The MPP is part of the Max Planck Society and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute, after its first director in its current location.
The founding of the institute traces back to 1914, as an idea from Fritz Haber, Walther Nernst, Max Planck, Emil Warburg, Heinrich Rubens.
[1] In October 1922, Max von Laue succeeded Einstein as managing director.
In 1946, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Karl Wirtz joined the faculty as the directors for theoretical and experimental physics, respectively.
[citation needed] In 1955 the institute made the decision to move to Munich, and soon after began construction of its current building, designed by Sep Ruf.