Paul Ehrenfest

Abstract

On 25th September 1933, under tragic circumstances and to the dismay of his family and numerous friends and acquaintances, Paul Ehrenfest carried out his calamitous resolve to cast off the burden of a life grown too heavy for him to bear. It is now our task to hold in remembrance his scientific work and the picture of his personality unencumbered by those cares and feelings of inferiority which increasingly clouded his spirit in his later years. The picture is of a man of scintillating intellect and wit, intervening in discussions with mordant criticism, and at the same time with profound insight into the foundations of the scientific attitude, drawing attention to some essential point hitherto unnoticed or insufficiently regarded.

Einmal hat Ehrenfest einen Brief voller Bosheiten an Einstein geschrieben — es war über die Einstein-Bosestatistik, besonders über die kondensierte Phase’ — und Einstein schrieb dann zurück:“ Deine Witze sind großartig, Deine Argumente schwach!”

Letter from Pauli to Gunnar Källén, January 21, 1955

First published in Die Naturwissenschaften 21, 841 (1933).