After a humanistic school education, Gerhard Haerendel chose
to study physics with the intention of becoming a researcher in astrophysics. Commencing
as graduate student with Ludwig Biermann, the leading astrophysicist of that
time, he was soon "handed over" to Arnulf Schlüter, Germany's foremost
plasma theorist, as thesis advisor. Shortly afterward, the Max Planck
Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich under Werner Heisenberg set up
a research group for space research under Reimar Lüst, who hired Haerendel as
young theorist supporting the experimental program consisting of seeding
visible barium plasma clouds in space. In 1969, he was appointed leader of this experimental program and, three years later, became co-director of the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Garching/Germany.
He led this program from simple sounding rocket experim
