Gustav Hertz's greatest fame came early in his career as the result of his collaboration with James Franck , a colleague at the University of Berlin. Hertz and Franck studied the energy changes that take place when an electron strikes an atom. Their results provided important confirmation of the Bohr theory of the atom, a theory announced only shortly before Hertz and Franck conducted their experiments. In recognition of their work, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded jointly to Hertz and Franck in 1925.

Hertz was born in Hamburg, Germany, on July 22, 1887. His mother was Auguste Arning, and his father was Gustav Hertz, an attorney. Hertz was the nephew of the famous Heinrich Rudolf Hertz , who carried out a number of important studies on electromagnetic waves in the 1880s, and for whom the unit of frequency is now named.

Hertz received his secondary education at the Johanneum Realgymnasium in...