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Flucht aus Leipzig
"In the 1960s, Leipzig was the center of resistance in East Germany. Harald Fritzsch, then a physics student, contemplated escape. But before he left, he wanted to demonstrate to the government that they had gone too far when they destroyed St. Paul's Church in May 1968. He accomplished that by unrolling a protest transparency in spectacular fashion. Despite the great efforts of the secret police, the STASI, the government was unable to find out who was responsible for this act. Soon after, together with a friend, Fritzsch began his journey to Bulgaria in order to escape into Turkey by traversing the Black Sea in a folding canoe. This was a daredevil endeavor, never done before." In this book, Harald Fritzsch - now a world-renowned physicist - portrays in detail an authentic picture of the East German regime and the events of the late 1960s. Today, 40 years later, he critically takes stock of the events since German reunification.
- GenresNonfiction
153 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
About the author
Harald Fritzsch
44 books6 followersGerman theoretical physicist known for his contributions to the theory of quarks, the development of Quantum Chromodynamics and the great unification of the standard model of particle physics.
After completing his education in Zwickau 1961, he became Soldier of the Nationale Volksarmee of the GDR. He studied Physics in Leipzig from 1963 to 1968. After fleeing to West Germany, he continued his studies in Munich where he finished his Ph.D. under the supervision of Heinrich Mitter.
In 1970 Fritzsch visited the Aspen Center of Physics, where he met Murray Gell-Mann. They started a collaboration, first in Aspen, later at the California Institute of Technology. In 1971 they introduced the concept of the colour charge quantum number which allowed them in collaboration with William A. Bardeen to explain the decay rate of pions. In the fall of 1971 Fritzsch and Gell-Mann moved to Geneva in Switzerland, where they worked together at CERN. They proposed a gauge theory for the strong interaction, which now is called Quantumchromodynamics. In September 1972 they moved back to Caltech. In 1975 Fritzsch published a paper together with Peter Minkowski in which they proposed the symmetry group SO as the symmetry of the grand unified theory which has become a standard theory. In 1976 Fritzsch moved to CERN. After working for one year at the University of Wuppertal and the University of Bern, Fritzsch became professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1980.
Fritzsch worked also on "composite models" of leptons and quarks, mass matrices of quarks and leptons, weak decays of heavy quarks, cosmology and the fundamental constants of physics. He retired in 2008.
After completing his education in Zwickau 1961, he became Soldier of the Nationale Volksarmee of the GDR. He studied Physics in Leipzig from 1963 to 1968. After fleeing to West Germany, he continued his studies in Munich where he finished his Ph.D. under the supervision of Heinrich Mitter.
In 1970 Fritzsch visited the Aspen Center of Physics, where he met Murray Gell-Mann. They started a collaboration, first in Aspen, later at the California Institute of Technology. In 1971 they introduced the concept of the colour charge quantum number which allowed them in collaboration with William A. Bardeen to explain the decay rate of pions. In the fall of 1971 Fritzsch and Gell-Mann moved to Geneva in Switzerland, where they worked together at CERN. They proposed a gauge theory for the strong interaction, which now is called Quantumchromodynamics. In September 1972 they moved back to Caltech. In 1975 Fritzsch published a paper together with Peter Minkowski in which they proposed the symmetry group SO as the symmetry of the grand unified theory which has become a standard theory. In 1976 Fritzsch moved to CERN. After working for one year at the University of Wuppertal and the University of Bern, Fritzsch became professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1980.
Fritzsch worked also on "composite models" of leptons and quarks, mass matrices of quarks and leptons, weak decays of heavy quarks, cosmology and the fundamental constants of physics. He retired in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 29, 2014
This thin book is a simple biography of Harald Fritzsch. I met him in NTU, Singapore for 80's Birthday of Murray Gell-Mann. I knew the book, but did not read it before. If you are a student of sciences even any major, maybe some points, specially political history of those days, (60's to 80's) in Germany, can help you to scope you society, especially people who live is semi or totally dictatorship.
In my point of view if you would like to know Prof. Frizsch this book can help you. he is one of the leaders or QCD at that time, and we know that in high energy physics, QCD is dominant, by QCD and also Parton model, introduced by R.P.Feynman which discussed and probably never accepted the Quark model, by Gell-Mann.
Prof. Frizsch also have another proposal about mixing! quarks and leptons can be in the same generation and mix together as 1/2 spin particles, which means a lot in some cases. Personally i suggest friends who study particle physics and interested in quantum world to read this book. It is not something like Feynman adventures, and he is not someone like Feynman, but he is great man, and part of a Physics history by his contributions in QCD. Besides this book does not take time.
In my point of view if you would like to know Prof. Frizsch this book can help you. he is one of the leaders or QCD at that time, and we know that in high energy physics, QCD is dominant, by QCD and also Parton model, introduced by R.P.Feynman which discussed and probably never accepted the Quark model, by Gell-Mann.
Prof. Frizsch also have another proposal about mixing! quarks and leptons can be in the same generation and mix together as 1/2 spin particles, which means a lot in some cases. Personally i suggest friends who study particle physics and interested in quantum world to read this book. It is not something like Feynman adventures, and he is not someone like Feynman, but he is great man, and part of a Physics history by his contributions in QCD. Besides this book does not take time.
September 16, 2013
This was an easy read. I quite liked it for its succinct manner of detailing an escape from East Germany in 1968. I'd recommend it if you enjoy real-life accounts of what it was like during the Cold War.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews