Marie Merck
(1861-1909)
BIRTH
1861
PLACE
Munich, Germany
NAME
Maria Eugenia Merck
DEATH
October 17, 1909
PLACE
Berlin, Germany
FAMILY
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
NOT YET RESEARCHED
NOT YET RESEARCHED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Marie Merck (1861–1909) was the first wife of the physicist Max Planck. They married in 1887 while he taught in Kiel, then moved to Berlin as his university career developed. Their children were Karl, Erwin and the twins Emma and Grete. The Max Planck Society records her family role and death in 1909, before Planck’s later losses. Much less is documented about her own activities; a diagnosis of tuberculosis should remain qualified rather than asserted.
EARLY LIFE
Marie Merck was born in Munich in 1861, the daughter of Heinrich Merck, a Munich banker. Planck, who grew up in Munich, knew her family through a school friend, her brother. In 1887, after Planck became professor of physics at the University of Kiel, they married. In 1889 the couple moved to Berlin, where Planck succeeded Gustav Kirchhoff at the university.
Marie and Planck had four children: Karl, the twins Emma and Grete, and Erwin. Their home in the Grunewald district of Berlin became a center of musical and social life for the city's scientists.
She suffered a long illness, probably tuberculosis, in her later years. She died in Berlin on October 17, 1909.
She did not live to see the family's later tragedies: Karl was killed at Verdun in 1916, both twins died in childbirth, and Erwin was executed in 1945 for his part in the plot against Hitler.
CAREER
DEATH
Marie Merck was the first wife of the physicist Max Planck. Their children were Karl, Erwin and the twins Emma and Grete. Much less is documented about her own activities; a diagnosis of tuberculosis should remain qualified rather than asserted. The Max Planck Society records her family role and death in 1909, before Planck’s later losses. Marie and Planck had four children: Karl, the twins Emma and Grete, and Erwin. Their home in the Grunewald district of Berlin became a center of musical and social life for the city's scientists. She suffered a long illness, probably tuberculosis, in her later years. She died in Berlin on October 17, 1909. She did not live to see the family's later tragedies: Karl was killed at Verdun in 1916, both twins died in childbirth, and Erwin was executed in 1945 for his part in the plot against Hitler. The main event and its setting are better documented than the precise final moments. Exact last words and private exchanges are not consistently preserved, so those details remain uncertain.
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