Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann

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Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann (born March 7, 1900 in Munich ; † May 7, 1973 in Günzburg ) was a German mathematician, known for his research on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz .

Josef Ehrenfried Hofmann (center) with Bertram Huppert (left) and Günter Pickert (right) 1961

life and work

After graduating from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich in 1919 , Hofmann studied in Munich (doctorate in 1927 with Walther von Dyck and Georg Faber ) and was an assistant in Munich and Darmstadt for a short time before he went to school (in Günzburg, Nördlingen). During his studies he became a member of the AGV Munich . Even as a student he was drawn to the history of mathematics after Faber consulted him for the publication of Euler's works . Heinrich Wieleitner was also a major influence, with whom he published several papers on the history of calculus. As a school teacher, he continued his historical research. In 1939 he completed his habilitation in mathematics history at the University of Berlin. 1940 to 1945 he was entrusted with the Leibniz edition of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. From 1947 until his retirement in 1963 he was again a high school teacher in Günzburg. He also held (partly part-time) professorships for the history of mathematics at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , the Humboldt-Universität Berlin , the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (honorary professorship 1950) and the Technical University of Karlsruhe . He regularly organized colloquia on the history of mathematics at the Mathematical Research Institute in Oberwolfach , where he was already active immediately after the war.

Hofmann was considered to be the expert in the development of infinitesimal calculus at Leibniz, whose Paris period he carefully researched and thus contributed significantly to the clarification (or calming down) of the priority dispute between Leibniz and Isaac Newton over the invention of the infinitesimal calculus, which had long reverberated in the history of mathematics . He was co-editor of the works of Leibniz, and u. a. by Nicolaus von Kues , Johann I Bernoulli (and other reprint and work editions in the Georg Olms publishing house, Hildesheim, such as the history of mathematics by Abraham Gotthelf Kästner ). He also worked on number theory with Leonhard Euler and Pierre de Fermat . He discovered u. a. some recent work by Fermat (published 1943).

He died as a result of a traffic accident on November 9, 1972. A car hit him on a morning walk. Hofmann is buried in his home town of Ichenhausen .

In 1958 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh (on an adaptation of Euclid, attributed to Albertus Magnus). In 1954 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

His wife Josepha earned merit by translating the mathematical writings of Nikolaus von Kues .

Fonts

  • Selected writings , 2 volumes, (editor Christoph Scriba ), Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1990
  • with Oskar Becker : History of Mathematics , Bonn, Athenäum Verlag , 1951 (Part 2 and 3 from Hofmann)
  • History of Mathematics , 3 volumes, de Gruyter, Göschen Collection 1953–1957 (Part 1: From the beginnings to the appearance of Fermat and Descartes, 1953, Part 2: From Fermat and Descartes to the invention of the calculus and the expansion of the new Methods, 2nd edition 1963, Part 3: From the disputes about the Calculus to the French Revolution, 1957, with a detailed bibliography). His history of mathematics has also been translated into Spanish, French and English ( Classical Mathematics , New York, Philosophical Library 1960, The History of Mathematics , New York, Philosophical Library 1957)
  • Leibniz in Paris 1672-1676 - his growth to mathematical maturity , Cambridge University Press 1974
  • The history of the development of Leibniz mathematics , Munich, Leibniz-Verlag 1949, English edition Leibniz in Paris 1672-1676: His growth to mathematical maturity , 1974
  • Nicolaus Mercator, his life and work, preferably as a mathematician , Academy of Sciences Mainz, Abh. Math.-Naturwiss. Class, 3rd year, pp. 43-103, 1950
  • Frans von Schooten the Younger , Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, Boethius Volume 2, 1962
  • About Jakob Bernoulli's contributions to infinitesimal mathematics , L 'Enseignement mathématique, Série 2, Volume 2, 1956
  • Michael Stifel. Life, work and significance for the mathematics of his time , Sudhoffs Archiv, supplement 9, Steiner Verlag 1968
  • Four decades in the struggle for the history of mathematics , in Bernhard Sticker , Friedrich Klemm (Ed.) Paths to the History of Science , Wiesbaden 1969
  • Elementary solution to a minimum task . In: Journal for mathematical and natural science teaching 60 (1929), pp. 22–23.

literature

  • Menso Folkerts : Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann †. Sudhoff's archive. Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 57, Issue 3, 1973, pp. 227-230 (with portrait).
  • JJ Burckhardt: Address on the 65th Birthday of Joseph Hofmann at Oberwolfach , Historia Mathematica, Vol. 2, 1975, pp. 137-146
  • Christoph J. Scriba: Chronology of JE Hofmann, Biobibliographical note, and supplementary bibliography of his publications , Historia Mathematica, Vol. 2, 1975, 147-152
  • List of his writings in: Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann on his 70th birthday , messages from the mathematical seminar Gießen, issue 90, 1971, ISSN  0373-8221 , pp. 51-73 (completed above by Scriba)
  • Siegfried Gottwald , Hans-Joachim Illgauds, Karl-Heinz Schlote (Hrsg.): Lexicon of important mathematicians . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-323-00319-5 .
  • Joseph W. Dauben , Christoph J. Scriba (Ed.): Writing the history of mathematics. Its historical development . Birkhäuser, Basel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7643-6167-0 , ( Science networks 27).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dauben, Scriba (ed.) Writing the history of Mathematics gives Günzburg as the place of death. He is buried in Ichenhausen .
  2. ^ Annual report from the K. Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Munich. ZDB ID 12448436 , 1918/19
  3. ^ Association of Alter SVer (VASV): Address book and Vademecum. Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1959, p. 60.
  4. ↑ Note on the lecture on the importance of mathematics for the development of the humanistic ideal of life. In: Selected Writings , Vol. 2, p. 396.
  5. ↑ Philosophisches Jahrbuch 62 (1953) 439.
  6. ^ Review by André Weil , Bull. AMS, Volume 81, 1975, 676-688, Project Euclid
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Joseph Ehrenfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 7th 1973
Place of death Ichenhausen