BERLIN - Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, a philosopher and physicist who was also the brother of a former German president, has died, a family member said Saturday. He was 94.
His brother Richard von Weizsacker served as German president between 1984 and 1994.
He had turned down a proposal to be named a candidate for president himself after West German Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed it to him in 1979.
As a scientist Weizsacker was also part of Germany's nuclear research team during World War II.
Weizsacker had gained a reputation as an all-around intellectual and was the author of more than a dozen works. They included "The Unity of Nature," which a New York Times review labeled "important," as well as "The History of Nature."
"Both are commended to anyone who cares deeply about the continuing effort of humankind to understand the web of nature from which it has sprung," the NYT said in a 1981 review.
He became a professor of philosophy at the University of Hamburg in 1957, and later led the Max Planck Insitute in Starnberg with philosopher Jurgen Habermas.
04/28/2007 20:20 GMT