Erika Pannwitz

Erika Pannwitz (born May 26, 1904 in Hohenlychen , † November 25, 1975 in Berlin ) was a German mathematician who worked in the field of geometric topology . From 1953 to 1969 she headed the Zentralblatt der Mathematik , one of the world's two leading specialist journals on mathematics.

life and work

Example of a quadruple tendon of a knot (clover leaf loop)

Erika Pannwitz attended the Pannwitz Open Air School in Lychen up to the tenth grade and graduated from the Augusta School in Berlin in 1922. She studied mathematics in Berlin and one semester each in Freiburg (1925) and Göttingen (1928). After teaching exam in 1927 (mathematics, physics and chemistry), it was in 1931 Heinz Hopf (PhD supervisor), Erhard Schmidt and Issai Schur at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University doctorate . Her doctoral thesis , which only appeared in the Mathematische Annalen two years later , was awarded opus eximium (this is the top grade; the better known name for it is summa cum laude ). In her doctoral thesis, Pannwitz examined so - called quadruple tendons of knots and tangles . She received the suggestion for this investigation from Otto Toeplitz .

From September 1930 Erika Pannwitz worked on the yearbook on the progress of mathematics , the mathematical department . From 1940 to 1945 she was with the cipher service of the Foreign Office (like Helmut Grunsky ) and then for a year a research assistant at the University of Marburg . In 1946 she returned to Berlin to work at the German Academy of Sciences for the Zentralblatt der Mathematik . From 1947 she was permanently employed there, from 1953 head of the Zentralblatt department . After reaching retirement age (in the GDR) in 1964, she headed the Zentralblatt office in West Berlin until 1969.

Publications

• An elementary geometric property of links and knots. In: Math. Annals. Volume 108, 1933, pp. 629-672, online
• with Heinz Hopf: About constant deformations of complexes in themselves. In: Math. Annalen , Volume 108, 1933, pp. 433-465
• A free mapping of the n-dimensional sphere in the plane. In: Mathematische Nachrichten , Volume 7, 1952, pp. 183-185

literature

• Annette Vogt: From assistant to manager: the mathematician Erika Pannwitz . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 5, 1999, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 18–24 ( luise-berlin.de ).
• Gerhard Keiper, Maria Keipert (editor): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945 . Volume 3 L – R (= Foreign Office - Historical Service - Maria Keipert, Peter Grupp [Hrsg.]: Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945 ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 , p. 431 , section Pannwitz, Erika (with picture) .

Web links

• Entry in the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Short biography at DMV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The different date of death according to the Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945, Volume 3 L – R , p. 431 (see literature) was November 12, 1975.
2. ↑ Her father was the doctor Dr. Karl Pannwitz. The Pannwitz Open Air School was founded by Dr. Gotthold Pannwitz , see Founding of the school in 1911 ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
3. ↑ See footnote on p. 629.
4. ↑ Later works on this topic are e.g. E.g .: H. Morton and D. Mond: Closed curves with no quadrisecants. In: Topology. Volume 21, 1982, pp. 235-243; Greg Kuperberg: Quadrisecants of knots and links. In: J. Knot Theory Ramifications. Vol. 3, 1994, pp. 41-50, front.math.ucdavis.edu ; B. Wiest, MT Green: A natural framing of knots. In: Geometry & Topology , Volume 2, 1998, pp. 31-64, emis.de (additivity of the knottedness invariant) and Elizabeth Denne: Alternating quadrisecants of knots . 2005, arxiv : math / 0510561 .
5. ↑ See also Bernd Wegner: Mathematics information in the change of times and political systems . (PDF; 274 kB).