9 August 2009

Polyteknisk Læreanstalt, Sølvtorvet, Sølvgade 83

 
Polyteknisk Læreanstalt, 1900. Courtesy of the Niels Bohr Archive.

These buildings date to 1890, with the physics wing on the left and the chemistry wing on the right.

In the courtyard there is a statue of the Læreanstalt's founder, Hans Christian Ørsted, by H. W. Bissen (1880), which was moved here from Studiestræde in 1890.

The Læreanstalt, which is now called the Technical University of Denmark, is presently at Lundtofte, north of Copenhagen, whereas the buildings in Sølvgade have become the home of the Institute of Microbiology of the University of Copenhagen.

This is where Niels Bohr spent most of his time as a university student, and his first appointment as assistant lecturer from 1912 to 1914 was based here. When he was named professor of theoretical physics in 1916, this became his place of work for four years. He had one small room of about 15 square meters at his disposal, which he shared with H. A. Kramers (1894-1952), his assistant who arrived from Holland in 1916 and stayed until 1926. This room is on the top floor of the south wing, facing the Botanical Gardens, and is now part of the Department for Biological Chemistry.

Technical University of Denmark: http://www.dtu.dk/

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