Philipp Lenard
German physicist (1862–1947)
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (German: [ˈfɪlɪp ˈleːnaʁt] ; 7 June 1862 – 20 May 1947) was a Hungarian–German experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays. This work led to his experimental realization of the photoelectric effect, discovering that the energy (speed) of the electrons ejected from a cathode depends only on the frequency and not the intensity of light.
As an active proponent of the Nazi ideology, Lenard supported Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and was an important role model for the Deutsche Physik movement during the Nazi period. He labeled Albert Einstein's contributions to theoretical physics as "Jewish physics".
Biography
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard was born on 7 June 1862 in Pozsony (German: Pressburg; now Bratislava, Slovakia; then located in the Kingdom of Hungary), the son of Philipp von Lenard (1812–1896), a wine merchant in Pozsony, and Antonie Baumann (1831–1865). His father's family had originally come from Tyrol, while his mother's family originated from Baden; both parents were German-speaking.
Lenard attended the Pozsonyi Királyi Katolikus Főgymnasium (Royal Catholic College of Pozsony, now Gamča), and as he records in his autobiography, this made a big impression on him (especially the personality of his teacher, Virgil Klatt). In 1880, he studied physics and chemistry in Vienna and in Budapest. In 1882, he left Budapest and returned to Pressburg, but in 1883 moved to Heidelberg after his tender for an assistant's position at the University of Budapest was refused. At the University of Heidelberg, he studied under Robert Bunsen, interrupted by one semester in Berlin with Hermann von Helmholtz.
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