Hans Ferdinand Mayer - Biography

Biography

Hans Ferdinand Mayer studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Karlsruhe and the University of Heidelberg. In 1920 he attained a doctorate "on the behaviour of molecules in relation to free slow electrons". His professor was the Nobel Prize winner Philipp Lenard. In 1922 he joined the Berlin laboratory of Siemens & Halske AG. From 1926 he co-operated with Karl Küpfmüller. Both scientists concerned themselves with possibilities of interference-free information transfer of long haul circuits, important in developing telecommunications. In 1936 Mayer became the Director of the Siemens Research Laboratory in Berlin.

In 1943 he was arrested for political reasons (listening to the BBC, and criticism of the Nazi regime), although the Nazis never knew of the existence of the Oslo Report. He was saved from execution by the intervention of his doctoral supervisor, Lenard, ironically an ardent Nazi supporter. He was first interned in Dachau, then in four other concentration camps until the end of the war. Johannes Plendl also played a role in his survival in the camps, by appointing Mayer to head a radio laboratory, even though Mayer had no experience in radio.

After World War II Mayer, along with other German scientists, went to the USA as part of Operation Paperclip. Initially he worked in the U.S. Air Force’s primary research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. In 1947 he moved on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1950 he returned to Germany, where he was head of the Siemens & Halske research department for communications technology in Munich until 1962.