 Pforzheim was close to both the University of Heidelberg, where Weber came into contact with Gustav Kirchhoff, one of the leading theoretical physicists of the day, and to the Polytechnische Schule in Karlsruhe, where in 1870 he became Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann’s assistant (Weiss 1912, p. 45).At the same time, Weber also managed to meet the professor of physiology at Heidelberg, Hermann von Helmholtz, perhaps through Kirchhoff or Wiedemann, since both of them were close friends of Helmholtz’s.When Helmholtz left Heidelberg in 1871 to accept the call as professor of physics at the University of Berlin, he took Weber along as his first assistant.