, as Chairman of the German Physical Society, gave the opening address at the 1933 physics convention. In it, he compared the persecution of Galileo and the oppression of his scientific views on the solar theory of Copernicus to the then conflict and persecution over the theory of relativity by the proponents of Deutsche Physik, against the work of Einstein, labeled "Jewish physics." Stark, who had received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919, wished to become the Führer of German physics and was a proponent of Deutsche Physik. Against the unanimous advice of those consulted, Stark was appointed President of the PTR in May 1933. However, Laue successfully blocked Stark's regular membership in the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. In spite of this and his many other contributions to Germany, he was forced to emigrate from Germany as a result of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which removed Jews from their jobs. Laue's obituary note praising Haber and comparing his forced emigration to the expulsion of Themistocles from Athens was a direct affront to National Socialism. In connection with Haber; Max Planck, Otto Hahn, and Laue organized a commemoration event held in Berlin-Dahlem on 29 January 1935, the first anniversary of Haber's death – attendance at the event by professors in the civil service had been expressly forbidden by the government. While many scientific and technical personnel were represented at the memorial by their wives, Laue and were the only two professors to attend.Hentschel, 1996, Document #29, pp. 76–78: See Footnote #3.Hentschel, 1996, Document #120, pp. 400–402: A letter from Lise Meitner to Otto Hahn. This was yet another blatant demonstration of Laue's opposition to National Socialism. The date of the first anniversary of Haber's death was also one day before the second anniversary of National Socialism seizing power in Germany, thus further increasing the affront given by holding the event.
In particular, the struggle between Laue and Planck regarding the Nazi takeover of the Prussian Academy of Sciences has been extensively documented.Walker, pp. 65–122Hentschel, 1966, Appendix F, see entries for Max von Laue, Johannes Stark, and Fritz Haber.Hentschel, 1966, Appendix A, see entry for the DFG. Ultimately, in response to Laue blocking Stark's regular membership in the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Stark had Laue sacked from his position as advisor to the PTR in December 1933, which Laue had held since 1925.
In a commonly reported anecdote Laue is supposed to have carried parcels in his hands when exiting his house, so to avoid having to give the Nazi Salute.
Hidden Nobel Prize When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the Nobel Prize gold medals of Laue and James Franck in aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from discovering them. At the time, it was illegal to take gold out of the country, and if it had been discovered that Laue had done so, he could have faced prosecution in Germany. Hevesy placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. After the war, he returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The Nobel Society then re-cast the Nobel Prize gold medals, using the original gold.Adventures in radioisotope research – the collected papers of George Hevesy, 1962, Pergamon Press, New York
Post-war On 23 April 1945, French troops entered Hechingen, followed the next day by a contingent of Operation Alsos—an operation to investigate the German nuclear energy effort, seize equipment, and prevent German scientists from being captured by the Soviets. The scientific advisor to the Operation was the Dutch-American physicist Samuel Goudsmit, who, adorned with a steel helmet, appeared at Laue's home. Laue was taken into custody and taken to Huntingdon, England, and interned at Farm Hall with other scientists thought to be involved in nuclear research and development.