Peter Andreas Grünberg (German: [ˈpeːtɐ ˈɡʁyːnbɛʁk] ⓘ; 18 May 1939 – 7 April 2018[1][2][3]) was a German physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his discovery with Albert Fert of giant magnetoresistance which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disk drives.

[4] Grünberg was born in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, which at the time was known as Pilsen in the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic) to the Sudeten German[5] family of Anna and Feodor A.

His father, a Russia-born engineer who since 1928 had worked for Škoda, died on 27 November 1945 in Czech imprisonment and is buried in a mass grave in Plzeň which is also inscribed with Grünberg Theodor † 27.

[10] His mother Anna (who died in 2002 aged 100)[11] had to work in agriculture and stayed with her parents in the Petermann[12] house in Untersekerschan[13] (Dolní Sekyřany), where her children (Peter's sister was born in 1937) were brought later.

[17] GMR was simultaneously and independently discovered by Albert Fert from the Université de Paris Sud.