Friedrich, Walter

Walter Friedrich ( German: Walter Friedrich ; December 25, 1883 , Saalbke - October 16, 1968 , Berlin ) - German and subsequently East German physicist, biophysicist, public figure.

Walter Friedrich
Chairman of the Peace Council of the GDR 1950 - 1969
Predecessor	Johannes Robert Becher Anna Zegers Arnold Zweig (co-chairs)
Successor	Gunther Drefal
Birth	Zalbke
Death
Education	University of Geneva University of Munich (1905-1911)
Academic rank	Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR
Awards
Scientific activity
Scientific field	physicist
Place of work

He was born in the family of an engineer who from childhood encouraged his son's interest in technical sciences and at the beginning of the 20th century presented him with an old X-ray machine. He graduated from the gymnasium in Aschersleben , where he did well in mathematics and physics, and also became interested in music, learning to play the violin, but did not show any penchant for languages ​​and history. In 1905 he entered the Geneva Academy to study music and physics, but soon interrupted his studies in music. In 1911, he received his doctorate in physics from the University of Munich , where he had studied for six years before, having moved there from Geneva, for his research on x-ray radiation. In 1912-1914 he worked at the University of Munich as an assistant to Max Laue , in 1914 he became a radiologist at the University Hospital in Freiburg; three years later he became a privat-docent of physics at the University of Freiburg , and in 1921 - a professor of physics, at the same time becoming interested in the application of physics in medicine. In 1922, he lectured in Spanish Granada as a visiting professor.

From 1923 he was a professor of medical physics at the University of Berlin and in the same year he simultaneously headed the Institute for Radiation Research at the University, which he headed until 1945; in 1929 he was appointed dean of the medical faculty of this university, a year before heading the German Radiological Society. During the period of National Socialism, he continued his scientific work at the university and various scientific societies and, according to some reports, helped his two Jewish colleagues to avoid deportation to labor camps. In 1949 he was elected rector of the university, holding this position until 1952. In 1948 he was appointed director, and in 1952 - president of the Institute of Biology and Medicine in the Buch district of Berlin, in 1961 he headed the Biomedical Research Center of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin. In 1949 he became an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, from 1951 to 1956 he was its president, then until 1958 - vice president. From 1950 to the end of his life he was president of the German Peace Council , from 1951 - vice-president of the World Peace Council , as well as a member of the German-Soviet Friendship Society . In 1950-1954, he also headed the Cultural Union at the People’s Chamber of the GDR , of which he was a deputy. He supported the policies of the GDR government, but remained non-partisan. Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1958).

Walter Friedrich is considered one of the pioneers in the field of radiation therapy and the actual founder of x- ray therapy. His scientific research was mainly devoted to X-ray spectroscopy and the application of the properties of X-rays in biology and medicine. In 1912, he, together with his teacher Max Laue and Paul Knipping discovered the phenomenon of x -ray diffraction by crystals, having received the first lauergrams.