Max Planck reads The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
Source recording: About 105 minutes across 10 items, 1936-1945; earliest dated occasion 23 Apr 1938, the 80th-birthday Festsitzung of the KWG, Berlin-Dahlem. All German-language. Held by: Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (Frankfurt) and Archiv der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Berlin-Dahlem); commercially issued on 2 CDs by supposé (Cologne) in 2003… Copyright: still under copyright or held under archive terms — see Voice Rights.
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature because we ourselves are a part of the mystery.”
About this work
The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory is a public-domain work, here read aloud in Max Planck's own restored voice.
Who was Max Planck?
Max Planck (1858–1947) reluctantly launched the quantum revolution in 1900, proposing that energy is exchanged in discrete packets — a hypothesis he spent years hoping to explain away. Nobel laureate in 1918 and the elder statesman of German physics, he lived to see the theory he doubted rebuild the foundations of his science.
About the voice
Reconstructed from Max Planck's own surviving archival recordings. It is a respectful restoration — not a claim that Max Planck is speaking today.
Provenance: Restored from real recordings. We label every voice honestly — restored, narrated, or disputed.
Questions
What did Max Planck sound like?
Press play above to hear Max Planck's voice, restored from surviving archival recordings, reading The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory.
Is The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory in the public domain?
Yes. The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory is in the public domain; what Iconic Voices adds is AI narration and curation.
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