A Community of Atomic Physicists

"Young physicists from all over the world were studying [atomic physics] under Sommerfeld in Munich [in the early 1920s]. They even took their problems with them into the cafes.

This is a present-day cafe scene in the Hofgarten area of
Munich. (From Flickr: Maria Mia)

Marble-topped tables were covered with scribbled mathematical formulae. The waiters of the Cafe Lutz in the Hofgarten, regularly frequented by the Munich physicists, had strict instructions never to wipe the tables without special permission. For if a problem had not been solved by the time the cafe closed for the night, the further necessary calculations were carried out the following evening. It happened fairly often, moreover, that some unknown person would have the audacity to jot down the solution during the interval. Some young physicist would have been to too impatient to wait until the next meeting." (9) --Robert Jungk, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists