Whereas countless studies have been devoted to Einstein's work on relativity, the contributions of several other major protagonists have received comparatively little attention. Within the immediate German context, no single figure played a more important role in developing the consequences of the special theory of relativity (SR) than Max von Laue (1879–1960). Although remembered today mainly for his discovery of x-ray diffraction in 1912 – an achievement for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize – Laue's accomplishments in promoting the theory of relativity were of crucial importance. They began early, well before most physicists even knew anything about a mysterious Swiss theoretician named Einstein (Fig. 19.1).