Career
He was a student of Erich Regener in the 1930s and worked with Regener to investigate cosmic rays by using balloons to carry scientific instruments such as Geiger counters to the upper atmosphere. The terms Pfotzer curve and Pfotzer maximum, relating to the distribution of charged particles in the atmosphere resulting from cosmic rays, are named after him. He was director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research between 1965 and 1977.