Wilhelm Röntgen – Röntgen-Gedächtnisstätte Würzburg

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on 27 March 1845 in Remscheid-Lennep, Germany. His parents were the cloth merchant Friedrich Conrad Röntgen and his wife Charlotte, née Frowein. In 1849 the family moved to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, where he later attended various schools in Apeldoorn and Utrecht.

From 1865 to 1868 he studied at the Federal Polytechnic School (ETH) in Zurich, receiving his diploma as a mechanical engineer. With his inaugural dissertation Studies on Gases, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Zurich in 1868.

From 1870 to 1872 he was assistant to Professor August Kundt at the Physical Institute in Würzburg. In 1872 he followed Kundt to the newly founded Imperial University of Strasbourg, where he habilitated in 1874. In 1879 he accepted a call as full Professor of Physics at the University of Giessen, where he taught until 1888 and published around 20 scientific papers. In 1888 he was appointed Professor of Physics and Director of the Physical Institute at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg – where he would make his most famous discovery.

Life at a Glance

1845

Born on 27 March in Remscheid-Lennep, son of a cloth merchant

1865 – 1868

Studied mechanical engineering at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich (later ETH); PhD in Physics at the University of Zurich

1870 – 1872

Assistant to Prof. August Kundt at the Physical Institute, University of Würzburg

1872 – 1879

Lecturer and Associate Professor at the Imperial University of Strasbourg

1879 – 1888

Full Professor of Physics at the University of Giessen

1888

Appointed Professor of Physics and Director of the Physical Institute at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

8 Nov 1895 ★

Discovery of X-rays in the laboratory of the Physical Institute in Würzburg – one of the most significant discoveries in the history of science

23 Jan 1896

Public lecture at the Physical-Medical Society of Würzburg; anatomist Albert von Kölliker proposes naming the rays „Röntgen rays“

1900

Appointed Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

10 Dec 1901

First Nobel Prize in Physics – Röntgen donates the entire prize money to the University of Würzburg

1923

Died on 10 February in Munich, aged 77

The Discovery – 8 November 1895
Working late in his laboratory at the Physical Institute in Würzburg, Röntgen observed a previously unknown type of radiation that he called „X-rays.” It penetrated matter opaque to light – a revolutionary discovery with immediate applications in medicine.

X-ray of hands – the first ever X-ray images — First X-ray images: Left – the hand of Röntgen’s wife Bertha, December 1895; Right – anatomist Albert von Kölliker, January 1896

On 23 January 1896, Röntgen presented his discovery publicly for the first time at the Physical-Medical Society of Würzburg. During the lecture he X-rayed the hand of anatomist Albert von Kölliker, who was so impressed that he proposed the new rays be called Röntgen rays – a name met with enthusiastic applause.

In 1900 he moved to Munich as Professor of Physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University. On 10 December 1901 he received the first Nobel Prize in Physics. He donated the entire prize money of 50,000 crowns to the University of Würzburg to support scientific research.

Die Presse (Vienna), 5 January 1896 – first report on the discovery of X-rays

Nobel Prize certificate for Physics 1901 – first Nobel Prize in history

Röntgen refused to take out a patent on his discovery, believing it should benefit all of humanity. His scientific legacy comprises nearly 70 published works.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen as a student — Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (centre right) as a student in Zurich, c. 1866