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Touring exhibition on Hermann von Helmholtz

13.06.1997

This year it is 50 years since the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) was established in Braunschweig. On this occasion, a series of events will be held from July 3 to 5, 1997.

On July 3, 1997, the series of events will begin with the opening of the touring exhibition "Hermann von Helmholtz - classic at the turn of the epochs" at the Braunschweiger Landesmuseum, Burgplatz 1, 38100 Braunschweig.

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) was one of the most important natural scientists of his age. As a physician and a physiologist, as a physicist and mathematician, as a teacher and as as organizer of science, he made decisive contributions to the fundamentals of our conception of the scientific and technical world. Still today, he is considered to be the founder of modern physics as regards experiment, theory and high-technology applications. After having held chairs for anatomy and pathology in Königsberg and Bonn, for physiology in Heidelberg and for physics in Berlin, in the last decade of his life, he founded the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR), the predecessor of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. As its first president, he headed this institute from 1887 to his death in 1894.

The exhibition deals with the life and work of the universal scholar Hermann von Helmholtz. It shows the many facets of a long and successful researcher's life, which will still fascinate the visitor more than a century later.

The exhibition is organized by the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, the Deutsches Museum Bonn and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. On the occasion of the 175th anniversary of Hermann von Helmholtz, it was already presented at the Deutsches Museum Bonn from November 14, 1996, to January 12th, 1997. Its second station is Braunschweig where it will be shown at the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum until August 24.

For the presentation in Braunschweig, the exhibition was extended by some plaques to inform about the preparatory work for the foundation of the PTR, to which Hermann von Helmholtz made decisive contributions, and about the development from the PTR to the PTB.