Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig

Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig (born November 8, 1743 in Gartz (Oder) ( Pomerania ), † September 10, 1831 in Braunschweig ) was a German mathematician and scientist .

Life

After studying mathematics and natural sciences in Frankfurt / Oder , which began in 1763 , he accompanied Prince Wilhelm Adolf († 1770) from Brunswick on a trip to southern Russia. After his death Hellwig lived in Braunschweig, where he taught mathematics at the Martineum and Katharineum high schools .

At the University of Helmstedt he was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD. In 1790 he was appointed professor and in 1802 Hofrat. He taught from 1803 to 1831 as a professor of mathematics and natural sciences at the Collegium Carolinum , which was converted into a military academy from 1809 to 1814. He worked in the fields of entomology and mineralogy, but especially mathematics. In 1812 he was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1821 a member of the Leopoldina .

Hellwig was a teacher and sponsor of the entomologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (1775-1813), who later worked in Berlin . Your insect collections formed the basis for the collection at the University of Berlin.

Carl Friedrich Gauß and Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg were also among his students .

On the basis of the calculation of probability , Hellwig founded a death fund institute and the Braunschweigische general widow's fund , which later became part of the Braunschweig public insurance company . To do this, he developed mathematical tables for contribution rates graded according to entry age, with which he prepared the form of life insurance that is common today .

Hellwig was also the inventor of a strategy game similar to chess , which was printed in Leipzig in 1780 and was very popular at the time.

His son Friedrich von Hellwig was a Prussian officer in the Wars of Liberation .

literature

• Ferdinand Spehr :  Hellwig, Johann Christian Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 498 f.
• Peter Koch:  Hellwig, Johann Christian Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 489 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• The war game: an attempt to illustrate the truth of various rules of the art of war in an entertaining game (digitized version of the Braunschweig University Library)
• Entry on Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig in the digital portrait index