Franz Krauss

This article deals with the mathematician Franz Krauss. For other people see Franz von Krauss and Franz Kraus .

Franz Krauss (born January 22, 1889 in Cologne , † September 7, 1982 in Aachen ) was a German mathematician .

Live and act

After graduating from high school in 1907, the son of a businessman studied mathematics and theoretical philosophy at the universities of Karlsruhe, Marburg, Göttingen and Bonn and completed this course on March 2, 1921 with his examination for the second state examination for the higher teaching post Award and with his first doctorate. During his studies he became a member of the Germania Karlsruhe fraternity in the winter semester of 1909/10 . After a few years as a research assistant at the University of Bonn , he received his second doctorate under Hans Hahn on May 31, 1924 with the dissertation: " On parallel displacement in the Riemannian space ".

In 1924 Krauss moved to RWTH Aachen University , where he first obtained his habilitation in the same year and was then taken on as a private lecturer . Two years later he joined the German Mathematicians Association . This was followed by his appointment as non-tenured associate professor in 1930 and then in 1934 as successor to Otto Blumenthal as Full Professor of Mathematics with the main task areas: differential variant theory , shell theory , frequency analysis , scientific theory of mathematics, axiomatic and history of mathematics . Krauss was one of only four exceptional cases at RWTH Aachen University in which the Reich Ministry of Education probably appointed a candidate who did not belong to any National Socialist party or group until 1945 due to a lack of personnel alternatives. For the same reason, Krauss was also appointed dean by his incumbent rector Otto Gruber in 1935, who wanted to make it clear that scientific achievements were more important to him than a party book. Krauss held this additional task until the end of the Second World War, even under Gruber's successor. During this time a deep friendship developed with the professor for applied mathematics and descriptive geometry Robert Sauer , who was also employed at the TH, and whom he actively supported in his research in the field of supersonic gas dynamics .

After the war and the corresponding reconstruction measures, Franz Krauss was elected rector of RWTH Aachen University in 1947, but could not take up the post for health reasons. He retained his full professorship and was finally retired in 1954. On January 17, 1959, the RWTH Aachen named him its Honorary Senator “ ... in recognition of his great services to the university in two decades of difficult and responsible work, especially in the critical times of reconstruction ” .

In addition, Franz Krauss was one of the co-founders of the " Society for the Award of the International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen " and one of the signatories of the university in 1949, together with the incumbent university rector Wilhelm Müller and Professor Peter Mennicken the proclamation of Christmas 1949 written for this purpose and thus also to the members of the first Charlemagne Prize Board.

Fonts

• For parallel displacement in the Riemannian space. Dissertation. Bonn 1924.

literature

• Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar . 1966, p. 1286.
• Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933–1945) . Verlag Mainz, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-86130-181-4 , ( Aachener Studies on Technology and Society 4), (At the same time: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2003), ( Google Books ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1927/28. Frankfurt am Main 1928, p. 274.