Werner was born on the 5th on December 1901 at Würszburg. He was the son of Dr.August Heisenberg and his wife Annie Weckein. His father later became professor of the middle and modern Greek languages in the University of Munich. It was probably due to his influence that Heisenberg remarked, when the Japanese physicist Yukawa discovered the particle now known as the meson and the term "mesotron" was proposed for it, with the result that the name "mesotron" was changed to "meson".