The '
was founded in 1943 by Ernst Brüche|, who was also the editor from 1944 to 1972. At the start, it was issued by the . Starting in 1946, it became an official publication of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft| (DPG) and was then published under the name '. In 1948, the publication reverted to the name '
. The last issue of ' was published in December 2001, at which time it was replaced by '
. Members of the DPG and [https://www.physik.de ] have on-line access through the Internet portal [http://www.pro-physik.de ] to issues of ', and '''' back to January 1999. From a circular enclosed with the March 1946 issue of the '''', the editor, Ernst Brüche|, envisioned the publication, as "an undemanding journal to reestablish contacts within physics and to discuss issues of the day." In the wake of
World War II, the journal became an important medium for discussion of science policy. ==Publishers==