Abstract.
David Hilbert (1862-1943) played an important role in establishing quantum physics in Göttingen. I analyze the ways in which his influence was decisive by comparison with Woldemar Voigt (1850-1919). Voigt was the leading Göttingen theoretical physicist before the arrival of Peter Debye (1884-1966), who was appointed to a new professorship in 1914 at Hilbert's instigation. I portray the Göttingen mathematicians, above all Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909) and David Hilbert, as planting the seeds for the blossoming of quantum physics under their student Max Born (1882-1970) in the 1920s.
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ID="*"Arne Schirrmacher received his Ph.D. degree in mathematical physics in 1994 at the University of Munich. He has worked on the history of modern physics and mathematics at the Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and the Hilbert Edition Project at the University of Göttingen. He is currently a member of the Munich Center for the History of Science and Technology at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
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Schirrmacher, A. Planting in his Neighbor's Garden: David Hilbert and Early Göttingen Quantum Physics. Phys. perspect. 5, 4–20 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s000160300001
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s000160300001