Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsPrimetime EmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalFall TV GuideMost Anticipated This MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayTrending peopleCelebrity news
    IMDb LabsHelp centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
    Some content may be auto-translated
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
    Some content may be auto-translated
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Biography
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Werner Heisenberg(1901-1976)

IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Werner Heisenberg
Heisenberg studied physics at the University of Munich from 1920 to 1923. There he also did his doctorate under Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld on the stability and turbulence of fluid flows. In between, in 1922 and 1923, he continued his physics studies at Göttingen University with the well-known physicist Max Born. From 1924 he became Max Born's assistant. In Göttingen, Heisenberg completed his habilitation as a professor of physics. From 1924 to 1926 he worked at the University of Copenhagen under the well-known Danish physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr. Between 1924 and 1927, Heisenberg, together with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, developed the theory of quantum mechanics. From 1927 to 1941 Werner Heisenberg taught as a professor of physics at the University of Leipzig.

During this time he headed the Theoretical-Physical Institute in Leipzig. In 1927 his work entitled "On the illustrative content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics" was published. In the same year, the physicist caused a sensation in the professional world with his "Heisenberg uncertainty theory". It states that it is physically impossible to determine the position and momentum of an electron with absolute accuracy at the same time. In 1928 his book entitled "The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory" was published. The following year he traveled to the USA, Japan and India to give lectures. In 1932, Werner Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his achievements in the field of quantum mechanics. A year later he was awarded the Max Planck Medal.

The National Socialists barred Heisenberg from teaching and research work at Munich University in 1936 because of his advocacy of the achievements of Albert Einstein and the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner. Heisenberg stayed in Leipzig and devoted himself to physics there. In the same year he married Elisabeth Schumacher. A total of seven children were born from this union. From 1941, the physicist became head of the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, which was later renamed the Max Planck Institute. In the same year he taught at the Physics Institute at the University of Berlin. From 1942 to 1945, Heisenberg headed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Dahlem and also taught as a professor at the University of Berlin, where he was involved in the Army Weapons Office's uranium project. From 1945 to 1946, Heisenberg was interned in England with other German nuclear physicists and scientists from the National Socialists' uranium project.

After the Second World War, Werner Heisenberg became director and professor of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen from 1946 to 1958. His research area included, among other things, atomic fission, which occurs due to cosmic radiation in space. In 1948 he accepted a visiting professorship in Cambridge, England. From 1949 to 1951, Heisenberg served as President of the German Research Council and the traditional Göttingen Academy of Sciences. In 1950 and 1954 he gave guest lectures in the USA. In 1952 Werner Heisenberg became vice-president of the "European Council for Nuclear Physics Research". From 1953 he worked on the "world formula" named after him in the field of field theory of elementary particles. The Heisenberg world formula, which has become popular, is to be understood as a unified theory of matter with which all basic laws of nature are to be understood. In 1953 Heisenberg became the first president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn-Bad Godesberg.

He held this position until 1975. The institution came into existence on December 10, 1953. In 1955 and 1956, Heisenberg was a visiting lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. In 1957, in the Göttingen "Declaration of the 18 Atomic Scientists," he publicly declared his opposition to equipping the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons. In the same year Heisenberg was awarded the "Pour de Mérite" medal. In 1958 he presented his "Uniform Theory of Elementary Particles," which became known as the world formula. From 1958 to 1970 he taught as a professor of physics at the University of Munich and at the same time headed the Max Planck Institute there. In 1964 he was awarded the Great German Cross of Merit with star and shoulder ribbon.

Werner Heisenberg died on February 1, 1976 in Munich.
BornDecember 5, 1901
DiedFebruary 1, 1976(74)
BornDecember 5, 1901
DiedFebruary 1, 1976(74)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank

Photos1

View Poster

Known for

Horizon (1964)
Horizon
8.5
TV Series
  • Self
Aus Forschung und Technik (1964)
Aus Forschung und Technik
5.0
TV Series
  • Self(as Prof. Werner Heisenberg)
Der Nobelpreis
TV Movie
  • Self
  • 1964
Storia della Bomba Atomica
TV Series
  • Self - Interviewee(as W. Heisenberg)
  • 1963

Credits

IMDbPro

Self



  • Horizon (1964)
    Horizon
    8.5
    TV Series
    • Self
    • 1965
  • Aus Forschung und Technik (1964)
    Aus Forschung und Technik
    5.0
    TV Series
    • Self (as Prof. Werner Heisenberg)
    • 1965
  • Der Nobelpreis
    TV Movie
    • Self
    • 1964
  • Storia della Bomba Atomica
    TV Series
    • Self - Interviewee (as W. Heisenberg)
    • 1963

Archive Footage



  • Morgenmagazin (1992)
    Morgenmagazin
    4.4
    TV Series
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2025
  • Albert Speer and Werner Heisenberg in Hitler's Engineers: Building the Third Reich (2023)
    Hitler's Engineers: Building the Third Reich
    6.8
    TV Mini Series
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2023
  • Impossible Peace (2017)
    Impossible Peace
    8.1
    TV Series
    • Self - Theoretical Physicist (archive footage)
    • 2017
  • Ancient Aliens (2009)
    Ancient Aliens
    7.0
    TV Series
    • Self - Physicist
    • Self (archive footage, archive footage)
    • 2010–2017
  • Geheimnisse der Weimarer Republik (2016)
    Geheimnisse der Weimarer Republik
    8.4
    TV Series
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2016
  • Werner Heisenberg (2011)
    Werner Heisenberg
    TV Mini Series
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2011
  • CERN, or The Factory for the Absolute
    8.4
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2010
  • Hitler's Miracle Weapons (2010)
    Hitler's Miracle Weapons
    5.9
    TV Movie
    • Self (archive footage, uncredited)
    • 2010
  • The Copenhagen Fallout
    8.4
    TV Movie
    • Self - German Physicist (archive footage)
    • 2005
  • Adolf Butenandt in Faust contre Méphisto (2001)
    Faust contre Méphisto
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 2001
  • Robin Williams in Biography of the Millennium: 100 People - 1000 Years (1999)
    Biography of the Millennium: 100 People - 1000 Years
    7.2
    TV Mini Series
    • Self - #65 (archive footage, 1999)
    • 1999
  • Secrets of War (1998)
    Secrets of War
    7.5
    TV Series
    • Self (archive footage, uncredited)
    • 1999
  • History's Mysteries (1998)
    History's Mysteries
    7.9
    TV Series
    • Self (archive footage)
    • 1998
  • Die Weimarer Republik
    TV Mini Series
    • Self (archive footage, uncredited)
    • 1968

Personal details

  • Alternative names
    • Prof. Werner Heisenberg
  • Born
    • December 5, 1901
    • Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
  • Died
    • February 1, 1976
    • Munich, Bavaria, Germany(kidney cancer)
  • Spouse
    • Elisabeth SchumacherApril 29, 1937 - February 1, 1976 (his death, 7 children)
  • Publicity listings
    • 4 Portrayals

Did you know

  • Trivia
    The real inspiration of Vince Gilligan for Walter White's codename in Breaking Bad (2008).
  • Quotes
    Not only is the World stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

You have no recently viewed pages
Get the IMDb app
Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
Follow IMDb on social
Get the IMDb app
For Android and iOS
Get the IMDb app
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • License IMDb Data
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2026 by IMDb.com, Inc.