Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark .jpg){kind=small} | |
|---|---|
 Prof. Dr. phil. Stark | |
| Born | 15 April 1874 Schickenhof, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 21 June 1957 (aged 83) Gut Eppenstatt near Traunstein, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Göttingen Technische Hochschule, Hannover Technische Hochschule, Aachen University of Greifswald University of Würzburg |
| Alma mater | University of Munich |
| Doctoral advisor | Eugen von Lommel |
| Known for | Stark effect |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (1919) |
Johannes "Johann" Nikolaus Stark (5 April 1874 – 21 June 1957) was a German physicist who won the 1919 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the Stark effect. A supporter of Adolf Hitler from 1924, Stark was one of the main figures, along with fellow Nobel laureate Philipp Lenard, in the Deutsche Physik movement. Stark founded the scientific journal "Yearbook of Radioactivity and Electronics" in 1904, which he edited until 1913.
Contents
Life
Born in Schickenhof (now Freihung), Stark was educated at the Bayreuth Gymnasium (secondary school) and later in Regensburg. His collegiate education began at the University of Munich, where he studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, and crystallography. His tenure at that college began in 1894; he graduated in 1897, with his doctoral dissertation titled Untersuchung über einige physikalische, vorzüglich optische Eigenschaften des Rußes (Investigation of some physical, in particular optical properties of soot).
Stark worked in various positions at the Physics Institute of his alma mater until 1900, when he became an unsalaried lecturer at the University of Göttingen. An extraordinary professor at Hanover by 1906, in 1908 he became professor at the RWTH Aachen University. He worked and researched at physics departments of several universities, including the University of Greifswald, until 1922. In 1919, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields" (the latter is known as the Stark effect). From 1933 until his retirement in 1939, Stark was elected President of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, while also President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Stark published more than 300 papers, mainly regarding electricity and other such topics. He received various awards including the Nobel Prize, the Baumgartner Prize of the Vienna Academy of Sciences (1910), the Vahlbruch Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1914), and the Matteucci Medal of the Rome Academy. Probably his best known contribution to the field of physics is the Stark effect, which he discovered in 1913.
His hobbies were the cultivation of fruit trees and forestry. He worked in his private laboratory on his country estate in Upper Bavaria after the war. There he studied the deflection of light in an electric field.
Affiliation with National Socialism
During the National Socialiost period, Stark made an effort to promote German physics along with Philipp Lenard. He was also critical of Albert Einstein's theory. After Werner Heisenberg (who is not Jewish) defended Albert Einstein's theory of relativity Stark wrote an angry article in the 
publication Das Schwarze Korps, calling Heisenberg a "White Jew".
In his 1934 book Nationalsozialismus und Wissenschaft (English: "National Socialism and Science") Stark maintained that the priority of the scientist was to serve the nation—thus, the important fields of research were those that could help German arms production and industry. He warned against theoretical physics becoming dominated by Jewish scientists and stressed that scientific positions in Germany should only be held by Germans.
In 1947, following the capitulation of the Wehrmacht ending World War II, Stark was classified as a "Major Offender" and received a sentence of four years imprisonment (later suspended) by a denazification court.
Death
Lord of the manor Prof. Dr. Stark spent the last years of his life on his estate Gut Eppenstatt near Traunstein in Upper Bavaria, where he died in 1957 at the age of 83. He was buried in Schönau am Königssee in the mountain cemetery.
Family
Stark was the son of Johann(es) Georg Stark and his wife Maria Christine Margarethe, née Gollwitzer. He married his fiancée Luise Katharina Uebler (b. 21 September 1884; d. 7 September 1972) on 16 August 1905 in Mannheim, with whom he would have five children:
- Friedrich "Fritz" (1906–1955)
- Hans (Farmer in Eppenstatt)
- Anneliese (b. 1913)
- Twins Elfriede and Marlene (b. 1914)
Awards, decorations and decorations (excerpt)
- Baumgartner Prize of the Vienna Academy of Sciences (1910)
- Vahlbruch Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1914)
- Matteucci Medal of the Rome Academy
- Nobel Prize in Physics (1919)
- Goethe Medal for Art and Science (Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft) in 1939
Honours
- 1937: Appointed honorary member of the Reich Institute for the History of the New Germany due to his special services as a member of the Jewish Question Research Department
- 1970: Lunar crater on the far side of the moon
- Dr.-Johann-Stark-Straße, Weiden/OPf.
- Dr.-Johann-Stark-Straße, Gewerbegebiet Pfreimter Weiher (2020)
- Johannes-Stark-Straße in Amberg
- Johannes-Stark-Straße in Hahnbach
- Johannes-Stark-Straße in Poppenricht
- Professor-Stark-Straße from Tanzfleck to Schickenhof
Publications (excerpt)
- Untersuchungen ueber einige physikalische, vorzüglich optische Eigenschaften des Russes, Dissertation, München 1897
- Die Entladung der Elektricität von galvanisch glühender Kohle in verdünntes Gas. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Annalen der Physik und Chemie', Neue Folge, Band 68). Leipzig, 1899
- Der elektrische Strom zwischen galvanisch glühender Kohle und einem Metall durch verdünntes Gas. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Annalen der Physik und Chemie', Neue Folge, Band 68). Leipzig, 1899
- Aenderung der Leitfähigkeit von Gasen durch einen stetigen elektrischen Strom. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Annalen der Physik', 4. Folge, Band 2). Leipzig, 1900
- Ueber den Einfluss der Erhitzung auf das elektrische Leuchten eines verdünnten Gases. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Annalen der Physik', 4. Folge, Band 1). Leipzig, 1900
- Ueber elektrostatische Wirkungen bei der Entladung der Elektricität in verdünnten Gasen. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Annalen der Physik', 4. Folge, Band 1). Leipzig, 1900
- Kritische Bemerkungen zu der Mitteilung der Herren Austin und Starke über Kathodenstrahlreflexion. Sonderabdruck aus 'Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft', Jahrgang 4, Nr. 8). Braunschweig, 1902
- Prinzipien der Atomdynamik. 1. Teil. Die elektrischen Quanten., 1910
- Schwierigkeiten für die Lichtquantenhypothese im Falle der Emission von Serienlinien. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft', Jg. XVI, Nr 6). Braunschweig, 1914
- Bemerkung zum Bogen – und Funkenspektrum des Heliums. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft.', Jg. XVI, Nr. 10). Braunschweig, 1914
- Folgerungen aus einer Valenzhypothese. III. Natürliche Drehung der Schwingungsebene des Lichtes. (Sonderabdruck aus `Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik', Heft 2, Mai 1914), Leipzig, 1914
- Methode zur gleichzeitigen Zerlegung einer Linie durch das elektrische und das magnetische Feld. (Sonderabdruck aus 'Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft.', Jg. XVI, Nr. 7). Braunschweig, 1914
- Die gegenwärtige Krise der deutschen Physik, ("The Thoroughgoing Crisis in German Physics") 1922
- Natur der chemischen Valenzkräfte, 1922
- Hitlergeist und Wissenschaft, 1924 zusammen mit Philipp Lenard
- Die Axialität der Lichtemission und Atomstruktur, Berlin 1927
- Atomstruktur und Atombindung, A. Seydel, Berlin 1928
- Atomstrukturelle Grundlagen der Stickstoffchemie., Leipzig, 1931
- Nationalsozialismus und Katholische Kirche, ("National Socialism and the Catholic Church") 1931
- Nationalsozialismus und Lehrerbildung, 1931
- Nationalsozialismus und Katholische Kirche. II. Teil: Antwort auf Kundgebungen der deutschen Bischöfe., 1931
- Nationale Erziehung, 1932
- Nationalsozialismus und Wissenschaft ("National Socialism and Science") 1934
- Physik der Atomoberfläche, 1940
- Jüdische und deutsche Physik, ("Jewish and German Physics") with Wilhelm Müller, written at the University of Munich in 1941
- Nationale Erziehung, Zentrumsherrschaft und Jesuitenpolitik, undated
- Hitlers Ziele und Persönlichkeit ("Hitler's Aims and Personality"), undated
External links
- The book Adolf Hitler: Maal og Personlighed (english: "Adolf Hitler: Aims and Personality") by Dr. Johannes Stark
- Danish translation of the original German work. It is printed in 1932 by Vilhelm Priors Forlag in Copenhagen.
