Physics in West Germany

IN WEST GERMANY the training of physicists is influenced by the organization of the school system with its scheme of intensive academic training for a small number of students and by the high social esteem for humanistic and literary culture, which the schools both reflect and enforce. When he comes to take employment, the German physicist faces a choice among industrial laboratories, government service, university research institutes and the institutes of the Max Planck Society. If he chooses either of the last two alternatives (and possibly also some of the others), he will find himself in an environment where small research groups operate under the very strong influence of a dominant senior personality whose interests usually determine the direction of research. Advancement comes mainly by succession to a professorial chair or the directorship of a research institute of one’s own.

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