25 Years quantum Hall effect: how it all came about

The quantum Hall effect (QHE) was discovered by Klaus von Klitzing in the spring of 1980. However, the plateaus in the Hall resistance of silicon metal oxide semiconductor devices which can be observed in high magnetic fields at low temperatures showed up several years earlier. The world wide research, which eventually culminated in the discovery, is briefly reviewed. The QHE was not predicted by theory, there were only approximate indications of quantization of the Hall resistance in whole fractions of h/e2. The exceptional precision of the resistance values of the Hall plateau led very soon to a new resistance standard.