JOINT
ICTP-SISSA-Democritos-University
Special
Lecture
11:00,
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Main Lecture
Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP
Professor Manuel
Cardona
Max-Planck
Institute for Solid State Research
Stuttgart,
Germany
Max Planck—a
Conservative Revolutionary
Max Planck is one the most influential physicists of the early 20th century, being considered by some historians as the father of quantum theory and thus of modern physics, a role he shared with his colleague and friend Albert Einstein. In this talk the biography of Max Planck, and the tragic aspects of his life, will be discussed, not only from a personal point of view but also as a witness and immediate actor of the cataclysmic events that characterized European history during the first part of the 20th century. In spite of his profound Prussian nationalism, Max Planck did not adhere to the madness propagated by the Nazis, but nevertheless he failed to realize their danger and brutality, considering their appearance like a natural catastrophe that would subside in due course. He paid dearly for this misjudgment: his beloved son Erwin was executed in 1945 as one of the participants in the unsuccessful conspiracy against Hitler. At the end of the war, having reached the age of 88, he was called to duty again and played an important role in the rebirth of German science after the total collapse.