Klaus von Klitzing was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the quantized Hall effect , a variation on an electrical phenomenon first observed by the American physicist Edwin Herbert Hall in about 1880. Von Klitzing's discovery has had a number of profound effects in both theoretical and practical fields of physics, exhibiting one of the first instances in which quantum effects had been observed on a macroscopic scale. In addition, it made possible the establishment of an entirely new international standard for the ohm, the unit of measure of electrical resistance.

Von Klitzing was born on June 28, 1943, in Schroda, Germany, close to the Polish border, to Bogislav von Klitzing, a forester, and Anny Ulbrich. As World War II turned against Germany, the von Klitzing family decided to stay ahead of the advancing Soviet army and moved westward to the town of Lutten. Three years later, in...