How the Mössbauer Story started in Munich -- Discovery of the Mössbauer-Effect and its Early History -- Discovery of the Recoil Free Resonance Absorption of Gamma-Rays -- The Iridium and Early Iron Age -- Identification of Hyperfine Interactions in the Mössbauer Spectra -- Other Important Mössbauer Transitions -- CALTECH Years of Rudolf Mössbauer -- Selected Highlights of Mössbauer Spectroscopy -- Determination of the Nuclear Parameters of Many Mössbauer-Transitions -- Isomer Shifts in Solid State Chemistry -- Internal Fields -- Time-Dependent Effect -- Medical and Biological Applications -- Relativistic Effects -- Mössbauer Effect with Synchrotron Radiation -- Outlook -- Mössbauer Effect with Neutrinos -- Dreams with Synchrotron Radiation -- Neutrino Oscillations - The Second Love of Mössbauer -- The “Second Mössbauer Effect”.

The “Rudolf Mössbauer Story” recounts the history of the discovery of the “Mössbauer Effect” in 1958 by Rudolf Mössbauer as a graduate student of Heinz Maier-Leibnitz for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1961 when he was 32 years old. The development of numerous applications of the Mössbauer Effect in many fields of sciences , such as physics, chemistry, biology and medicine is reviewed by experts who contributed to this wide spread research. In 1978 Mössbauer focused his research interest on a new field “Neutrino Oscillations” and later on the study of the properties of the neutrinos emitted by the sun.