Curated playlist
Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWhen French soldiers broke into Goethe's home in 1806, his companion Christiane Vulpius defended it.
- Claude Louis BertholletClaude Louis Berthollet argued for decades against every other leading chemist, and was partly right.
- Heinrich Jacob GoldschmidtChemist Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt moved to Göttingen at 72 to join his son. The Nazis forced both men out.
- Werner HeisenbergA spy once carried a pistol to a Werner Heisenberg lecture, ready to shoot him. Moe Berg did not fire.
- Carl Friedrich GaussAt nineteen, Carl Friedrich Gauss proved a 17-sided polygon could be drawn with just a compass and straightedge.
- Jacob GrimmJacob Grimm and his brother expected their dictionary to take roughly ten years. It was finished in 1961.
- Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von Humboldt climbed Chimborazo in 1802, gasping and bleeding from his gums.
- Max BornMax Born won his 1954 Nobel Prize for work he finished nearly three decades earlier.
- Svante ArrheniusSvante Arrhenius nearly failed his doctorate, then won a Nobel Prize for it.
- Niels BohrNiels Bohr passed out in the bomb bay of a British plane over Norway. His flying helmet was too small for him to wear.
- Jacob BurckhardtIn 1872, Jacob Burckhardt turned down Ranke's famous history chair at Berlin. He stayed in Basel.
- Peter Andreas MunchPeter Andreas Munch, a trained lawyer, became Norway's leading medieval historian. He also entered the Vatican archives.