Editing Ulf Merbold (section)

== Early life and education==
Ulf Merbold was born in [[Greiz]], in the [[Vogtland]] area of [[Thuringia]], on 20 June 1941.<ref name="ESA2004">{{Cite web |title=Ulf Merbold |url=https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Ulf_Merbold |access-date=17 March 2022 |date=27 September 2004 |website=esa.int |language=en |archive-date=17 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317154554/https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Ulf_Merbold |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ESA2003">{{Cite web |title=25 Years of Human Spaceflight in Europe |url=https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/25_Years_of_Human_Spaceflight_in_Europe |access-date=17 March 2022 |website=esa.int |language=en |date=22 August 2003 |archive-date=29 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929054037/http://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/25_Years_of_Human_Spaceflight_in_Europe |url-status=live }}</ref> He was the only child of two teachers who lived in the school building of {{ill|Wellsdorf|de}}, a small village.<ref name="munz">{{Cite web |title=Ulf Merbold – Munzinger Biographie |language=de|url=https://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/Ulf+Merbold/0/17090.html |access-date=18 March 2022 |website=munzinger.de |date=17 May 2016 |archive-date=18 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318210154/https://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/Ulf+Merbold/0/17090.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=49}} During World War II, Ulf's father Herbert Merbold was a soldier who was imprisoned and then released from an American [[prisoner of war]] camp in 1945. Soon after, he was imprisoned by the [[Red Army]] in [[NKVD special camp Nr. 2]], where he died on 23 February 1948.<ref name="munz" />{{sfn|Wilkes|2019|p=31}}<ref name="buchenwald">{{Cite web |title=Totenbuch Sowjetisches Speziallager Nr. 2 Buchenwald |language=de|url=http://totenbuch-speziallager.buchenwald.de/names/list/q/m/page/8 |access-date=18 March 2022 |website=Gedenkstätte Buchenwald |last=Ritscher |first=Bodo |archive-date=25 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425164227/http://totenbuch-speziallager.buchenwald.de/names/list/q/m/page/8 |url-status=live }}</ref> Merbold's mother Hildegard was dismissed from her school by the [[Soviet occupation zone of Germany|Soviet zone]] authorities in 1945.<ref name="SZ">{{Cite news |last=Stirn |first=Alexander |title=Der Mann, der ins All wollte |language=de |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/raumfahrt-der-mann-der-ins-all-wollte-1.367148 |access-date=18 March 2022 |date=17 May 2010 |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]|issn=0174-4917 |archive-date=18 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318210022/https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/raumfahrt-der-mann-der-ins-all-wollte-1.367148 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|NASA|1983|p=59}}{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=50}} She and her son moved to a house in {{ill|Kurtschau|de}},<ref name="tlz">{{Cite news |last=Schubert |first=Tobias |date=3 August 2022 |title=Ulf Merbold ist 500.000 wert |language=de |pages=15 |work=Thüringische Landeszeitung |location=Gera |url=https://www.pressreader.com/germany/thuringische-landeszeitung-gera/20220803/282153590040023 |access-date=3 November 2022 |oclc=177309307 |via=[[PressReader]] |archive-date=3 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103173625/https://www.pressreader.com/germany/thuringische-landeszeitung-gera/20220803/282153590040023 |url-status=live }}</ref> a suburb of Greiz, where Merbold grew up close to his maternal grandparents and his paternal grandfather.{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=50}}

After graduating in 1960 from {{lang|de|Theodor-Neubauer-Oberschule}} high school—now {{ill|Ulf-Merbold-Gymnasium Greiz|de}}—in Greiz,<ref name="munz" /> Merbold wanted to study physics at the [[University of Jena]].<ref name="zeit">{{Cite news|work=[[Die Zeit|ZEIT ONLINE]]|title=Eine Antwort, fünf Fragen|last=Schwenke|first=Philipp|url=https://www.zeit.de/campus/2007/05/mensatalk-ulf-merbold/komplettansicht|date=8 February 2012|access-date=18 March 2022|language=de|archive-date=18 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318214606/https://www.zeit.de/campus/2007/05/mensatalk-ulf-merbold/komplettansicht|url-status=live|issn=0044-2070}}</ref>{{sfn|Wilkes|2019|p=32}} Because he had not joined the [[Free German Youth]], the youth organization of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]], he was not allowed to study in [[East Germany]] so he decided to go to [[Berlin]], and crossed into [[West Berlin]] by bicycle.{{sfn|Wilkes|2019|p=32}}{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=56}} He obtained a [[West Germany|West German]] high school diploma ({{lang|de|[[Abitur]]}}) in 1961, as West German universities did not accept the East German one,<ref name="tagesspiegel">{{Cite news |last=Nestler |first=Ralf |date=10 April 2021 |title=Interview mit Ulf Merbold: "Dieser erste Blick aus dem Fenster" |language=de-DE |work=Der Tagesspiegel Online |url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/dieser-erste-blick-aus-dem-fenster-5743363.html |access-date=18 October 2022 |issn=1865-2263 |archive-date=18 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221018202718/https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/dieser-erste-blick-aus-dem-fenster-5743363.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and intended to start studying in Berlin so he could occasionally see his mother.<ref name="zeit" />{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=208}}

When the [[Berlin Wall]] was built on 13 August 1961, it became impossible for Ulf's mother to visit him.{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=58}} Merbold then moved to [[Stuttgart]], where he had an aunt,<ref name="zeit" /> and started studying physics at the [[University of Stuttgart]], graduating with a {{lang|de|[[Diplom]]}} in 1968.<ref name="ESA2004" /> He lived in a dormitory in a wing of [[Solitude Palace]].{{sfn|Merbold|1988|p=169}} Thanks to an amnesty for people who had [[Republikflucht|left East Germany]], Merbold could again see his mother from late December 1964.<ref name="zeit" /> In 1976, Merbold obtained a doctorate in natural sciences, also from the University of Stuttgart,<ref name="ESA2004" /> with a dissertation titled {{lang|de|Untersuchung der Strahlenschädigung von stickstoffdotierten Eisen nach Neutronenbestrahlung bei 140 Grad Celsius mit Hilfe von Restwiderstandsmessungen}} on the effects of [[neutron radiation]] on nitrogen-doped iron.{{Sfn|Merbold|1976}} After completing his doctorate, Merbold became a staff member at the [[Max Planck Institute for Metals Research]] in Stuttgart, where he had held a scholarship from 1968.{{sfn|NASA|1983|p=59}} At the institute, he worked on solid-state and low-temperature physics,{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=208}} with a special focus on experiments regarding lattice defects in [[body-centered cubic]] (bcc) materials.<ref name="ESA2004" />