Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
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Erwin Finlay-Freundlich
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
FRAS FRAS may refer to: * Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, post-nominal letters * Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland are individuals who have bee ...
(; 29 May 1885 – 24 July 1964) was a German
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
, a pupil of Felix Klein. Freundlich was a working associate of
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 ...
and introduced experiments for which the general theory of relativity could be tested by astronomical observations based on the gravitational redshift.


Life

He was born in Biebrich, Germany the son of Friedrich Philipp Ernst Freundlich, a manufacturer, and his wife Elizabeth (Ellie) Finlayson. He was one of seven children, all of whom were raised Protestant, despite their father's Jewish heritage. His elder brother was Herbert Max Finlay Freundlich. He studied locally, leaving school in 1903. He spent 6 months working in the shipyards of
Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin language, Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Po ...
which inspired him to begin studying shipbuilding at the Charlottenburg Polytechnic in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. However he abandoned this in autumn 1905 to instead study Mathematics and Astronomy at Göttingen. Here he studied under Felix Klein and
Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...
. In 1913 he married Kate Hirschberg. After finishing his thesis under the direction of Paul Koebe at the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
in 1910 and gaining his doctorate (PhD), he became assistant at the Observatory in Berlin, where he became associated with Albert Einstein. During an expedition to verify general relativity during a solar eclipse in 1914,
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 ...
broke out and he was interned in Russia, for a few days, before being freed in an exchanging of prisoners. The expedition failed. After the war, he was engaged in the construction of a solar observatory in
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
, the ''Einsteinturm'', and he was director of the Einstein-Institut. In 1933 Hitler came to power and Freundlich was forced to leave Germany; he had a Jewish grandmother and his wife was Jewish. He was appointed professor at the University of Istanbul, which was reformed by
Kemal Atatürk Kemal may refer to: ;People * Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey * Kemal (name), a common Turkish name ;Places * Kemalpaşa, İzmir Province, Turkey * Mustafakemalpaşa, Bursa Province, Turkey ;See also ...
with the help of many German scholars. In 1937 he left Istanbul to take up the post of professor of astronomy at the Charles University of Prague, but this appointment was terminated by the German occupation. On the recommendation of Arthur Stanley Eddington he went to
St. Andrews University (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
in Scotland, where he lectured in astronomy from 1939. In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
. His proposers were William Greaves,
Alexander Aitken Alexander Craig "Alec" Aitken (1 April 1895 – 3 November 1967) was one of New Zealand's most eminent mathematicians. In a 1935 paper he introduced the concept of generalized least squares, along with now standard vector/matrix notation fo ...
,
Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a n ...
and
Robert Schlapp Robert Schlapp FRSE (18 July 1899 – 31 May 1991) was a 20th century British physicist and mathematician of German descent. He was affectionately known as Robin Schlapp. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 18 July 1899, the youngest of three ch ...
. In 1951 he was created John Napier Professor of Astronomy. On his retirement in 1959, he returned to his native town Wiesbaden and was appointed professor at the University of Mainz. Freundlich died in
Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, Germany on 24 July 1964.


Achievements

Freundlich researched the deflection of light rays passing close to the Sun. He proposed an experiment, during an eclipse, to verify the validity of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Freundlich's demonstration would have proven
Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...
's theories incorrect. He did conduct inconclusive tests on the prediction by Einstein's theory of gravitation-induced red shift of spectral lines in the Sun, using the solar observatories he had constructed in Potsdam and Istanbul. In 1953, he proposed with
Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a n ...
an alternative explanation of the red shifts observed in galaxies by a
tired light Tired light is a class of hypothetical redshift mechanisms that was proposed as an alternative explanation for the redshift-distance relationship. These models have been proposed as alternatives to the models that require metric expansion of sp ...
model.


Publications

* ''Die Grundlagen der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie''. Mit e. Vorw. von Albert Einstein. – Berlin : Springer, 1916. – 64 S.; 8 * ''Über die Rotverschiebung der Spektrallinien'' with
Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a n ...
(1953) * ''Theoretische Bemerkungen zu Freundlichs Formel für die stellare Rotverschiebung'' (1953) * ''Cosmology'' (1971)


References


External links and resources

*
Klaus Hentschel Klaus Hentschel (born 4 April 1961) is a German physicist, historian of science and Professor and head of the History of Science and Technology section in the History Department of the University of Stuttgart. He is known for his contributions in ...

''The Einstein Tower An Intertexture of Dynamic Construction, Relativity Theory, and Astronomy''
Stanford University Press, Stanford 1997. * School of Mathematics and Statistics. "

'".
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Finlay-Freundlich, Erwin 1885 births 1964 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany 20th-century German astronomers Scientists from Wiesbaden People from Hesse-Nassau University of Göttingen alumni Charles University faculty Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz faculty Istanbul University faculty