Johannes Stark

German experimental physicist. Born to a Bavarian landowner. Became a lecturer at the Hannover Technical University in 1906, but clashed with his predecessor and moved to the Aachen Technical University as a professor in 1909. He wanted to become a professor at the University of Göttingen but was unable to do so. He went on to the University of Greifswald (1917) and then became a professor at the University of Würzburg in 1920, but again had disagreements with his colleagues and resigned after two years. He also failed in the porcelain business he started in his hometown, and was looking for work when he was assisted by Lenard, who attacked Jewish physics. After the Nazis took power, he became president of the National Physics and Engineering Society in 1933 and director of the German Research Foundation the following year in 1934. He was forced to resign from the latter position two years later and retired from the former position in 1939. While he played a key role at the forefront of new physics in the first half of his life, in the second he opposed quantum mechanics and general relativity, even attacking Heisenberg and others as "the white Jews of science" with the mind of Einstein.

In 1905, he observed the spectrum of light emitted from a particle beam (anode rays) of positive ions produced in a discharge tube by placing a spectroscope in both the direction of the particle beam and the opposite direction, and by comparing it with the characteristic spectrum emitted by a stationary particle, he discovered the Doppler effect of light. He also confirmed (1913) that spectral lines branch when atoms or molecules are placed in an electric field, using hydrogen anode rays as a light source. For these two discoveries, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919.

[Kanji Fujii]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ドイツの実験物理学者。バイエルンの地主の子として生まれる。1906年ハノーバー工科大学講師となったが、前任者と衝突して、1909年アーヘン工科大学へ教授として移る。ゲッティンゲン大学の教授を望むが果たせず、グライフスワルト大学（1917）を経て1920年ウュルツブルク大学教授になるが、ここでも同僚たちと折り合わず2年後に辞職した。故郷で始めた磁器業にも失敗し、職を求めていたとき援助してくれたのが、ユダヤ人の物理学を攻撃していたレーナルトであった。ナチスの権力奪取後、1933年国立物理工学協会会長に、翌1934年さらにドイツ研究財団団長に就任、後者は2年後に辞めさせられ、前者を1939年に引退した。前半生においては新しい物理学の最前線で役割を果たしながら、後半生では、量子力学や一般相対論に反対し、ハイゼンベルクたちを、アインシュタインの心をもつ「科学における白いユダヤ人」と攻撃さえした。

　1905年、放電管中で生じた陽イオンの粒子線（陽極線）から放射される光のスペクトルを、粒子線の方向とその反対方向に分光器を置いて観測し、静止した粒子から出されるそれに特有のスペクトルと比べ、光のドップラー効果を発見、また電場中に原子や分子を置くとスペクトル線が分岐することを、水素の陽極線を光源として確かめた（1913）。この二つの発見により1919年ノーベル物理学賞を受賞した。

［藤井寛治］

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