12.3 Forty Years Professor and Seventieth Birthday
261
Fig. 12.5 Preliminary study for the portrait that Jan Veth painted on the occasion of
Kapteyn’s forty years jubilee as professor. Made available by Kapteyn’s great-grandson
J.C. (Jack) Kapteyn
he especially blamed Kapteyn for accepting the ‘Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste” (see Sect. 11.1) of the German Kaiser. Others who
had been on good terms with Kapteyn before, such as Arthur Hinks, joined
the opponents. The latter accused Kapteyn of having received that award at
the same time as the captain of the submarine which had sunk the Lusitania.
This events had aroused a great deal of indignation, as we have seen, in fact also
in Kapteyn, but that accusation turns out to be pure nonsense. The sinking
of the Lusitania took place in May 1915 and the captain in question, Walther
Schwieger (1885–1917), only received the medal (in the military class, by the
way, not the scientific one) in July 1917 [112]. Kapteyn received his medal in
1915 (but had been informed of it in 1914).
Because of all this nothing came of the plan and Kapteyn’s seventieth birthday passed relatively unnoticed. It was not a festive period in all respects anyway,
because Kapteyn’s 14-year-old granddaughter Greta Noordenbos had to undergo a major surgery in the United States after a meningitis. It ended well,
but this granddaughter died a few years later. However, it was gratifying news
261
Fig. 12.5 Preliminary study for the portrait that Jan Veth painted on the occasion of
Kapteyn’s forty years jubilee as professor. Made available by Kapteyn’s great-grandson
J.C. (Jack) Kapteyn
he especially blamed Kapteyn for accepting the ‘Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste” (see Sect. 11.1) of the German Kaiser. Others who
had been on good terms with Kapteyn before, such as Arthur Hinks, joined
the opponents. The latter accused Kapteyn of having received that award at
the same time as the captain of the submarine which had sunk the Lusitania.
This events had aroused a great deal of indignation, as we have seen, in fact also
in Kapteyn, but that accusation turns out to be pure nonsense. The sinking
of the Lusitania took place in May 1915 and the captain in question, Walther
Schwieger (1885–1917), only received the medal (in the military class, by the
way, not the scientific one) in July 1917 [112]. Kapteyn received his medal in
1915 (but had been informed of it in 1914).
Because of all this nothing came of the plan and Kapteyn’s seventieth birthday passed relatively unnoticed. It was not a festive period in all respects anyway,
because Kapteyn’s 14-year-old granddaughter Greta Noordenbos had to undergo a major surgery in the United States after a meningitis. It ended well,
but this granddaughter died a few years later. However, it was gratifying news