The character arc of Lise Meitner

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 7 November 1878 in Vienna. Died 27 October 1968 in Cambridge, aged eighty nine. Between the two sit a country that barred women from universities until 1897, a doctorate in 1906, unpaid years in a carpentry shop in Berlin, a thirty year partnership, a flight from Germany in July 1938, the explanation of nuclear fission at Christmas that year, a Nobel Prize awarded to her collaborator alone, and forty nine nominations of her own. The line below draws that whole life in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Lise Meitner?

She worked it out in exile, and he got the prize.

Austrian women were barred from higher education until 1897, so she was nineteen before the door opened at all. She finished her secondary education by private tutoring, passed the external examination in 1901, and in 1906 became the second woman to take a doctorate in physics at the University of Vienna.

She went to Berlin to study under Max Planck. She worked unpaid, in a converted carpentry shop, because women were not permitted in the main laboratory. Prussia admitted women to its universities in 1908 and the restrictions eased. Around 1907 she began working with the chemist Otto Hahn, and that partnership ran for thirty years.

After the Anschluss of 1938 she was made stateless. With help from the physicist Dirk Coster she escaped over the Dutch border on 13 and 14 July 1938 and went on to Sweden. That Christmas, from exile, she and her nephew Otto Frisch took Hahn's experimental results and worked out what they meant: uranium nuclei were splitting. They published in Nature in February 1939 and gave the process its name, fission. Hahn alone received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1944. She was nominated forty nine times across her life and never received it, a decision scholars have called unjust. She refused to work on the bomb. Element 109 was named meitnerium in 1997. Her line is worth reading because almost every door on it was shut and she went through anyway.

The moments

Lise Meitner's timeline.

The 1890s

~1897

The universities opened late

Setback, and it changed everything. She was nineteen before the door existed at all.

The 1900s

Jul 1901

She passed the examination

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Privately tutored, because the schools were not for her.

Feb 1906

A doctorate in physics

Milestone, and it changed everything. The second woman ever, in that university, in that subject.

~1907

A carpentry shop for a laboratory

Setback, and it changed everything. No pay, no laboratory, a converted workshop, and thirty years of work that started there.

~1908

Prussia admitted women

Milestone, and it changed her direction. The rule changed. She had already been working under it for a year.

The 1930s

13 Mar 1938

She was made stateless

Setback, and it changed everything. A passport that stopped meaning anything, at fifty nine.

1 Jun 1938

Stay in the laboratory, or run

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: leave Germany, taken, or stay and keep working. From exile that Christmas she explained nuclear fission and gave it its name.

13 Jul 1938

Over the border

Setback, and it changed everything. Out of Germany with almost nothing, helped across by a colleague.

24 Dec 1938

The Christmas calculation

Milestone, and it changed everything. In exile, on holiday, with a pencil, she explained what nobody in the laboratory could.

11 Feb 1939

They named it fission

Milestone, and it changed everything. The word everybody uses is hers.

The 1940s

15 Nov 1945

The Nobel went to Hahn alone

Setback, and it changed everything. Forty nine nominations across a life, and not one prize.

~1946

She would not build the bomb

Milestone, and it changed everything. She had explained the mechanism. She declined to weaponise it.

The line ends 27 Oct 1968, in Cambridge, at eighty nine. What it set moving carries her name now whether the committee liked it or not: element 109 is meitnerium, and the word fission is hers.

Your turn

Every line draws a unique story.

Hers was locked out of the room and did the work regardless. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

Step through

Draw my own line Explore Character Arc

Lise Meitner: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What was Lise Meitner's character arc?

A woman barred from university until she was nineteen, who worked unpaid in a carpentry shop because laboratories would not admit her, fled Germany stateless in 1938, and from exile explained nuclear fission and named it.

Did Lise Meitner discover nuclear fission?

She explained it. At Christmas 1938, in exile, she and her nephew Otto Frisch interpreted Otto Hahn's experimental data and worked out that uranium nuclei were splitting. They published in Nature in February 1939 and coined the term fission.

Why did Lise Meitner not win the Nobel Prize?

Otto Hahn alone received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She was nominated forty nine times across her career and never won, a decision scholars have since called unjust. This page records the fact rather than assigning blame.

Why did Lise Meitner work in a carpentry shop?

Because women were not permitted in the main laboratory in Berlin. She worked there unpaid. Prussia admitted women to its universities in 1908 and the restrictions eased, but the arrangement had already been in place.

When did Lise Meitner leave Germany?

In July 1938, after the Anschluss had made her stateless. The physicist Dirk Coster helped her escape to the Netherlands on 13 and 14 July, and she went on to Sweden, where she was living when she explained fission that Christmas.

Did Lise Meitner work on the atomic bomb?

No. She refused. She had explained the mechanism that made it possible, and declined to take part in weaponising it, which is one of the clearest decisions on her line.

Is anything named after Lise Meitner?

Yes. Element 109 was named meitnerium in her honour in 1997, nearly thirty years after her death. The word fission, which she and Otto Frisch coined in Nature in February 1939, is also hers.

Where does this timeline of Lise Meitner's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Lise Meitner isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

More character arcs

Lives that rhyme with her.

Every Character, A to Z

Sources

Lise Meitner, English Wikipedia biography.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lise Meitner.
Meitner and Frisch, Nature, February 1939.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944, official record.