Erwin Finlay-Freundlich (; 29 May 1885 – 24 July 1964) was a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, a pupil of

Felix Klein Felix Christian Klein (; ; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and Mathematics education, mathematics educator, known for his work in group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and the associations betwe ...

. Freundlich was a working associate of

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

and introduced experiments for which the

general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physi ...

could be tested by astronomical observations based on the

gravitational redshift In physics and general relativity, gravitational redshift (known as Einstein shift in older literature) is the phenomenon that electromagnetic waves or photons travelling out of a gravitational well lose energy. This loss of energy correspo ...

Life

He was born in Biebrich, Germany the son of Friedrich Philipp Ernst Freundlich, a manufacturer, and his wife Elizabeth (Ellie) Finlayson. He was one of seven children, all of whom were raised Protestant, despite their father's Jewish heritage. His elder brother was

Herbert Max Finlay Freundlich Herbert Max Finlay Freundlich (28 January 1880 in Charlottenburg – 30 March 1941 in Minneapolis) was a German people, German chemist. Biography His father was of German Jewish descent, and his mother ( Finlay) was from Scotland. His yo ...

. He studied locally, leaving school in 1903. He spent 6 months working in the shipyards of

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

which inspired him to begin studying shipbuilding at the Charlottenburg Polytechnic in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. However he abandoned this in autumn 1905 to instead study Mathematics and Astronomy at Göttingen. Here he studied under

and

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

.The Einstein Tower by Klaus Hentschel In 1913 he married Kate Hirschberg. After finishing his thesis under the direction of

Paul Koebe Paul Koebe (15 February 1882 – 6 August 1945) was a 20th-century German mathematician. His work dealt exclusively with the complex numbers, his most important results being on the uniformization of Riemann surfaces in a series of four papers in ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

in 1910 and gaining his doctorate (PhD), he became assistant at the

Berlin Observatory The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte) is a German astronomical institution with a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century. It has its origins in 1700 w ...

, where he became associated with Albert Einstein. During an expedition to verify general relativity during a solar eclipse in 1914,

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out and he was interned in Russia, for a few days, before being freed in an exchanging of prisoners. The expedition failed. After the war, he was engaged in the construction of a solar observatory in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, the ''Einsteinturm'', and he was director of the Einstein-Institut. In 1933 Hitler came to power and Freundlich was forced to leave Germany; he had a Jewish grandmother and his wife was Jewish. He was appointed professor at the

University of Istanbul Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, it was reformed as the fi ...

, which was reformed by

Kemal Atatürk Kemal may refer to: ;People * Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey * Kemal (name), a Turkish name ;Places * Kemalpaşa, İzmir Province, Turkey * Mustafakemalpaşa, Bursa Province, Turkey ;See also *"Kema ...

with the help of many German scholars. In 1937 he left Istanbul to take up the post of professor of astronomy at the

Charles University of Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

, but this appointment was terminated by the German occupation in 1938. On the recommendation of

Arthur Stanley Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lu ...

he went to St. Andrews University in Scotland, where he lectured in astronomy from 1939. In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

William Greaves William Garfield Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker and a pioneer of film-making. After trying his hand at acting, he became a filmmaker who produced more than two hundred documentary films, and w ...

Alexander Aitken Alexander Craig "Alec" Aitken (1 April 1895 – 3 November 1967) was one of New Zealand's most eminent mathematicians. In a 1935 paper he introduced the concept of generalized least squares, along with now standard vector/matrix notation ...

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

and

Robert Schlapp Robert Schlapp FRSE (18 July 1899 – 31 May 1991) was a 20th-century British physicist and mathematician of German descent. He was affectionately known as Robin Schlapp. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 18 July 1899, the youngest of three ch ...

. In 1951 he was created

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston ( ; Latinisation of names, Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8 ...

Professor of Astronomy. On his retirement in 1959, he returned to his native town Wiesbaden and was appointed professor at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

. Freundlich died in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

, Germany on 24 July 1964.

Achievements

Freundlich researched the deflection of light rays passing close to the Sun. He proposed an experiment, during an eclipse, to verify the validity of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Freundlich's demonstration would have proven

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * ...

's theories incorrect. He did conduct inconclusive tests on the prediction by Einstein's theory of gravitation-induced red shift of spectral lines in the Sun, using the solar observatories he had constructed in Potsdam and Istanbul. In 1953, he proposed with

an alternative explanation of the red shifts observed in galaxies by a

tired light Tired light is a class of hypothetical redshift mechanisms that was proposed as an alternative explanation for the redshift-distance relationship. These models have been proposed as alternatives to the models that involve the expansion of the uni ...

model.

Publications

* ''Die Grundlagen der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie''. Mit e. Vorw. von Albert Einstein. – Berlin : Springer, 1916. – 64 S.; 8 * ''Über die Rotverschiebung der Spektrallinien'' with

(1953) * ''Theoretische Bemerkungen zu Freundlichs Formel für die stellare Rotverschiebung'' (1953) * ''Cosmology'' (1971)

References

External links and resources

Klaus Hentschel Klaus Hentschel (born 4 April 1961) is a German physicist, historian of science and professor. He is the head of the University of Stuttgart's History of Science and Technology section of its History department. Life and work Born in Bad Nauhei ...

''The Einstein Tower An Intertexture of Dynamic Construction, Relativity Theory, and Astronomy''
Stanford University Press, Stanford 1997. * School of Mathematics and Statistics. "

'".

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Finlay-Freundlich, Erwin 1885 births 1964 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany 20th-century German astronomers Scientists from Wiesbaden People from Hesse-Nassau University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of Charles University Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz German expatriates in Turkey Expatriate academics in Turkey Academic staff of Istanbul University