Who was Gustav Ludwig Hertz? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

German Celebrities Born In July

Died At Age: 88

Physicists German Men

Died on: October 30, 1975

place of death: Berlin, Germany

Grouping of People: Nobel Laureates in Physics

City: Hamburg, Germany

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education: Humboldt University Of Berlin, Ludwig Maximilian University Of Munich

awards: Nobel Prize in Physics - 1925
Max Planck Medal - 1951

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Childhood & Early Life

Gustav Ludwig Hertz was born on 22 July 1887 in the city of Hamburg in Germany to Gustav Theodor Hertz and Auguste Hertz. Gustav Ludwig Hertz’s father was a lawyer and the famous scientist Heinrich Hertz was his uncle.

Gustav Ludwig Hertz was initially educated at the Johanneum School that was located in his home town of Hamburg. He graduated from the school in the year 1906.

In 1906, Gustav Ludwig Hertz enrolled in the University of Gottingen but a year later he went to the University of Munich and finally to the University of Berlin; he received his doctorate degree in 1911.

From 1911 onwards, Gustav Ludwig Hertz was employed at the University of Berlin and in two year time he had been appointed as a research assistant in the physics department of the university.

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Career

Gustav Ludwig Hertz started working at the University of Berlin in 1911 and for the next three years he collaborated with James Franck on the inelastic electron collisions. These experiments won Hertz and Franck the Nobel Prize in Physics 14 years after they first started working on the project.

When the First World War was on, Gustav Ludwig Hertz served in the military. He started in 1914 but the very next year he was wounded in combat and after serving for three years in the army he returned to Germany. Upon his return he was appointed as the Privatdozent (researcher and teacher) at the University of Berlin.

In 1920, Philips Incandescent Lamp Factory in Eindhoven, Netherlands was in need of a researcher and they appointed Hertz to the post in the same year. He worked at Philips for 5 years before returning to academia.

In 1925, Gustav Ludwig Hertz was appointed by the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg as a professor as well as the director of the Physics Institute at the university. In 1928, he took up the position of the director of Physics Institute of the Berlin Technische Hochschule (BTH) in Berlin-Charlottenburg.. It was during his stint in Berlin that Hertz propounded his technique of isotope separation.

After the Nazi party came to power in Germany, Gustav Ludwig Hertz was forced to quit his job at the Institute of Charlotteburg Technological University in Berlin in 1934 due to his Jewish heritage and instead he took up the job of a researcher with Siemens.

In 1945, Hertz moved to Russia using the contacts of his fellow scientists and became the head of the Institute G, which was involved in the Soviet nuclear project. During his decade long stay in the Soviet Union, Hertz became one of the most important figures of the Soviet nuclear project and his efforts were recognised by the Russian establishment.

After returning to Germany in the year 1955, Hertz was employed as a professor at the University of Leipzig and went on to serve the physical society at the German Democratic Republic in the capacity of chairman.

Major Works

Gustav Ludwig Hertz did the most important work in his career in his early academic life when he worked on the inelastic electron collisions in gases. Hertz conducted these experiments in collaboration with James Franck and these experiments are known as James-Franck experiments.

Awards & Achievements

Gustav Ludwig Hertz and James Franck won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925 for their stellar work in the field of inelastic electron collisions in gases

He won the Max Planck Medal in 1951.

Personal Life & Legacy

Gustav Ludwig Hertz got married to Elle Dihlmann in 1919 and the couple had two children—both son—named Carl Helmut Hertz and Johannes Heinrich Hertz. Both his sons went on to become physicists. Elle Dihlmann died in 1941.

Gustav Ludwig Hertz died on 30 October 1975 in Berlin at the age of 88.

Gustav Ludwig Hertz Biography