
Georg Jakob Christof Joos (25 May 1894 in
Bad Urach
Bad Urach () is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian Jura (or Swabian Alps), and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath.
Neighbouring comm ...
,
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
– 20 May 1959 in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
) was a German experimental physicist. He wrote ''Lehrbuch der theoretischen Physik'', first published in 1932 and one of the most influential theoretical physics textbooks of the 20th Century.
Education
Joos began his higher education in 1912 at the
Technische Hochschule
A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...
Stuttgart. He then went to study at the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...
, where he received his doctorate in 1920 under C. Füchtbauer.
[Hentschel, 1996, Appendix F; see the entry for Joos.]
Career
After receipt of his doctorate, Joos became a teaching assistant to
Jonathan Zenneck
Jonathan Adolf Wilhelm Zenneck (; ; 15 April 1871 – 8 April 1959) was a German physicist and electrical engineer.
Zenneck improved the cathode-ray tube by adding a second deflection structure at right angles to the first, which allowed two-di ...
at the
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
. In 1922, he became a
Privatdozent
''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...
there.
[Author Catalog: Joos](_blank)
– American Philosophical Society
In 1924, he was appointed extraordinarius professor at the
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, where he lectured on the theory of electrons and the
theory of relativity
The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...
. In 1928, he was appointed ordinarius professor, as successor of
Felix Auerbach
Felix Auerbach (12 November 1856 – 26 February 1933) was a German physicist.
Life
Auerbach was born in Breslau (today Wrocław) on 12 November 1856. His father, Leopold Auerbach, was a respected physician and professor of medicine at th ...
. In the late 1920s, at the industrial firm
Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to:
People
*Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur
*Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter
* Juan Pablo Zeiss (born 1989), Argentine rugby union player
* Mary Zeiss Sta ...
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
, he reproduced the
Michelson–Morley experiment
The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between ...
with more refined equipment and confirmed the original results.
Before the publication of
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in Atomic physics, atomic and Quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and also educated and ...
's six-volume ''
Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik'' in the 1940s, ''Lehrbuch der theoretischen Physik'' by Joos, first published in 1932, was probably one of the most important books on theoretical physics in the 20th Century.
In 1933, shortly after
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
became Chancellor, the
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was enacted by the Nazi Party, Na ...
was passed, which resulted in resignations and emigrations of many Jewish physicists, one of them was
James Franck
James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German-American physicist who received the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed hi ...
, who was director of the Second Physics Institute 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 1935, an ordinance related to the Civil Services act, the Law on the Retirement and Transfer of Professors as a Result of the Reorganization of the German System of Higher Education, was used to forcibly transfer Joos to Göttingen to fill Frank's position as ordinarius professor and director of the Second Physics Institute.
In the spring of 1936,
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II.
He pub ...
,
Hans Geiger
Johannes Wilhelm Geiger ( , ; ; 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945) was a German nuclear physicist. He is known as the inventor of the Geiger counter, a device used to detect ionizing radiation, and for carrying out the Rutherford scatt ...
, and
Max Wien
Max Karl Werner Wien (; 25 December 1866 – 22 February 1938) was a German physicist and the director of the Institute of Physics at the University of Jena. He was born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), the son of the co-owner ...
sent a petition to the Reich Minister for Education at the
Reichserziehungsministerium (REM, Reich Education Ministry). The petition was sent out of concern for the debilitating effects of the attacks on
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
by the supporters of
Deutsche Physik
''Deutsche Physik'' (, "German Physics") or Aryan Physics () was a nationalist movement in the German physics community in the early 1930s which had the support of many eminent physicists in Germany. The term appears in the title of a four- ...
, which was both
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
and anti-theoretical physics, especially including
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
. Joos was a supporting signatory on the petition.
[Beyerchen, 1977, 141-167.]
Based on the results of an experiment in which
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
was bombarded with
neutrons
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the f ...
, conducted in December 1938 by
Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the field of radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and discoverer of nuclear fission, the science behind nuclear reactors and ...
and
Fritz Strassmann
Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the key ...
at the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science () was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organi ...
, Hahn conveyed their results to his former colleague
Lise Meitner
Elise Lise Meitner ( ; ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission.
After completing her doctoral research in 1906, Meitner became the second woman ...
. Meitner and her nephew,
Otto Robert Frisch
Otto Robert Frisch (1 October 1904 – 22 September 1979) was an Austrian-born British physicist who worked on nuclear physics. With Otto Stern and Immanuel Estermann, he first measured the magnetic moment of the proton. With his aunt, Lise M ...
, correctly interpreted the data and coined the term
fission. In April 1939, Joos, after hearing a paper by
Wilhelm Hanle
Wilhelm Hanle (13 January 1901 – 29 April 1993) was a German experimental physicist. He is known for the Hanle effect. During World War II, he made contributions to the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club. From 1941 ...
, conveyed to the
Reichserziehungsministerium the implications of Hahn's experiment and the potential military applications of uranium research.
Due to the academic policies of the
National Socialists
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
in general, and specifically the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB,
National Socialist German University Lecturers League) at universities, Joos departed academia in 1941. He became the chief physicist at Zeisswerke Jena, where he also participated on the management board. He remained there until shortly after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, when, in September 1946, he was appointed as ordinarius professor of experimental physics and director of the physics department at the
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
; he succeeded
Rudolf Tomaschek
Rudolf Karl Anton Tomaschek (23 December 1895 in Budweis, Bohemia – 8 February 1966, Breitbrunn am Chiemsee) was a German experimental physicist. His scientific efforts included work on phosphorescence, fluorescence, and ( tidal) gravitatio ...
, who had been suspended. For the academic years 1947 to 1949, Joos was visiting professor at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
.
Jena, company Carl Zeiss and the Michelson-Morley Experiment
Joos became an associate professor in
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
in 1924 and a full professor in 1928. His textbook on theoretical physics, one of the most important of the 20th century, was published in 1932.
As early as 1925, Joos wrote in a letter to Sommerfeld that the Carl Zeiss company would build an apparatus for a
Michelson-Morley experiment on the
Jungfrau Joch. However, this was not realized. He received support for his project from
Rudolf Straubel
Rudolf Straubel (June 16, 1864 – December 2, 1943) was a German physicist, scientist, top-manager, inventor and sponsor of community. He was the successor to Ernst Abbe and managing director of Carl Zeiss (company)#Carl Zeiss 1846–1945, Carl ...
, managing director of the Zeiss factory in Jena. The structures for the experiment required a great deal of technical and construction effort. Under the direction of Franz Meyer, a design was developed that pushed the limits of what was possible at the time. The device was built in the astronomy workshop.
On May 10, 1930, the experiment was carried out in a basement room of the Carl Zeiss company in Jena. It is the experiment with the highest accuracy to date, which denies the existence of an
ether wind and thus supports
Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.
The setup for the experiment came to the
German Museum
The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...
in Munich in 1935. A small model of the experiment was used at the University of Jena in physics practicals until the 1960s.
Internal report
The following was published in ''
Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte
''Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics'') was an internal publication of the German ''Uranverein'', which was initiated under the ''Heereswaffenamt'' (Army Ordnance Office) in 1939; in 1942, supervision of ...
'' (''Research Reports in Nuclear Physics''), an internal publication of the German ''
Uranverein
Nazi Germany undertook several research programs relating to nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, before and during World War II. These were variously called () or (). The first effort started in April 1939, ju ...
''. Reports in this publication were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied
Operation Alsos
The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II. Its chief focus was to investigate the progress that ...
and sent to the
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry ...
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the
Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
.
[Walker, 1993, 268-274.]
* Georg Joos ''Georg Joos to Army Ordinance'' G-46 (29 March 1940)
Books
* Georg Joos, Ernst Angerer, and
Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark (; 15 April 1874 – 21 June 1957) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields". This phenom ...
''Anregung der Spektren Spektroskopische Apparate und Starkeffekt'' (
Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1927)
* Georg Joos ''Sammelband mit 3 Sonderdrucken aus dem Hb. der Experimentalphysik.'' (
Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft
The (AVG, AVg, Aka, AV; English: Academic publishing company) in Leipzig was an important German academic publisher, which was founded in 1906.
The original Jewish owners of the publishing house and key employees were expropriated during the t ...
, 1928–1929)
* Georg Joos ''Atome und Weltall. Ein Vortrag. (Student und Leben, Heft 3). '' (Jena, 1931)
* Georg Joos ''Lehrbuch der theoretischen Physik'' (
Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft
The (AVG, AVg, Aka, AV; English: Academic publishing company) in Leipzig was an important German academic publisher, which was founded in 1906.
The original Jewish owners of the publishing house and key employees were expropriated during the t ...
, 1932, 1934, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1950, 1954, 1954, 1956, 1959, 1964, 1964, 1964, 1965, 1980)
** Georg Joos, author and Ira M. Freeman, translator ''Theoretical Physics'' (Hafner, 1934, 1950, 1957, 1958) (Blackie and Son, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1951, 1953, 1958) (Dover, 1986, 1987)
* Georg Joos and Theodor Kaluza ''Höhere Mathematik für den Praktiker'' (Barth, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1964)
* Geog Joos, editor ''Physik der festen Körper. I.'' (Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1947)
** Georg Joos, editor ''Physics of Solids. Part I.''
IAT Review of German Science 1939–1946, Physics of Solidsref name="German Science 1996">There were 50-odd volumes of the FIAT Reviews of German Science, which covered the period 1930 to 1946 – cited by
Max von Laue
Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 "for his discovery of the X-ray diffraction, diffraction of X-rays by crystals".
In addition to his scientifi ...
in Document 117, Hentschel, 1996, 393-395. (Office of Military Government for Germany Field Information Agencies, Technical, 1947)
* Geog Joos, editor ''Physik der festen Körper. II.'' (Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1948)
** Georg Joos, editor ''Physics of Solids. Part II.''
IAT Review of German Science 1939–1946, Physics of Solidsref name="German Science 1996"/> (Office of Military Government for Germany Field Information Agencies, Technical, 1948)
Notes
References
* Beyerchen, Alan D. ''Scientists Under Hitler: Politics and the Physics Community in the Third Reich'' (Yale, 1977)
* Hentschel, Klaus, editor and Ann M. Hentschel, editorial assistant and Translator ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996)
*Hoffmann, Dieter ''Between Autonomy and Accommodation: The German Physical Society during the Third Reich'', ''Journal Physics in Perspective'' 7(3) 293-329 (2005)
*Macrakis, Kristie ''Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany'' (Oxford, 1993)
*Walker, Mark ''National Socialism and German Physics'', ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 24(1) 63-89 (1989)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joos, Georg
1894 births
1959 deaths
People from Bad Urach
Nuclear program of Nazi Germany
People from the Kingdom of Württemberg
University of Tübingen alumni
Academic staff of the Technical University of Munich
Academic staff of the University of Jena
Academic staff of the University of Göttingen
Boston University faculty
20th-century German physicists