Anton Pannekoek | |
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 Pannekoek ca. late 1950s | |
| Born | Antonie Pannekoek (1873-01-02)2 January 1873 Vaassen, Netherlands |
| Died | 28 April 1960(1960-04-28) (aged 87) Wageningen, Netherlands |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
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| Doctoral advisor | H. G. van de Sande Bakhuyzen |
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Antonie "Anton"Pannekoek (Dutch:[ˈɑntɔnˈpɑnəkuk]; 2 January 1873 – 28 April 1960) was a Dutchastronomer,historian,philosopher,Marxist theorist, and socialist revolutionary. He was one of the main theorists ofcouncil communism (Dutch:radencommunisme).
Anton was born 2 January 1873 inVaassen. His father managed a small metalfoundry and his mother was amidwife. He had two sisters and a brother. His elder brother, Adolf, attended theHogere Burgerschool,Apeldoorn. At the age of 12 Anton borrowed a textbooks from his brother and studied the constellationGemini, where he noticed an extra point of light. Upon reflection he realised this was the planetSaturn. He soon followed his brother in attending the same school, where he showed a strong scientific aptitude, particularly in biology and astronomy.[1]
Pannekoek studiedmathematics andphysics inLeiden from 1891. Even before he went to college he was interested inastronomy and studied the Milky Way and variability ofPolaris. He published his first article,On the Necessity of Further Researches on the Milky Way, as a student. He briefly worked as ageodesist before he returned to theLeiden Observatory (Leidse Sterrewacht) to work as an observer and write his thesis on the variability of Algol.[2]
After readingEdward Bellamy'sEquality, Pannekoek became a convincedsocialist and started studying the philosophies ofKarl Marx andJoseph Dietzgen. Soon Pannekoek became a well-knownMarxist writer, writing for both Dutch and German socialist magazines, likeDie Neue Zeit. His astronomical and socialist careers first clashed when he was reprimanded for leading a strike support committee and was treated with dismissal from his job at the observatory by the Dutch government.[3] Around the same time, he was growing dissatisfied with the stale atmosphere and outdated methodologies at the Leiden Observatory.[4] Pannekoek was offered the option to become a lecturer inhistorical materialism at the school funded by theSocial Democratic Party of Germany. He soon ran into trouble with the German authorities, who threatened him with expulsion if he continued teaching.[5] He remained in Berlin, however, where he kept writing for journals and newspapers. In 1910, he moved to Bremen where he soon became one of the prominent proponents of the radical Bremen Left.[6]
Pannekoek was on holiday in the Netherlands when theFirst World War broke out. Prevented from returning to Germany, he started work as acosmography and science teacher for secondary schools and aprivaatdocent inhistory of astronomy at Leiden University.[7] ThoughWillem de Sitter wanted to hire him as assistant director at the Leiden Observatory in 1918, the appointment was prevented by the Dutch government because of his outspoken Marxist sympathies.[8] Instead, theAmsterdam city council appointed him at theUniversity of Amsterdam in 1918 as a lecturer. In 1921, he founded the astronomical institute there; in 1925, he was appointed asextraordinary professor; and in 1932 as full professor.[9]
Pannekoek began systematically observing the night sky and recording these observations while he was still in secondary school. Some of his observations ofvariable stars later found their way into his scientific publications. In the winter of 1889–1890, he recorded the variability ofPolaris, which had been suspected before but was not confirmed until 1908 byEjnar Hertzsprung.[10] He also tracked the variability ofAlgol, which formed the foundation for his PhD thesis.[11]
Another early interest of Pannekoek was theappearance of the Milky Way. In 1898, Pannekoek published a series of articles in which he articulated how he thought the Milky Way should be observed. Here, he explained that minor details should be tracked through verbal descriptions, while the general distribution of light should be tracked toisophotic lines. Pannekoek published his own observations of the northern Milky Way in 1920 in the form of drawings, isophotic diagrams, and verbal descriptions. He also combined his observations with the independent observations ofCornelis Easton,Otto Boeddicker, andJulius Schmidt to create a composite image of the Milky Way, which he called the "mean subjective image". A few years later, he also published his observations of the southern Milky Way, which he made during an eclipse expedition to theDutch Indies in 1926.[12] He also developed a photographic method to represent the light distribution of the Milky Way. To capture the clouds that formed the Milky Way, Pannekoek deliberately recorded photographic plates out of focus, which caused the light of stars to spread into disks, allowing their light to overlap. These plates were then measured and combined into tables showing the surface brightness of the Milky Way.[13]
Pannekoek's research on the appearance of the Milky Way was closely connected to his research on the structure of thegalaxy. In this research, he adapted the statistical methods ofJacobus Kapteyn to investigate individual clusters in the galaxy. His most important results were the measurement of the distance to the star clusters responsible for the Milky Way clouds inCygnus andAquila. He determined that these were located at a distance of 40000-60000parsec from the sun. This was much more distant than was commonly assumed to be the diameter of the entire galactic system. This result provided early evidence forHarlow Shapley's expanded galaxy.[14]
The final decades of his professional career Pannekoek mostly spent on researching theastrophysics ofstellar atmospheres. In his theoretical research, Pannekoek explored ways to expand uponMeghnad Saha's ionization formula to better understand the physical conditions in the outer layer of stars. One of his main conclusions was that the narrow spectral lines in c-type stars, as found byAntonia Maury, were most likely caused by lower pressure in the stellar atmospheres.[15] In the 1930s, he developed theoretical models for the atmospheres in order to reproduce the entire spectrum of a star, but failed to produce a model that was entirely satisfactory. In 1935,Rupert Wildt showed that this was because Pannekoek had underestimated the impact of theH− ion as a source of optical opacity.[16]
In observational astrophysics, Pannekoek produced the curve of growth forDeneb in 1931, the first for a star other than the sun.[17] He and his students also published comprehensive catalogues of the spectral lines in late type stars based on photographic plates taken by Pannekoek at theDominion Astrophysical Observatory in 1929.[18] Because of these studies, he is considered to be the founder ofastrophysics as a separate discipline in the Netherlands.[19]
Pannekoek was also part of scientific expeditions to observesolar eclipses inSumatra andLapland.[20] He was also interested in thehistory of astronomy and his book,A History of Astronomy, is considered a standard reference on the subject.[21]
Pannekoek became member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1925.[22] His work in galactic structure, astrophysics and the history of astronomy was of international renown and won him an honorary degree fromHarvard University in 1936, as well as theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1951.[23] The craterPannekoek on the Moon and the asteroid2378 Pannekoek are named after him. TheAnton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy at theUniversity of Amsterdam, which he founded, was named after him in 1982.[24]
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A recognized Marxist theorist, Pannekoek was one of the founders ofcouncil communism and a main figure in theradical left in theNetherlands andGermany. He was active in theSocial Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands),Social Democratic Party of Germany,Communist Party of the Netherlands, theCommunist Workers' Party of the Netherlands and theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany.[25]
Pannekoek was best known for his writing onworkers' councils. He regarded these as a new form of organisation capable of overcoming the limitations of the old institutions of the labour movement, thetrade unions andsocial democratic parties. Basing his theory on what he regarded as the practical lessons of the 1917Russian Revolution, Pannekoek argued that the workers' revolution and the transition fromcapitalism tocommunism had to be achieved by the workers themselves, democratically organised in workers' councils.[26]
Pannekoek was a sharp critic ofanarchism, social democracy, andVladimir Lenin andLeninism. During the early years of the Russian revolution, Pannekoek gave critical support to theBolsheviks, a position shared by fellow council communistHerman Gorter. He expressed misgivings about the authoritarian tendencies of Leninism, fearing for the socialist character of the Russian Revolution unless it should find a rectifying support in a proletarian revolution in the West. His later analysis of the failure of the Russian revolution was that after Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power, they crippled thesoviets. Instead of workers' councils, the Bolsheviks had instituted the rule of their party, which in Pannekoek's view is what led to the institution of the Bolsheviks as a new ruling class.[27] He put his views forward in his 1938 bookLenin als Philosoph, originally published in German under thepseudonym J. Harper. It was translated into English in 1948 asLenin as philosopher - a critical examination of the philosophical basis of Leninism.
In apamphlet Pannekoek strongly attacked and rebutted the arguments ofSocial Darwinists such asHerbert Spencer, whom Pannekoek dubbed "Bourgeois Darwinists".
On the basis ofDarwin's own writings—in particular onThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871)—Pannekoek stated:
Their claim [of the Bourgeois Darwinists] is that the extermination of the weak is natural and that it is necessary in order to prevent the corruption of the race, and that the protection given to the weak serves to deteriorate the race. But what do we see? In nature itself, in the animal world, we find that the weak are protected; that it is not by their own personal strength that they maintain themselves, and that they are not brushed aside on account of their personal weakness. This arrangement does not weaken the group, but gives to it new strength. The animal group in which mutual aid is best developed is best fit to maintain itself in the strife.
— Anton Pannekoek, Darwinism and Marxism, p. 39[28]
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