In 1952, upon the retirement of Walther Meissner, Maier-Leibnitz assumed the Lehrstuhl für Technische Physik (Chair for Technical Physics) and directorship of the Laboratorium für technische Physik (Laboratory for Technical Physics) at the Technische Hochschule München (in 1970 renamed the Technische Universität München). This became the nucleus of the Maier-Leibnitz school for nuclear solid state physics. The far-sightedness of Maier-Leibnitz led to reorganization and expansion of physics at the Technische Hochschule München and the formation of the Physics Department in 1965. One of his first major expansions was done with the appointment of Nikolaus Riehl, who had returned to Germany in 1955, after having been taken to the Soviet Union in 1945 to work on the Soviet atomic bomb project. Riehl was an authority on the purification of uranium, and he greatly contributed to bringing about the construction of a new research tool at the Technische Hochschule München. Through the initiative and leadership of Maier-Leibnitz, the Forschungsreaktor München [ de ] (FRM, Research Reactor Munich) was built in Garching bei München ; it was the first nuclear reactor built in Germany. This reactor, popularly called the Atomei (atomic egg), based on its characteristic shape, was built in 1956 and became operational in 1957. Rather than being used to study reactor physics and technology, the swimming-pool-type reactor was used as a neutron source, and it became a versatile tool for interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, it was the seed for the entire Garching research campus. A second reactor built nearby, Forschungsreaktor München II (FRM II, Research Reactor Munich II), went critical for the first time four years after the death of Maier-Leibnitz; it was named the Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz in his honor.