Walther was the son of Albrecht Kossel who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1910.

[2] In 1916, Kossel put forth his theory of the ionic chemical bond (octet rule), also independently advanced in the same year by Gilbert N.

[5] The edge appears at a critical frequency where absorption of the radiation largely begins with the resultant ejection of photoelectrons.

[1]: 461  During his tenure there in 1934, he discovered x-ray lattice interference of spherical waves in crystals during the bombardment of single-crystal copper with a high-energy electron beam.

[10][11] In 1933 he signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.