Wilhelm Hanle (born 13.01.1901) is a German experimental physicist. He was born in Mannheim. He graduated from the University of Göttingen (1923). In 1929 —35 he was a professor at the University of Jena, 1935-37 at the University of Leipzig, 1937-41 at the University of Göttingen, and in 1941—63 professor and director of the Physical Institute of the University of Giessen.
His work was in the field of magneto-optics, luminescence, nuclear physics, radioactivity and dosimetry. In 1924 he discovered the phenomenon of strong depolarisation of light of resonance frequency scattered by atoms in a weak magnetic field (the Hanle effect).