Yohannes Shtark
GermanyBiography of Johannes Stark
Johannes Stark, a German physicist, was born in Schickenhof, Bavaria, in the family of a landowner. He studied at the secondary schools in Bayreuth and Regensburg, and in 1894 he enrolled at the University of Munich, where he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled "Investigation on Lampblack" in 1897. That same autumn, Stark became an assistant to Eugen Lommel in Munich. In 1900, he moved to the University of Göttingen as an assistant to Eduard Riecke and simultaneously became a lecturer at the university. Stark spent the next six years in Göttingen, establishing himself as a talented experimental physicist and a controversial figure. His main scientific interest at that time was the behavior of ions in electric fields. In 1904, he founded the journal "Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik" (Yearbook of Radioactivity and Electronics), which he edited for nine years. In 1905, Stark observed the Doppler shift in canal rays. Canal rays are streams of positive ions (charged atoms) accelerated in a vacuum towards an electrode and passing through holes (channels) in it. As Wilhelm Wien discovered, the ions are accelerated to extremely high speeds, and the motion of the ions affects the observed frequencies of the light they emit. The frequencies decrease when the ions move away from the observer and increase when they move towards the observer. This change in frequency, known as the Doppler effect, is well known from star spectra (a spectrum is a series of colored lines that arise when light is separated into its component frequencies or wavelengths). However, Stark was the first to observe the Doppler effect in radiation from a terrestrial source. At the beginning of his scientific career, Stark sympathized with theories that challenged the ideas of classical physics. When Albert Einstein proposed the special theory of relativity in 1905, Stark was among its first supporters, and since the theory of relativity describes the behavior of moving objects, he offered his observations of the Doppler effect as evidence for the theory of relativity. In 1907, he approached Einstein with a request to publish an article on the theory of relativity in the "Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik," and he vigorously defended Einstein's idea of the corpuscular nature of light (under certain conditions, light behaves like a stream of particles - corpuscles, or energy quanta), which was rejected until the 1920s. In 1906, Stark left Göttingen to take up a professorship at the Technical University of Hanover. However, his difficult character led to complications in his relationship with his boss, who repeatedly tried to fire Stark. These difficult relationships were resolved only in 1909 when, with the help of the theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, Stark became a full professor at the Technical University of Aachen. However, soon Stark fell out with Sommerfeld over the nature of X-ray radiation emitted by electrons during deceleration. The former claimed that for an adequate description of the phenomenon, a quantum theory was necessary, while the latter believed that classical electromagnetism was sufficient. The dispute between the two sides, which was carried out in the scientific press, ended in a bitter falling out, and they never resumed friendly relations.
In 1896, the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman discovered that a magnetic field applied to an incandescent gas splits each of its spectral lines into three or more lines, closely spaced (the Zeeman effect). In 1913, using canal rays once again, Stark carried out a similar splitting of the spectral lines of hydrogen in an external electric field. This phenomenon, known as the Stark effect, had unsuccessfully been attempted by other scientists. Within the framework of classical electromagnetic theory, the Stark effect was inexplicable. But in early 1913, Niels Bohr proposed a quantum theory of the hydrogen atom. According to this theory, electrons occupy well-defined orbits, each of which corresponds to a specific energy level. In Bohr's theory, the spectral lines of hydrogen arise from transitions of electrons from one orbit to another. Each transition is accompanied by the emission of a specific wavelength. As Max von Laue and Arnold Sommerfeld demonstrated in 1916, an externally applied electric field changes the electron orbits in an atom. This leads to different energy levels and the very same multiple spectral lines that Stark observed. Thus, Stark's discovery confirmed Bohr's atomic model and quantum theory as a whole.
In 1919, Stark was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields." Speaking at the laureate's presentation ceremony, A.G. Ekstrand, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, stated: "The discovery... proved to be an effective means of proving that the particles of canal rays are luminous atoms or atomic ions. Further research on the Doppler effect in the spectra of canal rays, mainly carried out by Stark and his students, led to extraordinarily important results not only regarding canal rays themselves but also regarding the nature of different spectra that the same chemical element can emit under different circumstances." After making the discovery that now bears his name, Stark's scientific and political views became increasingly reactionary. Despite his own work providing important confirmation of Bohr's atomic model, Stark never accepted Bohr's conclusions. In his Nobel lecture, he claimed that the Bohr model contradicted the "spirit of physics" itself. The enthusiasm with which he once embraced Einstein's theories disappeared, and although both quantum theory and the theory of relativity gained increasing scientific support, he rejected both theories. Stark also had a hostile attitude towards Einstein's political views (during World War I, Einstein held pacifist views), as well as his scientific work. In 1917, Stark intended to take up a professorship in physics at the University of Göttingen but was rejected and accepted a professorship at the University of Greifswald, where the faculty held conservative scientific and political views.
With mistrust towards the democratic Weimar government, post-war Germany, and the Berlin physicists who played a leading role in the German Physical Society, in 1920 Stark attempted to organize an independent physics association in the hope that the association could act as a consultant to the government. However, this endeavor failed as the association, which did not receive the support of physicists, could not exert any influence on the Weimar government. In the same year, Stark accepted a chair in physics at the University of Würzburg, but disagreements with colleagues forced him to resign two years later. During his time in Würzburg, he became the owner of a porcelain factory. Many physicists considered this move unethical, as a significant part of the capital was borrowed from his Nobel Prize. After the failure of the porcelain factory scheme, Stark attempted to return to academic work. He applied for a vacant position as director of the State Physical-Technical Institute in Berlin but did not succeed in the competition and spent the next few years in forced retirement at his family estate near Traunstein in Bavaria. Stark hoped to occupy several more academic positions, but each time his candidacy was rejected, presumably because he had made too many enemies. One of the few remaining allies of Stark was Philipp von Lenard, a fervent opponent of what he called "Jewish dogmatic physics." Stark became one of the leading apologists for Aryan physics (according to Lenard's explanation, this term referred to physics that "rejected highly abstract theories developed by Jewish physicists"). His main enemy, supported by proponents of Aryan physics, was Einstein.
As a native of southern Germany, Stark was familiar with the Nazi Party and supported Adolf Hitler from the early 1920s. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 and the position of director of the State Physical-Technical Institute became vacant again, Stark's party connections secured him the position. As director of the institute, he harbored ambitious plans to reorganize all German science. Stark also assumed the presidency of the German Research Association. However, due to his vehement attacks on all scientists (not just Jews) who dared to defend modern physics, including Sommerfeld, Max von Laue, and Werner Heisenberg, whom he called "white Jews in science," his influence among German physicists was minimal. Additionally, Stark earned enemies in the Imperial Ministry of Education, under whose auspices the research association operated. None of his plans came to fruition, and eventually, Stark fell out of favor with the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. In 1936, after the failure of a gold mining scheme that he supported, Stark was forced to resign. However, he continued to hold the position of director of the State Physical-Technical Institute until 1939. After 1939, Stark retired and lived on his estate, where he built a private laboratory. His last attempt to engage in independent scientific work - the alleged discovery of light beam bending in an inhomogeneous electric field - ended in failure.
Stark was married to Luise Upler, and they had five children together. In his leisure time, he enjoyed forestry and gardening. He died on June 21, 1957. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Stark was awarded the Baumgartner Prize by the Vienna Academy of Sciences, the Falb Award by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, and the Matteucci Gold Medal by the Italian National Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the academies of sciences in Göttingen, Rome, Leiden, Vienna, and Calcutta.
