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Thursday, July 30, 2009

??!! The Plancks

Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 11:52 AM

While reading Wikipedia's account of the life and work of Max Planck, a German physicist and founder of quantum theory, I came across this curious piece of information: 1380/1248979472-planck.jpg

In March 1887 Planck married Marie Merck (1861-1909), sister of a school fellow, and moved with her into a sublet apartment in Kiel. They had four children: Karl (1888-1916), the twins Emma (1889-1919) and Grete (1889-1917), and Erwin (1893-1945)...

...During the First World War Planck's second son Erwin was taken prisoner by the French in 1914, while his oldest son Karl was killed in action at Verdun. Grete died in 1917 while giving birth to her first child. Her sister died the same way two years later, after having married Grete's widower. Both granddaughters survived and were named after their mothers. Planck endured these losses stoically.

The same husband; the identical sisters; their identical deaths; their identical daughters. Planck must have hated his son-in-law. The man was nothing but bad luck to the Plancks.

Comments (10) RSS

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"I'm my own grandpaw!"

Seriously, I can't figure out what's what here. Who is "Grete"? Planck's daughter?

Posted by Fnarf

on July 30, 2009 at 11:53 AM

In the past women often married their dead sister's widower, you know, to keep it in the family. Etc.
I don't remember what cultures have done this, and for how long, and when it started, but I remember learning that somewhere along the way.

Posted by triceritemple on July 30, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Well -- one must expect Plancks to be constant.

Posted by PC on July 30, 2009 at 12:14 PM

Yeah, marrying your sibling's widow/widower wasn't terribly unusual, but it does take it to another level that Grete and Emma were twins, and that they married the same man, and then died in the same way. That's pretty interesting and cool (in a morbid sort of way, I guess).

Posted by Julie in Eugene on July 30, 2009 at 12:34 PM

@3 Thank you for that.

Posted by Ackham on July 30, 2009 at 12:54 PM

I do believe I'd rather spill my seed on the ground.

Posted by rob!

on July 30, 2009 at 12:58 PM

I found a picture of the widower. It might explain the birthing deaths.

Posted by Mahtli69 on July 30, 2009 at 1:01 PM

I think they were twins, not identical twins.

Posted by Tim Appelo, City Arts Magazine on July 30, 2009 at 1:29 PM

Wait let me draw this out, okay, yeah I got it. Ha, that's a good one.

Posted by sall on July 30, 2009 at 1:33 PM

Yeah, it used to be common back in the day for the sister of the dead wife to marry the widower. It was so that the children had a step-mother that wouldn't neglect and abuse them. Happened a lot in the prairie states, I think.

Posted by yucca flower on July 30, 2009 at 5:34 PM