caption death_date death_place birth_place image_size nationality field birth_date known_for article_title name
burkhard ludwiger -rrb- heim -lrb- from heim theory by illobrand von january 14 , 2001 -lrb- aged 75 -rrb- northeim potsdam 200px germany physicist february 9 , 1925 heim theory burkhard heim
 burkhard heim
burkhard heim

burkhard heim -lrb- february 9 , 1925 -- january 14 , 2001 -rrb- was a german theoretical physicist .
he devoted a large portion of his life to the pursuit of his unified field theory , heim theory .
one of his childhood ambitions was to develop a method of space travel , which contributed to his motivation to find such a theory .
during world war ii , heim was conscripted into the air force .
however , a previous essay about explosives led to his working briefly in a chemical laboratory as an explosives technician , instead .
an explosion in the laboratory caused by the mishandling of unstable compounds left him with debilitating handicaps .
the accident left him without hands and mostly deaf and blind when he was 19 , forcing him to use krukenberg hands .
von ludwiger claims this to be a terrorist assassination attempt , for which heim saved the assassins life by `` forgiving him '' .
neither name nor motivation of the claimed assassin nor details of the `` forgiving '' and how this saved his life are given .
his behavior subsequently became progressively eccentric and reclusive .
eventually , he retreated into almost total seclusion , concentrating on developing and refining his theory of everything .
