2. Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany On
April 23, 1858.
Max, a German Physicist, made many contributions to
theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as
originator of the quantum theory.
Max Planck was born into a large family and was brought up
in a tradition which greatly respected scholarship, honesty,
fairness, and generosity.
3. The values he was given as a young
child quickly became the values that
he would cherish throughout his life,
showing the utmost respect for the
institutions of state and church.
The ultimate validation arrived in 1918
when Planck was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Physics.
4. Planck made no other significant
discoveries of comparable importance to
his 1900 work but remained a vital figure
within the scientific community.
He contributed to various branches of
optics, thermodynamics and statistical
mechanics, physical chemistry, and other
fields.
He was also the first prominent physicist to
endorse Einstein's special theory of relativity.
5. Max Planck endured many personal tragedies
after the age of 50. In 1909, his first wife died after
22 years of marriage, leaving him with two sons
and twin daughters.
Planck's oldest son, Karl, was killed in action in 1916,
his daughter Margaret died in childbirth in 1917,
and another daughter, Emma also died in
childbirth in 1919.
During World War II, Planck's house in Berlin was
completely destroyed by bombs in 1944 and his
youngest son, Erwin, was implicated in the attempt
made on Hitler's life on July 20, 1944.
6. As a consequence, Erwin died a
horrible death at the hands of the
Gestapo in 1945. Erwin's death
destroyed Planck's will to live.
By the end of the war, Planck, his
second wife and his son by her,
moved to Gottingen where he died
on October 4, 1947.
