Max Planck Institute for Physics

A physics institute in Munich, Germany which specialises in High Energy Physics and Astrophysics. It is part of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute, after its first director.

It was founded as Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics 1917 in Berlin. Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber, Walther Nernst, Max Planck and Peter Debye were directors of the institute. The Second World War made it necessary to move the institute, first to Göttingen and then, as Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics, 1958 to Munich. In 1991 the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics was split into the Max Planck Institute for Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.