Bethe was born in Strasbourg, which was then part of Germany, on July 2, 1906, the only child of Anna (née Kuhn) and Albrecht Bethe, a privatdozent of physiology at the University of Strasbourg.[5] Although his mother, the daughter of a professor at the University of Strasbourg, was Jewish,[6] he was raised a Protestant like his father.[7] Despite having a religious background,[8] he was not religious in later life, and described himself as an atheist.