Walther Gerlach: A Physicist in the Political Field, 1889 - 1979

Walther Gerlach was one of the most important German natural scientists of the 20th century, made famous by the Stern-Gerlach experiment, and at the same time one of the most influential science managers in the country - both before 1945 as head of the "Uranium Project" and after 1945 as rector, vice-president of the DFG and widely read author. The lecture is about analysing his biography in the historical context of his era, over about 70 years, in four political systems and asking whether and to what extent Gerlach was - or was not - a typical or even symptomatic figure for this time and his profession.