Biography of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (born 28 June 1912 in Kiel; died 28 April 2007 in Starnberg) was a German physicist, philosopher and peace researcher. His life connected theoretical physics, philosophy of science, political counsel and the question of responsibility for research in the atomic age.

Physics and early recognition

Weizsäcker came from a prominent German family; his father Ernst von Weizsäcker was a diplomat, and his younger brother Richard later became Federal President of Germany. Carl Friedrich studied physics, astronomy and mathematics in Berlin, Göttingen and Leipzig, especially in Werner Heisenberg's circle. His work on nuclear physics and on the production of energy in stars brought him international attention as early as the 1930s.

Uranium project and responsibility

During National Socialism, Weizsäcker worked in the German uranium project. This phase remains historically burdened, because German physicists carried out nuclear research under wartime conditions and questions of intention, knowledge and responsibility are still debated. Weizsäcker's later peace work does not erase that past. It belongs to the field of tension in which his public reflections on guilt, insight and scientific responsibility are read.

Postwar years and Göttingen Declaration

After the war Weizsäcker worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen. In 1957 he was one of the eighteen nuclear scientists who signed the Göttingen Declaration against nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr. This step made him an important voice in West Germany's atomic debate. He spoke not only as a natural scientist, but as someone who wanted to discuss publicly the political consequences of scientific knowledge.

Philosophy and Starnberg

Weizsäcker increasingly turned toward the philosophy of science. In Hamburg he worked on the conceptual foundations of physics; later, in Starnberg, he led the Max Planck Institute for the Research of Living Conditions in the Scientific and Technical World together with Jürgen Habermas. There, nuclear war, environmental destruction, development policy and the consequences of modern technology moved to the centre. His work sought a connection between natural science, ethics and political practice.

Public impact

In 1963 Weizsäcker received the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. Other honours followed, including the Erasmus Prize, the Sigmund Freud Prize for scientific prose and the Templeton Prize. He wrote books on natural history, philosophy, religion, war and peace. His language was often demanding, but his central theme was clear: knowledge creates power, and power requires responsible limitation.

Farewell

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker died in Starnberg on 28 April 2007. He was 94 years old. His work as a researcher and thinker does not smooth over German postwar history, but touches precisely its most difficult questions: nuclear research, guilt, peace and the political responsibility of science.