From internment in Trial Bay to exile in Berkeley: the German physicist Peter Pringsheim and his connection with Australia

James N. Bade

doi:10.1071/HR24006

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Next Online Early

From internment in Trial Bay to exile in Berkeley: the German physicist Peter Pringsheim and his connection with Australia

James N. Bade

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

^* Correspondence to: j.bade@auckland.ac.nz

Historical Records of Australian Science https://doi.org/10.1071/HR24006

Published online: 16 September 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Peter Pringsheim, best known as professor of physics at the University of Berlin, has an unusual connection with Australia. His attendance at the 1914 conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held in Melbourne, coincided with the outbreak of World War 1, and he was interned as an enemy alien at the Trial Bay Internment Camp in New South Wales from October 1914 until July 1919. However, with the support of key Australian and New Zealand scientists, Pringsheim used his time at Trial Bay to write a scientific paper on fluorescence and phosphorescence which established him as a world authority on this branch of atomic physics. On his return to Berlin, he was promoted to professor and it seemed that nothing could now stand in the way of his career. In a grim twist of fate, however, political developments in Germany in the 1930s then forced him into exile in Belgium and the United States.

Keywords: antisemitism, Australian internment, enemy aliens, exile, fluorescence and phosphorescence, international scientific cooperation, physics, World War 1.

References

Anonymous (1961) Prof. Peter Pringsheim, Nature, 189, 877.
| Google Scholar |

Anonymous (1964) Peter Pringsheim, Physics Today, 17(3), 90-91.
| Google Scholar |

Bade, J. N. (2010) ‘Eine beispiellose Trennung: Der Hintergrund zu Thomas Manns Briefen an Peter Pringsheim 1915 bis 1917’, in Thomas Mann Jahrbuch, eds T. Sprecher, R. Wimmer, vol. 23, pp. 215–229, Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M.

Boes, T. (2019) Thomas Mann’s War: Literature, Politics, and the World Republic of Letters, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

Bowen, E. J. (1965) Dr Peter Pringsheim, Nature, 205, 1158.
| Google Scholar |

Corngold, S. (2022) The Mind in Exile: Thomas Mann in Princeton, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Cropper, W. H. (2004) Great Physicists: The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Dannemann, G. (2018) Gefangen am anderen Ende der Welt: Deutsche im Ersten Weltkrieg in Ostasien und Australien, BoD Verlag, Norderstedt.

Fischer, G. (1983) Beethoven’s Fifth in Trial Bay: culture and everyday life in an Australian internment camp during World War I, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 69(1), 48-62.
| Google Scholar |

Franck, J., and Pohl, R. W. (1964) Persönliches: Peter Pringsheim, Physikalische Blätter, 20(3), 133-134.
| Google Scholar |

Gearhart, C. A. (2014) The Franck-Hertz experiments: 1911–1914 experimentalists in search of a theory, Physics in Perspective, 16(3), 293-343.
| Google Scholar |

Hanle, W. (1964) Zum Gedenken an Peter Pringsheim, Die Naturwissenschaften, 51(7), 153-154.
| Google Scholar |

Hardy, A. (2013) ‘James Franck und Thomas Mann verhalfen ihm zur Flucht. 20.11.2013—Vor fünfzig Jahren starb Peter Pringsheim’, https://www.pro-physik.de/nachrichten/james-franck-und-thomas-mann-verhalfen-ihm-zur-flucht, viewed September 2023.

Harpprecht, K. (1995) Thomas Mann: Eine Biographie, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg.

Hettner, G., and Hahn, O. (1947) Zur Erinnerung an Otto v. Baeyer, Die Naturwissenschaften, 34(7), 193-4.
| Google Scholar |

Jasch, H.-C. (2013) ‘Civil service lawyers and the Holocaust: the case of Wilhelm Stuckart’, in The Law in Nazi Germany: Ideology, Opportunism, and the Perversion of Justice, eds A. E. Steinweis and R. D. Rachlin, Berghahn, New York, pp. 37–61.

Jens, I. and Jens, W. (2003) Frau Thomas Mann: Das Leben der Katharina Pringsheim, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg.

Kant, H. (2005) ‘Forschungen über Radioaktivität am Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie: Die Abteilung(en) Hahn/Meitner und ihre internationalen Kontakte’, in Aus Wissenschaftsgeschichte und -theorie: Hubert Laitko zum 70. Geburtstag, eds H. Kant and A. Vogt, Verlag für Wissenschafts- und Regionalgeschichte, Berlin, pp. 289–320.

Krause, A. (ed.) (2006) ‘Musikalische Verschmelzungen’: Thomas Mann und Hermann Ebers, Thomas-Mann-Förderkreis München, Munich.

Lamla, E. (1961) Peter Pringsheim zum achtzigsten Geburtstag, Die Naturwissenschaften, 48(6), 11.
| Google Scholar |

Lemmerich, J. (2011) Science and Conscience: The Life of James Franck, transl. by A. M. Hentschel, Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Mann, K. (1975) Unwritten Memories, eds E. Plessen and M. Mann, transl. Hunter and Hildegarde Hannum, Andre Deutsch, London.

Mann, E. (1996) Mein Vater, der Zauberer, eds I. von der Lühe and U. Naumann, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg.

Mann, T. (1997) ‘On Myself’ and Other Princeton Lectures: An Annotated Edition by James N. Bade based on Mann’s Lecture Typescripts, 2nd, revised, ed. P. Lang, Frankfurt a. M.

Mann, T. (2004) Briefe II 1914-1923, eds T. Sprecher, H. R. Vaget, C. Bernini, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M.

Peschke, E.-B. (2010) Rektoren und Präsidenten der Universität Unter den Linden, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin.

Prater, D. (1995) Thomas Mann: A Life, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Pringsheim, P. (1920) ‘Lebenslauf’, Meldung zur Habilitation, 4.6.1920, HU UA, Phil.Fak.01, Nr. 1273, Universitätsarchiv, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; University Archives, Humboldt University of Berlin.

Pringsheim, P. (1923) Fluoreszenz und Phosphoreszenz im Lichte der neueren Atomtheorie, 2nd revised edn, Springer, Berlin.

Pringsheim, P. (1925) ‘Personalnachrichten über den a. O. Universitätsprofessor Dr. phil. Peter Pringsheim’, Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität zu Berlin 1925, HU UA, UK Personalia P 179, Universitätsarchiv, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; University Archives, Humboldt University of Berlin.

Ramsey, A. (2019) The Basis of Everything: Rutherford, Oliphant and the Coming of the Atomic Bomb, Harper Collins, Sydney.

Reich-Ranicki, M. (1989) Thomas Mann and His Family, transl. R. Manheim, Collins, London.

Trojan, M. (1922) Hinter Stein und Stacheldraht: Australische Schattenbilder, Schünemann, Bremen.

Turner, I. S. (1952) The First Hundred Years of Mathematics, Teachers’ College, Sydney, https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/About/1st_hundred_years.pdf, viewed November 2023.

Twigg, C. (n.d.) ‘Rutherford’s secret war’, https://www.ww1.manchester.ac.uk/rutherfords-secret-war/, viewed November 2023.

Vaget, H. R. (2011) Thomas Mann, der Amerikaner: Leben und Werk im amerikanischen Exil, S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M.

Wallack, E. T. (1914) Letter dated 16 October 1914 from Colonel E. T. Wallack, Commandant, 2nd Military District, Sydney, to the Secretary, Department of Defence, MP 16/1, 14/3/124, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 32–34.

Wehefritz, V. (1999) Gefangener zweier Welten: Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. rer. nat. h. c. Peter Pringsheim (1881-1963): Ein deutsches Gelehrtenschicksal im 20. Jahrhundert, Universitätsbibliothek Dortmund, Dortmund.

Westphal, W. H. (1968) A Short Textbook of Physics, Springer, New York.

Wiedemann, H.-R. (ed.) (1985) Thomas Manns Schwiegermutter erzählt: Lebendige Briefe aus großbürgerlichem Hause – Hedwig Pringsheim-Dohm an Dagny Langen-Sautreau, Graphische Werkstätten, Lübeck.

Wolff, S. L. (2003) ‘Physicists on the “Krieg der Geister”’: Wilhelm Wien’s “Proclamation”, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 33(2), 337-368.
| Google Scholar |

Wysling, H. and Schmidlin, Y. (eds) (1994) Thomas Mann: Ein Leben in Bildern, Artemis, Zürich.