Bust gallery of Kiel University’s Nobel prize winners at Kleiner Kiel
Kiel University’s Nobel prize winners
We have been researching and teaching at the CAU at the highest level for over 350 years. The 20th century was a period of ground-breaking inventions - also in Kiel. Seven Nobel prize winners researched and worked here. However, genius did not always go hand in hand with humanity.
Otto Diels
The chemist Otto Diels (1876–1954) began studying in Berlin in 1895. After completing his studies, he worked there and earned his doctoral degree in 1915. From 1916 to 1944 and 1946 to 1948, he was Director of the Institute of Chemistry at Kiel University. Diels received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1950, together with his student Kurt Alder for the Diels-Alder reaction, which is named after them.
Kurt Alder
Kurt Alder (1902–1958) studied chemistry in Berlin and Kiel and earned his doctoral degree from 1922 to 1926 in Kiel. Alder worked as an assistant in chemistry from 1926 to 1930 and as a private lecturer at Kiel University from 1930 to 1934. After that, he was employed as a professor of chemistry until 1937. In 1950 he and his mentor Otto Diels won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering and developing diene synthesis, which is also known as the Diels-Alder reaction.
Otto F. Meyerhof
The physician Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884–1951) received his doctorate and worked in Heidelberg before moving to Kiel in 1912. He received his postdoctoral qualification as a professor there in 1913. Meyerhof was professor of physiology in Kiel from 1918 to 1924. Meyerhof received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1922 for his research on muscle metabolism, together with the Englishman Archibald Vivian Hill. He moved to Paris in 1938 and emigrated to the USA in 1940.
Max Planck
Max Planck (1858–1947), a native of Kiel, studied physics in Munich and Berlin. Planck’s first professorship began in 1885 in Kiel, where he remained professor of theoretical physics until 1889. He taught in Berlin from 1889 until his retirement in 1926. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his quantum theory in 1918. In 1947 Planck was named honorary citizen of the City of Kiel.
Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) completed law studies in Kiel, where he met Theodor Storm. Starting in 1848, Mommsen taught as professor of law at Leipzig University, and he taught and researched as a professor at universities in Zurich, Wroclaw and Berlin. In 1902 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his main work, History of Rome.
Eduard Buchner
Eduard Buchner (1860–1917) studied chemistry, botany and physics in Munich. He was professor of chemistry in Kiel from 1894 to 1896, after which he taught in Tuebingen, Berlin, Wroclaw and Würzburg. Buchner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1907 for discovering cell-free fermentation.
Philipp Eduard Anton Lenard
Lenard (1862-1947) studied natural sciences in Budapest and Vienna as well as physics in Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1898 Lenard moved to Kiel, where he became a director and created a new institute for physics. The nine years Lenard spent in Kiel were, scientifically speaking, among his most productive. He discovered the most important laws of photoelectric effects in Kiel in 1900. He developed the dynamid atomic model, a precursor of the modern atomic model which argues the majority of atoms is empty space. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for “important work on cathode rays”.
However, Lenard’s enthusiasm for Adolf Hitler and National Socialism overshadow his outstanding scientific achievements in physics. After World War I, Lenard was no longer able to come to terms with modern discoveries in physics. He rejected Einstein’s theory of relativity, not least because of anti-Semitic prejudices. In 1920, he publicly attacked Einstein at the natural scientists’ convention in Bad Nauheim and eventually left the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physics Society). As early as 1924, he openly professed his support for Hitler and National Socialism in his appeal in favour of Hitler’s principles and science.
Philipp Eduard Anton Lenard in the Kiel Directory of Scholars
Nobel Prize winners in the cityscape of Kiel
On the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Kiel University in 2015, the four Rotary Clubs of Kiel donated the portrait busts of former Kiel scientists to whom the Nobel Prize was awarded. The sculptures were created by the internationally renowned sculptor Jörg Plickat from Bredenbek .
The Rotary Clubs of Kiel have set a sign of solidarity with their university by creating these portrait busts. It also honors the outstanding achievements of researchers and scientists who once worked in Kiel and emphasises the importance of science and research at our universities in the past, present and future.
Bust gallery of Kiel University’s Nobel prize winners at Kleiner Kiel
Great researchers from the Fjord
Nobel Prize winners are not the only people who have researched and taught at Kiel University. Many renowned scholars have left their mark on research and teaching at the CAU over the last three centuries. Here is a selection of great researchers from the Fjord:
- Oskar Anderson (1887 - 1960)
Statistician and economist, professor of statistics in Kiel from 1942 to 1947
More information about Oskar Anderson - Jens Immanuel Baggesen (1764 - 1826)
Danish writer, professor of Danish language and literature in Kiel from 1811 to 1814
More information about Jens Immanuel Baggesen - Ludwig Claisen (1851 - 1930)
Chemist, discovered the Claisen condensation of carbonic acid esters named after him, professor of chemistry from 1897 to 1904 in Kiel
More information about Ludwig Claisen - Carl Friedrich Cramer (1752 - 1807)
Theologist, translator, proponent of the concept of an overarching European state culture, professor of Oriental languages in Kiel from 1775 to 1794
More information about Carl Friedrich Cramer - Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885 - 1964)
Neurologist who described the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease named after him and his colleague Alfons Jakob, professor from 1925, director of neurology and psychiatry in Kiel from 1938 to 1953, first Rector of Kiel University from 1945 to 1946
More information about Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt - Johann Friedrich August von Esmarch (1823 - 1908)
Physician, co-founder of first aid in Germany, director of the surgical clinic in Kiel from 1854 to 1898
More information about Johann Friedrich August von Esmarch - Theodor Curtius (1857 - 1928)
Chemist and eponym of the Curtius reaction of carbonic acid azides, professor of chemistry from 1889 to 1897 in Kiel
More information about Theodor Curtius - Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (1785 - 1860)
Historian and politician, leader of the “Göttingen Seven”, professor of history from 1812 to 1819
More information about Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann - Johann Gustav Droysen (1808 - 1884)
Historian, demonstrated the unity of politics and social sciences, professor of history in Kiel from 1840 to 1851
More information about Johann Gustav Droysen - Johann Christian Fabricius (1745 - 1808)
Professor of natural history, economics and cameral science in Kiel and world-famous entomologist
More information about Johann Christian Fabricius - Walther Flemming (1843 - 1905)
Anatomist and histologist, was the first to systematically research chromosomes during division and devised the term “mitosis” for this process, professor of anatomy in Kiel from 1876 to 1902
More information about Walther Flemming
- Hans Geiger (1882 - 1945)
Physicist, inventor of the Geiger counter, professor of experimental physics in Kiel from 1925 to 1929
More information about Hans Geiger - Bernhard Harms (1876 - 1939)
Economist, founded the current Institute for the World Economy in 1914, professor of national economics in Kiel from 1908 to 1933
More information about Bernhard Harms - Victor Hensen (1835 - 1924)
Physiologist and marine biologist, introduced the term “plankton”, professor of physiology in Kiel from 1868 to 1911
More information about Victor Hensen - Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857 - 1894)
Physicist, discovered electromagnetic waves, private lecturer in theoretical physics in Kiel from 1883 to 1885
More information about Heinrich Rudolf Hertz - Felix Jacoby (1876 - 1959)
Historian, professor of classical philology from 1907 to 1935 in Kiel
More information about Felix Jacoby
Hermann Kantorowicz (1877 - 1940)
Hermann Kantorowicz is one of the most important legal scholars of the twentieth century. He made ground-breaking contributions in the areas of legal theory, legal history and criminal law, some of which continue to have an effect to this day.
More information about Hermann Kantorowicz - Johanna Mestorf (1828 - 1909)
Archaeologist, first female professor and museum director in Germany, director of the Museum of National Antiquities in Kiel from 1891, professor from 1899
More information about Johanna Mestorf - Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (1874 - 1956)
Agronomist, formulated the law of the minimum and the law of decreasing crop yield, worked at the Landwirtschaftliches Institut (Agricultural Institute) in Kiel from 1897 to 1905
More information about Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich - Karl August Möbius (1825 - 1908)
Zoologist and ecologist, professor of zoology and Director of the Zoological Museum in Kiel from 1868 to 1888
More information about Karl August Möbius - Gustav Radbruch, (1878 - 1949)
Lawyer, important legal philosopher and new Kantian, professor of criminal law and legal philosophy in Kiel from 1919 to 1926
More information about Gustav Radbruch
- Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1758 - 1823)
Philosopher, representative of the German Enlightenment, professor of philosophy from 1793 to 1823
More information about Karl Lenhard Reinhold - Samuel Reyher (1635 - 1714)
Samuel Reyher, the first representative of mathematics at the CAU, taught in Kiel from 1665, when the university was founded, until 1714.
More information about Samuel Reyher - Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk (1798 - 1885)
- Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk taught as professor of mathematics and astronomy from 1833 to 1852 at the CAU.
More information about Heinrich Ferdinand Scherk - Erich Schneider(1900 - 1970)
Economist, important economic theoretician, professor of theoretical economics from 1946 to 1969 in Kiel, President of the Institute for the Word Economy from 1961 to 1969
More information about Erich Schneider - Ernst Steinitz (1871 - 1928)
Mathematician, wrote fundamental work on algebra, professor of mathematics in Kiel from 1920 to 1928
More information about Ernst Steinitz - Johann Nikolaus Tetens (1736 - 1807)
Philosopher, mathematician and natural scientist, important representative of the German Enlightenment, professor of mathematics and philosophy in Kiel from 1776 to 1786
More information about Johann Nikolaus Tetens - Ferdinand Tönnies (1855 - 1936)
Sociologist, founder of German sociology, private lecturer 1881-1908 and professor of political economy in Kiel 1909-1916
More information about Ferdinand Tönnies - Heinrich von Treitschke (1843 - 1896)
Historian and political publicist, professor of history and politics in Kiel in 1866 and 1867
More information about Heinrich von Treitschke - Albrecht Unsöld (1905 - 1995)
Astrophysicist, laid the foundations for determining the physical conditions in stellar atmospheres, professor and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Kiel from 1932 to 1973
More information about Albrecht Unsöld - Georg Waitz (1813 - 1886)
Historian and politician, professor of history in Kiel from 1842 to 1848
More information about Georg Waitz
