Hermann Kinkelin

Family grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Georg David Hermann Kinkelin (born November 11, 1832 in Bern , † January 2, 1913 in Basel ) was a German - Swiss mathematician and politician .

Life

Kinkelin's family came from Lindau in Lake Constance . Born the son of a businessman, Hermann Kinkelin studied mathematics and philosophy at the Universities of Zurich , Lausanne and Munich from 1850 to 1854 and obtained a teaching diploma for the higher school level. After working in Aarburg and Bern, he was a teacher at the trade school (later: Obere Realschule) in Basel from 1860 , which he headed from 1866 to 1868 and from 1875 to 1903 as rector . In addition, Kinkelin was professor of mathematics at the University of Basel from 1865 to 1895 . He was the father-in-law of Franz Fäh .

Kinkelin was a great statistician . He founded the Basler Death and Old Age Fund , of which he was a member of the board from 1877 to 1913, the Swiss Statistical Society, which he chaired from 1877 to 1886, and the Statistical-Economical Society of Basel. In 1870 and 1880 he headed the federal censuses in Basel.

In 1867 Kinkelin was naturalized in Basel. As a liberal, he was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt from 1867 to 1902 , of which he was President in 1877 and 1879. In 1886 he rejected an election to the government council . In the elections in 1890 he was elected to the National Council and confirmed in 1893 and 1896 . He did not run for the National Council elections in 1899 .

The Glaisher-Kinkelin constant bears the names of James Whitbread Lee Glaisher and Hermann Kinkelin. In Basel the Hermann-Kinkelin-Strasse, the Hermann-Kinkelin-Schulhaus (today: Gymnasium Kirschgarten ) and the Hermann-Kinkelin-Gymnasium are named after him.

Fonts (selection)

• Research on the formula ${\displaystyle \textstyle nF(nx)=f(x)+f(x+{\frac {1}{n}})+f(x+{\frac {2}{n}})+\ldots f(x+{\frac {n-1}{n}}).}$ In: Archives of Mathematics and Physics. Vol. 22 (1854), pp. 189-224 ( Google Books , ditto ).
• The fundamental equations of the function Γ (x). In: Communications from the Natural Research Society in Bern. No. 385 and 386, 1857, pp. 1-11 ( Internet Archive , ditto ).
• Over some infinite rows. In: Communications from the Natural Research Society in Bern. No. 419 and 420, 1858, pp. 89-104 ( Google Books )
• About a transcendent related to the gamma function and its application to integral calculus. In: Journal for pure and applied mathematics . Vol. 57 (1860), pp. 122-138 ( GDZ ).
• The skewed axonometric projection. In: Quarterly publication of the Natural Research Society in Zurich . Vol. 6 (1861), pp. 358-367 ( Google Books ).
• General theory of harmonic series with application to number theory. Schweighauser, Basel 1862 ( Google Books ).
• On the theory of prismides. In: Archives of Mathematics and Physics. Vol. 39 (1862), pp. 181-186 ( Google Books , ditto , ditto ).
• Proof of the three brothers for the expression of the triangle content by the sides. In: Archives of Mathematics and Physics. Vol. 39 (1862), pp. 186-188 ( Google Books , ditto , ditto ).
• The mutual Huelfsgesellschaft der Schweiz in 1865. Les sociétés de secours mutuels de la suisse en 1865. GA Bonfantini, Basel 1868 ( Google Books ; review ).
• New proof of the existence of complex roots in an algebraic equation. In: Mathematical Annals . Vol. 1 (1869), pp. 502-506 ( Google Books , GDZ , yearbook review ).
• The calculation of the Christian Easter. In: Journal of Mathematics and Physics . Vol. 15 (1870), pp. 217-228 ( Internet Archive ).
• Brief instruction on the metric measure and weight. Cooperative book printing company, Basel 1876; Reprint: Andreas Mächler, Riehen 2006, ISBN 3-905837-02-1 .
• Lecture in The Basel mathematicians Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler. In: Negotiations of the Natural Research Society in Basel . Vol. 7, Appendix, 1884, pp. 51-71 ( Internet Archive ).
• Construction of the centers of curvature of conic sections. In: Journal of Mathematics and Physics. Vol. 40 (1895), pp. 58-59 ( Internet Archive , yearbook review ).
• To the gamma function. In: Negotiations of the Natural Research Society in Basel. Vol. 16 (1903), pp. 309-328 ( Internet Archive , ditto ).

literature

• Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society . Vol. 96 (1913), appendix, pp. 34-48 (obituaries; with picture and list of scriptures created by Robert Flatt)
  • Hermann Fäh: Prof. Dr. Hermann Kinkelin. 1832-1913 . Pp. 34-37.
  • Georg Gottfried Schaertlin: Memories of Professor Dr. H. Kinkelin . Pp. 37-40.
• Johann Jakob Burckhardt :  Kinkelin. Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 625 ( digitized version ).
• Hermann Wichers : Kinkelin, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 2007.

Web links

• Hermann Kinkelin's holdings in the Swiss Economic Archives
• Hermann Kinkelin's estate in the Basel University Library
• Hermann Kinkelin in History of Social Security in Switzerland