Alexander Witting

Alexander Witting around 1915

Carl Johann Adolf Alexander Witting (born December 18, 1861 in Dresden ; † November 29, 1946 there ) was a German math teacher .

Life

Witting was the first child of the clay artist Carl Witting (1823–1907) and the painter Minna Witting born. Japha (1828–1882) born. He put Easter 1880, the High School at the Dresden Municipal School of the Holy Cross (Cross School) from, made a year of military service (last rank: Captain of Landwehr ; received Landwehr Long Service Award ) and began studying in the summer semester 1881 Teacher Department of the Dresden Polytechnic . Here in the spring of 1885 he passed the examination for the higher education authority with the award of the teaching qualification in mathematics and physics for all classes of the grammar school and secondary schools and in geography up to and including upper secondary school .

A travel grant from the Polytechnic enabled him to do his doctorate, which at the time was only possible at universities. On April 1, 1885, Witting began his probationary year as a teacher at the Thomas School in Leipzig, at the same time he attended lectures and seminars at the University of Leipzig , especially with Felix Klein , from whom he also received the topic for the dissertation. On August 4, 1886, he was already from the Georg-August University Göttingen , the new place of Felix Klein, to Dr. phil. PhD.

On December 1, 1886, the City Council of Dresden employed him as a permanent teacher at the Municipal Gymnasium zum Heiligen Kreuz (Cross School). There Witting taught mathematics and physics until his retirement: as a senior teacher, senior student adviser, professor. Part-time he assisted for a long time at the chair for descriptive geometry at the TH Dresden and designed advertising brochures for the renowned Dresden company Koch & Sterzel .

From 1891 Witting took part in military exercises almost every year. During the First World War he was employed - most recently with the rank of major - as head of a gas protection course for officers in Dessau and at a mine throwing school. Inspired by his teaching practice during the war, he published Soldier Mathematics in 1916 .

Since the end of 1886 a member of the Natural Science Society ISIS in Dresden, Alexander Witting was one of the most active in the Mathematical Section of ISIS, founded in 1875. His ISIS lectures reflected the results of his own research, the experiences from his teaching activities, but also his work in professional societies.

Alexander Witting was one of the higher teachers who remained connected to the development of their science and who published actively themselves. As a grammar school teacher with close contact to the university and practice, he was open to the movement to reform math and science teaching, which gained strength in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Felix Klein, who had been elected to head the International Mathematical Teaching Commission (IMUK) founded in 1908, consulted Alexander Witting on the IMUK publications he had edited. Mathematics lessons at grammar schools and secondary schools and the training of candidate teachers in the Kingdom of Saxony , written by Witting, appeared in 1910. The association for the promotion of mathematics and science teaching played an important role in the reform movement, particularly through its work on the grassroots . Alexander Witting was one of its committee members for a long time and was a co-founder of the very active Dresden branch of the Friends' Association .

When - in the course of the reform - differential and integral calculus found their way into the curriculum of higher schools for the first time (from 1907 in Saxony), a suitable representation of this subject area was required. Against this background, Walther Lietzmann (1880–1959) and Alexander Witting founded the Mathematical-Physical Library in 1912 together with the Teubner Verlag in Leipzig . Witting not only acted as co-editor; he also wrote several repeated issues in this series. His little books on differential and integral calculus have been published in the Göschen Collection since the mid-1930s - in a greatly expanded form and supplemented by separate exercise books .

From 1911 onwards, Alexander Witting was also responsible for the publication of the negotiations of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors .

Alexander Witting married the pianist Sophie Sebass (1864–1924) in 1889, and the marriage resulted in two daughters and a son: Tillyta (1890–1970), Lotte (1894–1971) and the physicist Rudolf Witting (1899–1963). Given the artistic family environment - father musician, mother painter, aunt Louise Japha (1826–1910) pianist, sister Agnes Witting (1863–1937) singer, brother Walther Witting painter - it is hardly surprising that Alexander Witting occasionally painted and made music regularly, also beyond the close circle of family and colleagues.

When the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Alexander Witting was already retired as a teacher. He had been an active participant in World War I, and his contributions to the high school were widely recognized. All this together meant that he - a half-Jew in the sense of the Nazi race laws - was bothered comparatively little. He was not accepted into the Nazi teachers' association, but as a guest he was (at least initially) well liked. He also remained an honorary member of the Förderverein, which only existed in its previous form until 1936, and for his 75th and 80th birthday he received some official letters of congratulations, including from the Teubner and de Gruyter publishers , but also from the German Mathematicians Association (DMV).

Of course, the Witting household, like everyone who included a half-Jew, was not spared certain restrictions. The elderly Alexander Witting mainly worked at home during these years. High school was close to his heart until the end of his life. After the end of Nazi rule, it was important to think back on the positive. Alexander Witting's appeal for the rescue of high schools from November 1945 appeared posthumously in the Physikalische Blätter .

Fonts

• Mathematical lessons at grammar schools and secondary schools and the training of candidate teachers in the Kingdom of Saxony. Leipzig and Berlin 1910
• To save the higher schools. In: Physikalische Blätter (New Physikalische Blätter). 2nd year 1946, issue 9, pp. 237–238
• In the Mathematical-Physical Library - Common representations from elementary mathematics and physics for school and life edited by Dir. W. Lietzmann and teacher Dr. A. Witting, BG Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin:
  • Introduction to Calculus , Volume 9.
  • Examples e.g. Story d. Mathematics , Volume 15 (with M. Gebhardt).
  • Soldiers Math , Volume 22.

literature

• Annual reports of the Kreuzschule. Dresden 1885–1899, p. 2
• Small chronicle of the Kreuzschule. Dresden 1891; P. 48
• Poggendorff's Handwortbuch Leipzig 1904, 1926, 1939, 1953 (entry by Alexander Witting)
• Wilhelm Lorey : The German association for the promotion of mathematical and scientific teaching e. V. 1891–1938 Frankfurt / Main 1938
• Dresden City Archive, inventory of the school office, signature 2.3.20 Dr. Witting
• Waltraud Voss : … a university (also) for mathematicians… Augsburg 2005; P. 207 and p. 115, 126, 189, 192, 273, 274
• Waltraud Voss: The section for pure and applied mathematics of the Natural Science Society Isis in Dresden. - In: Festschrift 175 years of the Natural Science Society ISIS in Dresden. Special edition for the festive event on March 28, 2009. Dresden-Bautzen 2009, pp. 105–127
• Waltraud Voss: Prof. Dr. phil. Alexander Witting (1861-1946). Actor in mathematical and natural science professional associations, author and editor (lecture given at the 11th conference of the history of mathematics section of the DMV from May 20-24, 2009 in Pfalzgrafenweiler; published in 2010 in the conference proceedings)
• Helga Witting (private archive): Information on the family.
• Part of the estate in the university archive of the Technical University of Dresden

Web links

• Literature by and about Alexander Witting in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Sachse, Karl Ramshorn, Reinhart Herz: The teachers of the Thomasschule in Leipzig 1832-1912. The high school graduates of the Thomas School in Leipzig 1845–1912 . BG Teubner Verlag, Leipzig 1912, p. 15.