After hearing lectures by Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Becker turned his professional interest to physics.

[1][2][3] During World War I, Becker worked in German industrial organizations, including the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie and the lighting manufacturer Osram.

[2][3][6] In 1935 Sommerfeld, the theoretician who helped to usher in quantum mechanics and educated a new generation of physicists to carry on with the revolution, reached the age for which he could achieve emeritus status.

However, academic supporters of Deutsche Physik and elements in the Reichserziehungsministerium (Acronym: REM, and translation: Reich Education Ministry) had their own list of candidates and the battle commenced.

[7] Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany on 30 January 1933 and Max Born had taken leave as director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Georg-August University of Göttingen on 1 July of that year and emigrated to England.