Opening address at the physics conference in Würzburg [September 18, 1933]

Max von Laue

pp. 67-71

in: Klaus Hentschel (ed), Physics and national socialism, Basel, Birkhäuser, 1996

Abstract

When we come together tomorrow at the physics department of the local university, we will be standing at a historic site. At the end of 1895 in this building Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the rays that were named after him.[³] It would be superfluous, not to mention in bad taste, to discuss the importance to physics and the whole gamut of applications of these rays. But we would like to commemorate the great achievements of Röntgen, who was the first to see consciously that which many before him had narrowly missed, and elevate it from shady speculation to transparent and reliable scientific knowledge. We already know from Glasser's Röntgen biography that a genuine photographic X-ray exposure exists on the other side of the ocean dating from the year 1890, which was obviously only recognized for what it was following Röntgen's publications.[⁴]