Wolfgang Karl Ernst Finkelnburg (5 June 1905 – 7 November 1967)[1] was a German physicist who made contributions to spectroscopy, atomic physics, the structure of matter, and high-temperature arc discharges.
His vice-presidency of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft 1941-1945, was influential in that organization’s ability to assert its independence from National Socialist policies.
[2] In 1933 and 1934, Finkelnburg took a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and did postdoctoral research and studies on continuous spectra, with Robert Andrews Millikan at the California Institute of Technology.
During the period in which deutsche Physik was gaining prominence, a foremost concern of the great majority of scientists was to maintain autonomy against political encroachment.
[8] This was, in part, due to political organizations, such as the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB, National Socialist German University Lecturers League), whose district leaders had a decisive role in the acceptance of an Habilitationsschrift, which was a prerequisite to attaining the rank of Privatdozent necessary to becoming a university lecturer.
While at the university, he also worked for the Engineer Research and Development Laboratories, at nearby Fort Belvoir.