ABSTRACT
I was born in Olmütz, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it is now called Olomouc, in Czechoslovakia. My parents had a good marriage. My father was a very interesting man, very active, very creative. He was an industrial chemist, but also a journalist who wrote for newspapers. We were three children, with three years between us, myself the middle child. My father was most anxious that we should have a good education. We were expected to do well in school and to have a profound sense of duty all around. He wanted very much that we should seek careers connected with the arts, but we all took to science.
