Editing Manfred Eigen (section)

==Education and early life==
Eigen was born on 9 May 1927 in [[Bochum]],<ref name=":1">{{Citation|pmid=3300802|publication-date=9 May 1987|year=1987|title=Manfred Eigen Festschrift: special issue dedicated to Professor Manfred Eigen on the occasion of his 60th birthday|volume=26|issue=2–3|periodical=Biophys. Chem.|pages=101–390}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Citation|pmid=17029872|last=Schlögl|first=R. W.|publication-date=30 June 1997|year=1997|title=To Manfred Eigen on his 70th birthday|volume=66|issue=2–3|periodical=Biophys. Chem.|pages=71–3|doi = 10.1016/S0301-4622(97)00075-6}}</ref> the son of Ernst and Hedwig (Feld) Eigen, a chamber musician.<ref name="Nobel_biographical"/> As a child he developed a deep passion for music, and studied piano.<ref name=BG/>

[[World War II]] interrupted his formal education. At age fifteen he was drafted into service in a German antiaircraft unit. He was captured by the Americans toward the end of the war.<ref name="WoS">{{cite web |url=https://www.webofstories.com/playAll/manfred.eigen?sId=11026 |title=Manfred Eigen – Web of Stories |website=Web of Stories |access-date=9 February 2025}}</ref> He managed to escape (he said later that escape was relatively easy),<ref name=BG/> and walked hundreds of miles across defeated Germany, arriving in Göttingen in 1945. He lacked the necessary documentation for acceptance to university,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention|last=Czikszentmihalyi|first=Mihaly|publisher=Harper Perennial|year=2013|pages=54}}</ref> but was admitted after he demonstrated his knowledge in an exam. He entered the university's first postwar class.

Eigen desired to study physics, but since returning soldiers who were enrolled previously received priority, he enrolled in Geophysics. He earned an undergraduate degree and began graduate study in natural sciences. One of his advisors was [[Werner Heisenberg]], the noted proponent of the [[uncertainty principle]].<ref name=BG/> He received his doctorate in 1951.