Birth of Max Planck

Max Planck was born on 23 April 1858 in Kiel. A German theoretical physicist, Planck is regarded as the originator of quantum theory. In 1900 he proposed a formula for black-body radiation that treated energy as emitted in discrete packets, or quanta, introducing the constant that now bears his name. He had not intended to overturn classical physics, but his idea opened the way for the work of Einstein, Bohr and many others. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 and held a professorship in Berlin, later leading the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. He stayed in Germany through the Nazi years and lost his son Erwin, executed in 1945 after the failed plot against Hitler; the Max Planck Society carries his name.

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