My life: Recollections of a Nobel laureate

319 Pages·2014·45.592 MB·English

by  Born Max

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
20TH CENTURY SCIENCE

Volume 3
MY LIFE
MY LIFE
Recollections of a Nobel Laureate
MAX BORN
: Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
First published in 1975 as Mein Leben: Die Erinnerungen des Nobelpreisträgers
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
by Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich.
without intent to infringe.
First published in English in 1978.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
This edition published in 2014 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
by Routledge
ISBN: 978-0-415-73519-3 (Set)
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
eISBN: 978-1-315-77941-6 (Set)
and by Routledge
ISBN: 978-1-138-01349-0 (Volume 3)
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 eISBN: 978-1-315-77937-9 (Volume 3)
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this book but
© 1975, 1978 Max Born
points out that some imperfections from the original may be apparent.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
Disclaimer
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ie

MY LIFE
Taylor & Francis Ltd
London
1978
Recollections
ofa
Nobel Laureate
Max Born
First published in 1975 by Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
Munich, under the title stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
Mein Leben: Die Erinnerungen des Nobelpreisträgers. or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the permission of the Copyright owner
This original English version first published in 1978 by Taylor & Francis Ltd,
10-14 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NF, Text set in 10/12 pt VIP Bembo, printed by photolithography, and
and Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. bound in Great Britain at The Pitman Press, Bath
ISBN 0 85066 1749
Distributed in the United States of America and its territories by
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 597 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A.
XI Göttingen Again— Habilitation’

Contents
XII Lecturer in Gottingen

XIII Chicago‘—E l Bokarebo.’—Marriage

XIV World War One

XV ___—s« Professor Extra-Ordinarius in Berlin—The A.P.K.
Preface
XVI End of the War—Revolution
The Scientific Work of Max Born __ Nevill Mott

XVII Frankfurt am Main
Part The Good Old Days

XVII Professor Ordinarius in Göttingen
1
XIX Quantum Mechanics
I Childhood
Part Tempestuous Years
II Schooling—My Father’s Second Marriage

2
Ill High School
I The ‘Heroic Age’ of Theoretical Physics
IV MyFather’s Death. Breslau University

II Approach of the Nazis
V Heidelberg and Zurich—The Neisser House

Ill Arrival of the Nazis
VI Studentin Göttingen

IV Selva. Val Gardena
VII Doctoral Thesis and Graduation

V Cambridge
VII Military Service

VI Bangalore
IX Cambridge
VII Edinburgh. The Department of Applied Mathematics

X Breslau—Second Military Service—Experimental Physics

Postscript Gustav Born
Index
father’s English was good, minor lapses of idiom have been anglicized.
The story continues up to about the beginning of the second
Preface
world war, with occasional mentions of later periods. I have added
a Postscript to provide a general account of my father’s later years,
Gustav Born
which I hope will put into perspective the references to this period
and round off a story which will be of interest to scientists, social
historians and general readers alike.
These ‘recollections’ by my father were written for his own family,
The illustrations are mainly from family collections, but we are
starting in about 1940, and continuing, in his spare time, until
grateful to Professor N. Thompson of the University of Bristol for
about 1946. This took his account up to the discovery of quantum
the photograph on page 245, and to the Institute of Physics for
mechanics (1925), and the work of writing was then interrupted by
the photograph of the Max Born medal which is reproduced on
other activities until about 1961, after he had retired and moved back
the dustjacket and which was made by my artist sister Gritli (Mrs.
to Germany.
Margaret Farley). The map of Breslau is taken from the 1910 edition of
As the manuscript was written for us, his children, and for
Baedeker’s Guidebook to Northern Germany.
his grandchildren, the style may be found rather different from
Cambridge, July 1978
autobiographies intended for publication. It has in fact been edited
to make it more suitable for English-speaking readers; although my
920s