Harald Fritzsch (10 February 1943 in Zwickau, Germany – 16 August 2022 in München) was a German theoretical physicist known for his contributions to the theory of quarks, the development of Quantum Chromodynamics and the grand unification of the standard model of particle physics.

[2] After fleeing to West Germany, Fritzsch continued his studies in Munich where he finished his Ph.D. under the supervision of Heinrich Mitter.

In 1970 Fritzsch visited the Aspen Center for Physics, where he met Murray Gell-Mann.

In 1971 they introduced the concept of the colour charge quantum number which allowed them in collaboration with William A. Bardeen to explain the decay rate of pions.

They proposed a gauge theory for the strong interaction, which now is called Quantum Chromodynamics.