A bilingual memorial plaque to the Austrian mathematician and physicist Christian A. Doppler (1803, Salzburg – 1853, Venice) was unveiled in 2006 on the house at U Obecního Dvora Street No. 7/799. It was in this house that he lived with his family between 1843 and 1847. Doppler had been working in Prague since 1835, first he taught at a high school and from 1841 at the Polytechnic Institute (now the Czech Technical University). It was in Prague that he made his most famous physics discovery, the Doppler effect.

The unveiling of the bilingual bronze memorial plaque with a relief portrait of Christian Andreas Doppler on Friday 10 March 2006 was attended by the author of the plaque, sculptor Ellen Jilemnicka, the then Austrian Ambassador Margot Klestil-Löffler and Prague Mayor Pavel Bém. The plaque was placed by architect Petr Keil. The unveiling of the memorial plaque to the eminent mathematician and physicist was supported by the Christian Doppler Foundation in Salzburg.

mathematician and physicist/ CHRISTIAn DOPPLER / *1803 Salzburg †1853 VENICE / LIVED IN THIS HOUSE IN YEARS 1843 – 1847// Von 1843 bis 1847 wohnte in diesem Haus / der Mathematiker und Physiker / Christian Doppler / *1803 Salzburg †1853 Venedig

A year later, on 4 April 2007, a copy of this memorial plaque was unveiled on the building of the Prague High School in Zborovská Street in Prague 5, which had already been named in his honour on 1 January 1999. The Christian Doppler High School is also a faculty school of the Faculty of Science of Charles University.

The Salzburg native came to Prague after several unsuccessful attempts to find a permanent position, preferably as a professor, directly in Austria. In 1833, his work as an assistant at the Vienna Polytechnic ended and a series of unsuccessful job interviews followed. For existential reasons, he even had to accept a job as an accountant in a spinning mill.

He was ready to emigrate to America, but the newly established Prague high school (Realschulle) offered him a position as a professor of arithmetic, algebra, theoretical geometry and accounting with a modest annual salary of 800 guilders. After securing the job Doppler came to Prague in the spring of 1835. He and his wife Mathilde Sturm had their first apartment in Prague on Jungmannova Street (no. 22). All five of the Doppler children were born in Prague.

In March 1841, he began to lecture at the Prague Polytechnic and it was here that he first formulated his discovery - the Doppler effect, which concerned virtually all kinds of waves, as well as sound and light, as well as waves on water. The mathematical description of the Doppler effect is much more complicated today. Many instruments in astrophysics, experimental physics, engineering, navigation, medicine, and other fields operate on the Doppler principle today. He perfected and built many optics instruments, such as the optical range finding telemeter.

Doppler’s work at the Prague Polytechnic resulted in poor health due to overwork and in 1844 tuberculosis made it impossible for him to speak. In 1847 Doppler left Prague for the academy in Banská Štiavnica, then in 1849 for the University of Vienna, where he became the first director of the Institute of Physics (1850).

In January 1848 he was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna and in the spring of the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the Prague University. However, Doppler did not attain full acclaim until 1859 with the discovery of spectral analysis.

Connected places: Commemorative Plaque to Christian Doppler in PraguePamětní deska Christiana Dopplera na Karlově náměstí v Praze

Keywords: physics; mathematics; Christian Doppler; geodesy; Doppler effect; Royal Bohemian Society; Polytechnic Institute in Prague; Mining and Forestry Academy in Banská Štiavnica; Physics Institute in Vienna; Christian Doppler Highschool

Štoll, I.: Život a dílo badatele Dopplera. Pokroky matematiky, fyziky a astronomie, 38/1993, č. 5, s. 260–269. – URL: https://dml.cz/handle/10338.dmlcz/139107 [9. 12. 2021].

Štoll, I. : Dopplerovský rok. Pokroky matematiky, fyziky a astronomie, 49/2004, č. 2, s. 89–94. – URL: https://dml.cz/handle/10338.dmlcz/141215 [9. 12. 2021].

Bártík, V.: Doppler Christian – Na domě čp. 798 U obecního dvora 5, Praha 1 Staré Město. – URL: https://www.pametni-desky-v-praze.cz/2020/09/22/doppler-christian-na-dome-cp-798-u-obecniho-dvora-5-praha-1-stare-mesto [15. 12. 2021].

Christian Doppler Memorial Plaque in the Old Town in Prague