Eva Wilhelmina Julia von Bahr-Bergius, (16 September 1874 – 28 February 1962) was a Swedish
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and teacher at a
folk high school
Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;'' ...
. She was the first woman in Sweden to become a
docent
The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...
in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. She is known for her contact with and support of the poet
Dan Andersson
Dan Andersson (6 April 1888 in Ludvika – 16 September 1920 in Stockholm)[Dan Andersson](_blank)
'' ...
, for her friendship and support of the physicist
Lise Meitner
Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...
, and as a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
writer.
Biography
Background
Eva von Bahr's parents were häradshövding (district judge) Carl von Bahr (1830–1900) and his wife Elisabeth Boström (1838–1914). She was the sister of Johan von Bahr, mayor of
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...
, and
niece
In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an ...
of prime minister
Erik Gustaf Boström
Erik Gustaf Bernhard Boström (11 February 1842 – 21 February 1907) was a Swedish landowner and politician who was a member of the Swedish Parliament (1876–1907) and the longest-serving Prime Minister of Sweden of the 19th century. He ...
(1842–1907) and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
Ebba Boström (1844–1902), founder of the charitable institution ''Samariterhemmet'' in Uppsala. Eva von Bahr was born at Mälby farm in Roslags-Kulla (now in
Österåker Municipality
Österåker Municipality ( sv, Österåkers kommun, ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Åkersberga, with a population of 26,727 (2005).
From 1974 to 1982 Österåker was part of Vaxh ...
).
[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 46-53]
Academic career
Despite her family's wishes she wanted an education and studied for a year at the Askov folk high school in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, where
Poul la Cour
Poul la Cour (13 April 1846 – 24 April 1908) was a Danish scientist, inventor and educationalist. Today la Cour is especially recognized for his early work on wind power, both experimental work on aerodynamics and practical implementation of wi ...
encouraged her interest in physics and mathematics.
[ In 1901, von Bahr matriculated at ]Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
, in 1907 she passed her licentiate exam and in 1908 she defended her doctoral thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
about infrared radiation
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
absorption in gases. Her thesis was praised and she was given a docent stipend, becoming the first woman physics docent in Sweden.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 54-64]
Starting in 1909 she worked as a docent at the Physics department in Uppsala with the support of professor Knut Ångström. But following Ångström's sudden death in 1910, von Bahr was not allowed to teach, except as a temp. Only after 1925 were women allowed to work at universities in Sweden. In 1912, after being stopped from being a professor in Uppsala and at Chalmers tekniska läroanstalt because she was a woman, von Bahr applied for a position at University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
.[ The institution had number of outstanding physicists, among them ]Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...
, Max von Laue
Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.
In addition to his scientific endeavors with cont ...
, Walther Nernst
Walther Hermann Nernst (; 25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped pave the wa ...
, Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen ...
, Lise Meitner
Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...
, James Franck
James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed his doctorate in ...
and Gustav Hertz
Gustav Ludwig Hertz (; 22 July 1887 – 30 October 1975) was a German experimental physicist and List of Nobel laureates in Physics, Nobel Prize winner for his work on inelastic electron collisions in gases, and a nephew of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ...
. Von Bahr developed a close friendship with Lise Meitner.[
After her visit to Berlin, von Bahr exchanged letters with Meitner; she also had close contact with the mathematician and theoretical physicist ]Carl Wilhelm Oseen
Carl Wilhelm Oseen (17 April 1879 in Lund – 7 November 1944 in Uppsala) was a theoretical physicist in Uppsala and Director of the Nobel Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm.
Life
Oseen was born in Lund, and took a Fil. Kand. degre ...
in Uppsala.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 65-75] In January 1913, von Bahr again travelled to Berlin, where she worked under professor Heinrich Rubens
Heinrich Rubens (30 March 1865, Wiesbaden, Nassau, Germany – 17 July 1922, Berlin, Germany) was a German physicist. He is known for his measurements of the energy of black-body radiation which led Max Planck to the discovery of his radiation l ...
.[ During her time there, von Bahr conducted experiments that supported Max Planck's theories, which made her the only Swedish physicist to be mentioned by ]Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
during his Nobel lecture in 1922.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 76-88] During that spring, von Bahr was invited to work with James Franck and Gustav Hertz, and joined their group that autumn.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 89-94]
Return to Sweden
At the beginning of January 1914, von Bahr had to cut short her time in Berlin to care for her ill mother.[ The year after she planned to return to Berlin, but due to the outbreak of ]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
that was not possible, so she took a position as teacher at Brunnsvik folk high school in Dalarna
Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales.
Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland
Värmland () also known a ...
.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 133-149] At Brunnsvik, she met Niklas Bergius (1871-1947), a fellow teacher, whom she married on 19 June 1917.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 181-192] In the autumn of 1918, food was scarce in Sweden due to the war and the school was closed, so the couple travelled to Charlottenlund
Charlottenlund is a suburban area on the coast north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the administrative seat of Gentofte Municipality. Bordered to the east by the Øresund, to the South by Hellerup and to the north by Klampenborg, it is one of the w ...
in Denmark where they met with Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
.[ This period in Denmark awakened von Bahr's interest in ]Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, before that she had been an atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
.[
After the end of World War I, Lise Meitner visited von Bahr in Sweden and stayed in her home for four weeks.][Hedqvist 2012, pp. 193-203] In the winter of 1919-1920, von Bahr traveled to London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Pau, Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
, and Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.[
After some years, she moved to ]Kungälv
Kungälv () (old no, Konghelle) is a city and the seat of Kungälv Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 22,768 inhabitants in 2010. In 2021, the main Kungälv - Ytterby - Kareby conurbation had a combined population approachin ...
in order to be closer to the Catholic congregation in Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. When Lise Meitner's situation in Germany became dangerous during the summer of 1938 von Bahr, together with Wilhelm Oseen and Niels Bohr, was very active in helping her to escape and to arrange for her stay in Sweden and a research position.
While in Sweden in December 1938, Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch
Otto Robert Frisch FRS (1 October 1904 – 22 September 1979) was an Austrian-born British physicist who worked on nuclear physics. With Lise Meitner he advanced the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fission (coining the term) and firs ...
managed to theorize nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
.
After the outbreak of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the German occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...
, von Bahr was active in the Swedish humanitarian organization Svenska Norgehjälpen (Swedish Support of Norway).
Eva von Bahr was also a philanthropist, and for some time she supported among others Lise Meitner[ and the poet ]Dan Andersson
Dan Andersson (6 April 1888 in Ludvika – 16 September 1920 in Stockholm)[Dan Andersson](_blank)
'' ...
. She also contributed funds to Brunnsviks Folkhögskola and donated the house in Kungälv that she had built. After her husband's death in 1947 von Bahr moved to Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...
. During her time in Uppsala she was interested in the Jesuit priest and writer Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philos ...
and she kept contact and mail exchange with Lise Meitner. Eva von Bahr died on 28 February 1962 and was buried at the Catholic cemetery in Stockholm.[Hedqvist 2012, pp. 404]
Works
* ''Ueber die Einwirkung des Druckes auf die Absorption ultraroter Strahlung durch Gase''. Akademisk avhandling, Uppsala, 2008.
* ''Om katolicismen : några ord till protestanter''. Almqvist & wiksell,distr. 1929.
* ''Min väg tillbaka till kristendomen''. Almqvist & wiksell, 1933.
* ''Efterskrift till Min väg tillbaka till kristendomen''. Almqvist & Wiksell, 1934.
* ''Ur "spridda minnen från ett långt liv"''. (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Skrifter rörande Uppsala universitet. B. Inbjudningar, 177), 2015, sida 7-73
Footnotes
References
Eva V J Bergius
i ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon
''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'' () is a Swedish biographical dictionary, started in 1917. The first volume, covering names ''Abelin'' to ''Anjou'', was published in 1918. As of 2017, names from A to S are covered.
Volumes
# ABELIN – ANJOU (1 ...
'', Volume 3 (1922), p. 575
Eva von Bahr-Bergius
in ''Vem är vem'', Götalandsdelen utom Skåne, 1948
* Dan Andersson: ''Hjärtats oro'' : Dan Anderssonss brev til Elsa Ouchterlony, Eva von Bahr og søsteren Anna Andersson, samlet og med kommentar av Gunde Johansson. Dan Andersson-sällskapets skrifter, Zindermans 1993.
* Maria Ekelund
''Konsten att komma ut som katolik: En studie i rationaliseringen av den icke-rationella längtan efter Gud i Eva von Bahr-Bergius konversionsberättelse''
Institutionen för idé- och lärdomshistoria, Uppsala universitet. C-uppsats, 2007.
* Hedvig Hedqvist, ''Kärlek och Kärnfysik'', Albert Bonniers Forlag, Stockholm (2012).
* Gösta Larsson: ''Niklas Bergius, Eva von Bahr och Dan Andersson''. Stockholm: vulkan, 2011.
* Birgitta Meurling: "En utdragen balansakt : kvinnliga forskares strategier inom akademin". Part of: ''Att se det osedda : vänbok till Ann-Sofie Ohlander''. 2006, p. 159-180.
* Staffan Wennerholm
"I fysikforskningens utkant. Eva von Bahrs vetenskapliga gemenskaper 1909–1914"
''Lychnos'', 2007, p. 7–41.
Further reading
*
External links
from ''Svensk biografisk handbok'' (Swedish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahr, Eva
1874 births
1962 deaths
Swedish women physicists