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Time-line

1914 The Berlin professors Haber, Nernst, Planck, Rubens and Warburg submit an application to the Prussian State Government, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the Ludwig Koppel Foundation to establish a “Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics Research” in Berlin.
Oct. 1, 1917 The Kaiser Wilhelm Society establishes the Institute. Albert Einstein becomes Chair of the Board of Directors.
October 1922 Max von Laue takes over the management of the Institute as Deputy Director.
April 1933 Einstein resigns as Director.
1936 A building for the Institute is constructed in Berlin-Dahlem.
1937 Scientific work starts at the new Institute. P. Debye becomes Director, Max von Laue Deputy Director. H. Schüler and Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker come to the Institute.
1940 Debye takes leave of absence because the Institute is subordinated to the Army Ordnance Office for a war project (uranium research).
June 1942 Werner Heisenberg takes over the management of the Institute, which is returned to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.
1943 A protected laboratory for reactor experiments is built. Part of the Institute is relocated to Heching and Haigerloch and laboratories and workshops are set up in rented accommodation.
April/May 1945 American and Russian troops occupy the parts of the Institute in Heching and Berlin. Library and equipment are lost. The Directors and several Institute members are interned for eight months.
April - September 1946 The Institute is reestablished in Göttingen as the “Max Planck Institute for Physics” headed by Werner Heisenberg.
June 1946 Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker becomes departmental head for theoretical physics. Karl Wirtz for experimental physics.
July 1, 1947 A special Astrophysics Department is founded, incorporating the existing computing group of the Aerodynamic Research Institute, with Ludwig Biermann as its head.
June 1, 1950 Numerical Computing Machines research group established and headed by Heinz Billing.
1951 von Laue leaves the Institute and becomes Director of the Fritz Haber Institute.
Oct. 11, 1955 Institute relocation to Munich is settled by Senate resolution. A spacious new building is constructed there with the assistance of the Federal State of Bavaria.
Dec. 7, 1956 Topping-out ceremony for the main building of the new Institute in Munich.
Mar. 1, 1957 Karl Wirtz leaves the Institute and moves to Karlsruhe to the “Society for the construction and operation of a nuclear reactor”.
Jun. 30, 1957 Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker accepts the chair of philosophy in Hamburg, but remains a Scientific Member of the Institute.
Sep. 1, 1958 The Institute relocates from Göttingen to Munich and is renamed the “Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics”. Managing Director: Werner Heisenberg. Head of the Experimental Physics Department: Gerhard von Gierke. Director of the Institute for Astrophysics: Ludwig Biermann.
Jun. 28, 1960 Independent “Institute for Plasma Physics” in Garching founded as GmbH, under the scientific management of Heisenberg, Biermann, Fünfer, von Gierke, Schlüter, Schmitter and Wienecke.
December 1961 Klaus Gottstein appointed as Scientific Member and head of the Experimental Physics Department.
1962 Wilhelm Brening appointed as Scientific Member and head of the “Nuclear Theory” group: In 1970, appointed as Scientific Member to the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart.
May 1963 Hans-Peter Dürr appointed as Scientific Member and head of the Theoretical Physics Department.
1963 “Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics” founded and headed by Reimar Lüst.
Jul. 5 - 16, 1965 Symposium on Unified Theories of Elementary Particles in Feldafing.
Jan. 18 - 20, 1967 International Conference on Programming for Flying-Spot Devices. In conjunction with CERN.
1967 Ulrich Stierlin appointed as Scientific Member and head of the new Experimental Physics Department B.
December 1969 Norbert Schmitz appointed as Scientific Member and (together with Gottstein) head of the Experimental Physics Department A.
Jan. 5, 1970 Werner Heisenberg retires.
Dec. 1970 – Oct. 1971 Hans-Peter Dürr Acting Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
Oct. 1, 1971 Formation of a Board of Directors headed by Léon Van Hove (until September 1974).
June 1972 Gerd Buschhorn appointed as Scientific Member in the Experimental Physics Department A.
April 1973 Leo Stodolsky appointed as Scientific Member of the Theoretical Physics Department.
August 1974 Wolfhart Zimmermann appointed as Scientific Member in the Theoretical Physics Department.
Oct. 1, 1974 - Sep. 30, 1977 Norbert Schmitz Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
Mar. 5 - 7, 1975 Particle Physics Spring Conference of the German Physical Society in Munich, together with the LMU München.
Feb. 1, 1976 Werner Heisenberg dies in Munich at the age of 75.
Oct. 1, 1977 - Sep. 30, 1980 Hans-Peter Dürr Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics.
October 1979 Institute for Astrophysics relocates to Garching.
July 1980 “Gottstein Research Group” set up to work on issues which border on both science and politics.
Oct. 1, 1980 - Dec. 31, 1986 Gerd Buschhorn Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics, and from Jan. 1, 1984 to Dec. 31, 1986 Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics.
Sep. 5 - 16, 1983 Quarks, Leptons and Beyond, NATO Advanced Study Institute.
Jan. 1, 1987 - Dec. 31, 1992 Hans-Peter Dürr Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
March 12 - 13, 1987 Low Temperature Detectors for Neutrinos and Dark Matter workshop at Schloss Ringberg.
Aug. 4 - 10, 1988 XXIV International Conference on High Energy Physics together with the LMU and the TU Munich.
May 1990 Julius Wess appointed as Scientific Member of the Theoretical Physics Department.
1991 Golden Max Planck Medal of the German Physical Society awarded to Wolfhart Zimmermann.
March 1991 Friedrich Dydak appointed as Scientific Member in the Experimental Physics Department (merger of previous Departments A and B).
April 1991 Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics split into three Sub-Institutes: Physics, Astrophysics and Extraterrestrial Research.
1991 The Max Planck Institutes for Physics and for Extraterrestrial Physics set up a joint semiconductor laboratory in Pasing.
January 1992 Klaus Gottstein retires and his research group is wound up.
Jan. 10/11, 1992 Informational meeting on experiments at the "Large Hadron Collider” at CERN.
1992 Wigner Medal awarded to Julius Wess.
1992 Semiconductor laboratory (HLL) established as collaboration between the Max Planck Institutes for Physics and for Extraterrestrial Physics.
1993 Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics established.
1998 Dieter Lüst becomes an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
1999 Siegfried Bethke becomes Director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
2002 Wolfgang Hollik becomes Director at the Max Planck Institute in Munich.
2002 Allen Caldwell becomes a Member of the Board of Directors of the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
2003 First of the two MAGIC telescopes on La Palma/Canary Islands is inaugurated.
October 2003 Dieter Lüst becomes Director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
2003 Masahiro Teshima becomes Director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
2005 Dieter Lüst becomes the spokesperson of the Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics.
2006 Member of the “Origin and Structure of the Universe” Cluster of Excellence to promote cutting-edge research in Germany.
2006 Dieter Lüst becomes the spokesperson of the elite Master program Theoretical and Mathematical Physics at the LMU München.
2009 Georgi Dvali is appointed a Scientific Member.
2010 Georgi Dvali works at the Arnold Sommerfeld Center of LMU München and becomes Director at the MPI for Physics.
July 2012 Discovery of Higgs boson is announced.
November 2012 Funding for the Cluster of Excellence extended by a further five years.
January 2013 Siegfried Bethke becomes Managing Director of the MPG Semiconductor Laboratory in Munich-Neuperlach.
2013 Dieter Lüst becomes Head of the ERC Advanced Grant "Fundamental Aspects of Strings and Gravity".
2013 The semiconductor laboratory becomes a central institution of the Max Planck Society.
October 2017 The MPP celebrates its 100th anniversary.
2017 The MPP becomes a member institution of the Cluster of Excellence "ORIGINS".
2018 Johannes Henn is appointed as Scientific Member and heads the department "Quantum field theory".
2018 Giulia Zanderighi becomes the first female director of the MPP. She leads the department "Novel computational techniques in particle physics".
October 2022 Marumi Kado succeeds Siegfried Bethke as director of the department "Experimental High Energy Physics".
December 2022 Siegfried Bethke retires.
November 2023 Relocation to the new research building at the Garching Research Center
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