Seriously Funny

One can imagine what atmosphere, what life, what intellectual activity reigned in Copenhagen at that time [1922–1930]. Here was Bohr’s influence at its best. Here it was that he created his style, the Kopenhagener Geist, a style of a very special character that he imposed upon physics. He could be seen, the greatest among his colleagues, acting, talking, living as an equal in a group of young, optimistic, jocular, enthusiastic people, approaching the deepest riddles of nature with a spirit of joy that can hardly be described. As a very young man, when I had the privilege of working there, I remember that I was taken a little aback by some of the jokes that crept into the discussion — they seemed to me to indicate a lack of respect. I communicated my feelings to Bohr, and he gave me the following answer: “There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.”