The Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler, rose to power on January 30, 1933. The regime started practicing discriminatory policies against Jews, and dismissed any professors with a Jewish background from German universities. Max Planck, the well-known physicist, petitioned Hitler to stop the dismissal of Jewish professors, stressing their importance regarding scientific contributions. Hitler has been quoted as responding to Planck, "if the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years".