Mathwar/Personlist/Reichenbach Hans
Hans Reichenbach
(* September 26th 1891 in Hamburg, † April 9th 1953 in Los Angeles)
Reichenbach is best known for founding the Berlin Circle, and as the author of The Rise of Scientific Philosophy.
Life
After completing his doctorate he served for 30 months in the Signal Corps of the German army, which by this time was heavily engaged in fighting on several different fronts during World War I. He was sent to the Russian front where he contracted a severe illness. He was sent back to Berlin where by 1917 he was one of only five people who attended Einstein's first course on relativity. The topic intrigued Reichenbach and he launched himself into undertaking research on its philosophical aspects. Research, however, was only a part-time job for Reichenbach at this time for he was employed full-time in the radio industry.
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Reichenbach realised immediately that he would be in trouble. Not only did he have Jewish grandparents, but he had a high profile through his radio broadcasts and his views were completely at odds with those of National Socialism. Letters of dismissal, both from his professorship at the University of Berlin and from his position with the state radio, arrived too late to have any effect for, anticipating them, and had left for Turkey before they arrived. He became head of the Department of Philosophy at the University at Istanbul and served in that role from 1933 to 1938. In many ways Reichenbach was isolated in his new position, certainly the contrast with Berlin where he had been the centre of a flourishing school must have been striking. However he was very active in giving the Department of Philosophy in Istanbul a much broader outlook, introducing interdisciplinary seminars and lecture courses on scientific topics.