Through his students and colleagues at GALCIT, Liepmann was highly influential in spreading the fundamental research approach and rigorous curriculum of GALCIT. His students became leaders in the aerospace industry as well as universities around the world.
Liepmann was born in Berlin in 1914 and grew up surrounded by the political turmoil and liberal Berlin society of the 1920s. His father—a well-known physician and hospital director—had a passion for the humanities and an abhorrence of mathematics. Insisting that Hans have a classical education despite his interest in physics, his father nearly ended his son’s scientific career before it began. Looking back, Liepmann once observed, “of my 10 years in high school I can remember no more than maybe three teachers who were more than drillmasters.” Those experiences likely contributed to Liepmann’s passion for teaching at Caltech.
Liepmann’s early years in Berlin came to a close shortly after graduating from high school and a stint in the Siemens factory as an apprentice. His father decided to emigrate following the rise of the Nazi government and the infamous Reichstag fire in 1933. Liepmann joined his family in Turkey in 1934 after his father was invited to be head of the gynecology department at the University of Istanbul. He enrolled in the university to study physics, mathematics, astrophysics, and mechanics. The classes were taught in a mix of German, French, and Turkish, under the numerous German expatriates that found Turkey more welcoming than Germany under Hitler.
