“A scientist’s work is determined by two things”

Dr. Hauptmann’s maxim that scientific work is shaped by both individual interests and the demands of the age gives a concise form to Werner Pfennig’s changing education: his curiosity opens a path into advanced science, while the institution around him turns that skill toward military use. The idea is introduced not as an abstraction but as a promise of opportunity, followed by work that makes the promise increasingly consequential.

The maxim and its setting

Dr. Hauptmann raises the principle while questioning Werner about his application: Werner intends to study electrical mechanics in Berlin and is an orphan. After Werner nods, the instructor says, “A scientist’s work, cadet, is determined by two things.” He asks whether Werner understands, then names the second force: “We live in exceptional times, cadet.” The formulation joins a scientist’s own interests to the historical moment in which those interests are pursued.

For Werner, the timing matters immediately. The words kindle excitement at the prospect of entering rooms where important things happen. Hauptmann then gives that excitement a practical shape: Werner is to work in the laboratory after dinner every night, Sundays included. The maxim thus accompanies a change in Werner’s prospects, from a talented cadet with plans for future study to a student singled out for sustained technical work.

Ability made visible

The laboratory’s first tests show what attracts Hauptmann’s attention. He gives the class equipment Werner has never had access to—gears, lenses, fuses, springs, shackles, resistors, copper wire, a small hammer, and a battery—and asks the cadets to build a Morse-code practice circuit. Later, Hauptmann specifies a magnet, wire, screw, and battery, and asks who can make a simple motor. Though the other boys mostly watch or handle the parts uncertainly, Werner assembles one in no more than fifteen seconds: the screw and magnet spin when he completes the connection. Hauptmann asks his name, and Werner answers, “Pfennig, sir.”

The demonstrations make the maxim’s first element tangible. Werner’s aptitude is not merely a stated ambition to study electrical mechanics; he can recognize how components work together and act quickly with them. Yet the attention he earns does not lead only to open-ended study. Hauptmann directs his ability toward a project whose requirements are set by the period’s military needs.

From scientific study to military application

Hauptmann wants Werner to improve a directional radio transceiver so it can be retuned quickly across multiple frequencies and measure the angle of incoming transmissions. Werner reconfigures nearly the entire design. Their work moves between engineering and triangulation formulas, while Hauptmann sometimes explains components such as solenoids and resistors or discusses scientific developments and gatherings in Berlin. On other evenings he becomes closed and supervises in silence. The same laboratory therefore holds both the pleasure of learning and the pressure of work directed toward a larger institutional purpose.

That purpose becomes concrete in a field exercise with Volkheimer. Werner tunes two receivers to the transmitter’s signal, writes the equation on the transceiver casing, uses a slide rule, and calculates a vector and distance of two and a half kilometers. Later, on roads through the countryside, the team repeatedly sets up a receiver on a ridge, establishes a triangulation base, and scans the radio spectrum for any voice that is not sanctioned. The mathematical and engineering skills cultivated in the laboratory have become a method for locating transmissions in the field.

Meaning and tension

The maxim does not separate personal curiosity from historical circumstance; it puts them in the same sentence as forces that determine scientific work. Werner’s fascination with mechanisms and his rapid grasp of the motor are real, as are the opportunities opened by Hauptmann’s instruction. But those opportunities are inseparable from the transceiver’s military function and its use in searching for unauthorized voices. The expression’s significance lies in that double movement: an individual gift is encouraged, refined, and made useful by the demands of its time.