Peter Gabriel Bermann (1915–2002), born in Berlin, emigrates to Prague in 1933 where he studies physics with Philipp Frank, receiving his doctorate there in 1936. On Frank’s recommendation he goes to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton where he works as an assistant to Einstein from 1936 to 1941. After several ports of call, he receives a professorship for theoretical physics at Syracuse University in the state of New York and teaches there from 1947 to 1982. He also takes the opportunity provided by visiting professorships, for example at the University of Marburg in 1955.

In the framework of their research about a unified field theory, Bergmann and Einstein postulate the reality of a fifth spacetime dimension. In 1942 Bergmann’s first textbook about the General Theory of Relativity is published – Einstein writes the foreword.

In Syracuse Bergmann founds the first research center for the General Theory of Relativity in the United States. Researching with his colleagues there, he is particularly interested in the quantization of gravitational fields, a problem that remains unsolved to this day.