Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Dürr in an interview at his workplace at the Max Planck Institute in Munich in the summer of 1997.

00:00 Intro
00:14 Quantum physics as holistic physics
03:14 The big bang as the beginning of the world?
04:14 How do the laws of nature actually work?
10:04 The question of the origin of life
14:33 Evolution according to a fixed plan?
20:09 Spirit can become matter
22:30 The fishing net as an image for the procedure of science
28:43 Matter can no longer become spirit
31:53 As spiritual beings we do not actually disappear

Playlist of the individual interview parts:    • Hans-Peter Dürr  

© Martin Gertler

Animations: Cordula Hesselbarth

Hans-Peter Dürr (born October 7, 1929 in Stuttgart) was a physicist. Until the fall of 1997, he was director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute) in Munich.

Dürr received his doctorate in 1956 under Edward Teller and from 1958 to 1976 was a collaborator of Werner Heisenberg, who exerted a great influence on him. He was his closest collaborator on Heisenberg's project of trying to establish a unified field theory of elementary particles. In 1969 he habilitated at the University of Munich as a researcher in nuclear physics, elementary particle physics and gravitation. He then became first an associate professor at the University of Munich, and in 1978 succeeded Werner Heisenberg as executive director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Werner Heisenberg Institute for Physics. He held this position until 1980 and again from 1987 to 1992. Later on, he increasingly devoted himself to related peripheral topics of his actual core areas of expertise, including epistemological and socio-political issues.

In 1987, he founded the Global Challenges Network initiative in Starnberg, an organization that weaves a network of projects and groups that work constructively and together "to address the problems that threaten us and thus our natural environment." That same year, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award "in recognition of his informed critique of the Strategic Defense Initiative and his work to harness advanced technologies for peaceful purposes."

In addition, the anti-science and anti-research international group Pugwash, of which he is a member, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

He was a member of the Club of Rome and a member of the Honorary Board of Trustees of the International Munich Peace Conference.

In 2004, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2005, Dürr co-authored the Potsdam Memorandum and Manifesto with Daniel Dahm and Rudolf zur Lippe, which was signed by a large number of scientists from around the world, including over 20 recipients of the Right Livelihood Award.

In 2007, the Munich City Council decided to bestow honorary citizenship on Hans-Peter Dürr -- in recognition of his great services to the city of Munich. In addition, at the request of Jakob von Uexküll, he joined the World Future Council as a council member in spring 2007.

Hans-Peter Dürr died on May 18, 2014.