Bense moves to Stuttgart College of Technology
After having studied Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy and Geology at the University of Bonn, Max Bense completed his Dr. phil. nat. thesis in 1937, entitled "Quantum Mechanics and the Relativity of Existence". After working as a physicist and mathematician, and serving a period of military service, he completed his post-doctoral thesis after the war at the University of Jena.
Yet he soon realised that the political climate in the East didn't provide him with the academic freedom he was looking for, and left the Soviet occupied zone, leaving his possessions behind and without a new job to go to in the West. Even at this early stage he provoked the regime in typical style in his last lecture, attacking the Soviet philosopher Alexandrov, which thus led to the first "Bense affair".
Like with Käte Hamburger seven years later, Fritz Martini was the driving force who recommended Bense to apply for a visiting professorship in Philosophy and Theory of Science in 1949. Bense was given the post, beating fellow applicants Pascual Jordan and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and was subsequently made Associate Professor on 1 October 1950 and Full Professor on 23 March 1963 of the newly founded Chair of Philosophy and Theory of Science at Stuttgart College of Technology.
|