Max Volmer (; 3 May 1885 – 3 June 1965) was a German
physical chemist, who made important contributions to
materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
The intellectual origins of materials sci ...
,
photochemistry, and
electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...
. Along with Weber, Volmer made early and pivotal contributions to the development of
classical nucleation theory. He co-developed the
Butler–Volmer equation. Volmer held the chair and directorship of the Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry Institute of the
Technische Hochschule Berlin, in
Berlin-Charlottenburg. After
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 ...
, he went to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, where he headed a design bureau for the production of
heavy water
Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...
. Upon his return to
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
ten years later, he became a professor at the
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
and was president of the
East German Academy of Sciences.
Education
From 1905 to 1908, Volmer studied chemistry at the
Philipps University of Marburg
Philipps is an English language, English, Dutch language, Dutch, and German language, German surname meaning "lover of horses". Derivative, patronym, of the more common ancient Greek name "Philippos and Philippides." Notable people with this surnam ...
. After that, he went to the
University of Leipzig, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1910, based on his work on
photochemical reactions in high
vacuum
A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...
s. He became an assistant lecturer at Leipzig in 1912, and after completion of his
Habilitation there in 1913, he became a
Privatdozent at the university.
[Volmer](_blank)
– Institute of Chemistry, University of Jerusalem an
Volmer
– Incredible People.[Volmer](_blank)
– Volmer.biz.
Career
Early years
In 1916, Volmer went to work on military-related research at the Physical Chemistry Institute of the
Friedrich-Wilhelms University (today the Humboldt University of Berlin). From 1918 to 1920, he conducted research in industry at the ''
Auergesellschaft'' in Berlin. In 1919, he invented the mercury steam ejector, and he published a paper, with
Otto Stern which resulted in the attribution of the
Stern–Volmer equation and constant. Also attributed from his work during this time is the Volmer isotherm.
[Volmer](_blank)
– Adlershof Aktuell, p. 12.
In 1920, Volmer was appointed extraordinarius professor of physical chemistry and electrochemistry at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
. In 1922, he was appointed ordinarius professor and director of the Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry Institute of
Technische Universität BerlinTechnische Hochschule Berlin (
Charlottenburg, Berlin-Charlottenburg); the position was previously held by
Walther Nernst.
[Volmer](_blank)
– Technische Universität Berlin]. It was during his time there that he discovered the migration of adsorbed molecules, known as Volmer diffusion. In 1930, he published a paper from which was attributed the Butler-Volmer equation, based on earlier work of
John Alfred Valentine Butler. This work formed the basis of phenomenological kinetic
electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...
.
In the Soviet Union
Volmer,
Manfred von Ardenne, director of his private laboratory ''Forschungslaboratoriums für Elektronenphysik'',
Gustav Hertz, Nobel Laureate and director of Research Laboratory II at
Siemens, and
Peter Adolf Thiessen, ordinarius professor at the
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
and director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie (KWIPC) in
Berlin-Dahlem, had made a pact. The pact was a pledge that whoever first made contact with the Soviets would speak for the rest. The objectives of their pact were threefold: (1) Prevent plunder of their institutes, (2) Continue their work with minimal interruption, and (3) Protect themselves from prosecution for any political acts of the past. Before 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 ...
, Thiessen, a member of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
, had Communist contacts. On 27 April 1945, Thiessen arrived at von Ardenne's institute in an armored vehicle with a major of the Soviet Army, who was also a leading Soviet chemist. All four of the pact members were taken to the Soviet Union. Hertz was made head of Institute G, in Agudseri (Agudzery),
[Oleynikov, 2000, 11-12.][Naimark, 1995, 213.] about 10 km southeast of
Sukhumi
Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
and a suburb of Gul’rips (Gulrip’shi); Volmer was initially assigned to Hertz's institute. Topics assigned to Gustav Hertz's Institute G included: (1) Separation of isotopes by diffusion in a flow of inert gases, for which Gustav Hertz was the leader, (2) Development of a condensation pump, for which
Justus Mühlenpfordt was the leader, (3) Design and build a mass spectrometer for determining the isotopic composition of uranium, for which Werner Schütze was the leader, (4) Development of frameless (ceramic) diffusion partitions for filters, for which Reinhold Reichmann was the leader, and (5) Development of a theory of stability and control of a diffusion cascade, for which
Heinz Barwich was the leader; Barwich had been deputy to Hertz at Siemens. Von Ardenne was made head of Institute A, in Sinop,
a suburb of
Sukhumi
Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
.
Late in January 1946, Volmer was assigned to the Nauchno-Issledovatel’skij Institut-9 (NII-9, Scientific Research Institute No. 9), in Moscow. Volmer was given a design bureau to work on the production of
heavy water
Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...
;
Robert Döpel also worked at NII-9. Volmer's group with Victor Bayerl, a physical chemist and Gustav Richter a physicist, was under Alexander Mikailovich Rosen, and they designed a heavy water production process and facility based on the counterflow of ammonia. The installation was constructed at
Norilsk
Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk) is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisei, Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk is 300 ...
and completed in 1948, after which Volmer's organization was transferred to
Zinaida Yershova’s group, which worked on
plutonium
Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...
extraction from
fission products.
Return to Germany
In March 1955, Volmer returned to
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
. He received the Soviet Union's national prize, first class, ''Hervorragender Wissenschaftler des Volkes'' (Outstanding Scientist of the People). On 1 May 1955, he became an ordinarius professor at the
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
. On 10 November 1955, became a member of the ''Wissenschaftlichen Rates für die friedliche Anwendung der Atomenergie'' of the Council of Ministers of the
German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(GDR). From 8 December 1955 to 1959, he became president of the German Academy of Sciences, after which he was vice-president until 1961. From 27 August 1957, he became an initial member of the ''Forschungsrat'' of the GDR.
At
Technische Universität Berlin], where Volmer worked for so many years, the Max Volmer Laboratory for Biophysical Chemistry was named in his honor. Also in Volmer's honor, a street was named ''Volmerstrasse'' in
Adlershof, Berlin-Adlershof,
Potsdam, and
Hilden
Hilden () is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is situated in the Mettmann (district), District of Mettmann, west of Solingen and east of Düsseldorf on the right side of the Rhine. It is a middle sized industrial town ...
.
Personal

Volmer married the physical chemist
Lotte Pusch. Max and Lotte knew and socialized with the physicist
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 ...
and the chemist
Otto Hahn since the 1920s.
[Sime, 1997, 367.]
Selected bibliography
Articles
*O. Stern and M. Volmer ''Über die Abklingzeit der Fluoreszenz'', ''Physik. Zeitschr.'' 20 183-188 (1919) as cited in Mehra and Rechenberg, Volume 1, Part 2, 2001, 849.
*
T. Erdey-Grúz and M. Volmer ''Z. Phys. Chem.'' 150 (A) 203-213 (1930)
Books
*Max Volmer, ''Kinetik der Phasenbildung'' (1939)
*Max Volmer, ''Zur Kinetik der Phasenbildung und der Elektrodenreaktionen. Acht Arbeiten.'' (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest & Portig K.-G., 1983)
*Max Volmer und L. Dunsch, ''Zur Kinetik der Phasenbildung und Elektrodenreaktion. Acht Arbeiten.'' (Deutsch Harri GmbH, 1983)
See also
*
Butler–Volmer equation
*
Stern–Volmer equation and constant
Notes
References
*Heinemann-Grüder, Andreas ''Keinerlei Untergang: German Armaments Engineers during the Second World War and in the Service of the Victorious Powers'' in Monika Renneberg and Mark Walker (editors) ''Science, Technology and National Socialism'' 30–50 (Cambridge, 2002 paperback edition)
*Hentschel, Klaus (editor) and Ann M. Hentschel (editorial assistant and translator) ''Physics and National Socialism: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (Birkhäuser, 1996)
*Kruglov, Arkadii ''The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry'' (Taylor and Francis, 2002)
*
Mehra, Jagdish, and
Helmut Rechenberg ''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 2 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900–1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties.'' (Springer, 2001)
*Naimark, Norman M. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949'' (Hardcover – Aug 11, 1995) Belknap
*
Sime, Ruth Lewin ''Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics'' (University of California, First Paperback Edition, 1997)
*Oleynikov, Pavel V. ''German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project'', ''The Nonproliferation Review'' Volume 7, Number 2, 1 – 30
(2000) The author has been a group leader at the Institute of Technical Physics of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in
Snezhinsk (Chelyabinsk-70).
External links
Butler-Volmer Equation– Encyclopædia Britannica
MVL– Max Volmer Laboratory for Biophysical Chemistry at the TU Berlin
– Kutztown University
Stern–Volmer Equation– International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
*Two Internet sources with the same wording
– Institute of Chemistry, University of Jerusalem an
Volmer– Incredible People
– Technische Universität Berlin]
Volmer– Volmer.biz
Volmer Isotherm– Biophysical Journal
- Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology, on the website are published the photographs of the German nuclear physicists who had been working for the Soviet nuclear program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volmer, Max
1885 births
1965 deaths
German physical chemists
20th-century German chemists
Electrochemists
Scientists from the Rhine Province
University of Marburg alumni
Leipzig University alumni
Academic staff of Leipzig University
Academic staff of the University of Hamburg
Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
East German scientists
Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin