Original: Ertl was born in Stuttgart , Germany where he would later study physics from 1955 to 1957 at the Technical University of Stuttgart and then at the University of Paris ( 1957 -- 1958 ) and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich ( 1958 -- 1959 ) .
Simplified: Then , he moved to the Technical University of Hannover where he worked as Professor and Director from 1968 to 1973 .