Formation of Theoretical Chemistry Groups

Most experimental chemists in Germany in those times did not believe that quantum theory beyond the simple Hiickel model had any use for chemistry in the foreseeable future. So quantum chemistry had to get its main support from the more optimistic international community. Per-Olov Low-din s summer schools held in Uppsala (Sweden) were instrumental in getting young researchers interested in quantum molecular science. Since these schools 

together with four other Germans, all of whom later became professors of physical or theoretical chemistry at German universities. Raphael Levine (Jerusalem) was one of the most eager students in my class. 

Nevertheless, progress was very slow. Preul had moved to the Max Planck Institute (MPI) at Miinchen in 1959 after his stay with Lowdin in Sweden and started to build up a group in quantum chemistry—for which he had Heisenberg s support. In Gerd Diercksen, he found an excellent student, and, in the MPI staff, competent help in carrying out computations. Furthermore, the MPI was able to purchase a computer in the first half of the 1960s, so that this group did not have to rely solely on the DRZ in Darmstadt. 

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