Karl Schwering (mathematician)

Karl Schwering (born September 28, 1846 in Osterwick , Westphalia , † November 27, 1925 in Cologne ) was a German mathematician , educator and from 1901 to 1921 director of the Apostelgymnasium in Cologne-Lindenthal . He wrote numerous mathematical treatises and textbooks .

Life

Karl Schwering was born in Osterwick, Westphalia, as the oldest of eight children of doctor Lambert Schwering and his wife Leokadia. The high school he put on High School Paulinum in Münster from. In Münster he also began his mathematics studies, which he continued in Berlin with Ernst Eduard Kummer and Karl Weierstrass , where he also received his doctorate in 1869 on De linea brevissima in elliptica paraboloide sita . In the same year he also passed the state examination (pro facultate docendi), which qualified him to teach at high schools. From 1869 he taught at the Graues Kloster grammar school and returned to Münster two years later as a private lecturer in mathematics. His habilitation lecture dealt with the achievements of Christiaan Huygens (Hugenius). He struck out a career in science and changed as a senior teacher at the high schools in Brilon and from 1878 to the school Nepomucenum Coesfeld . In 1880 he was to be appointed full professor in Munster, but this failed because Schwering refused to join the Old Catholic movement in the Kulturkampf . In 1890 he was transferred to the Prussian Ministry of Culture in Berlin. After only two years he was appointed director of the Stiftisches Gymnasium Düren , where he taught for six years. During this time he wrote numerous mathematical treatises, including on elliptical , lemniscate and hyperbolic functions , infinitesimal calculations and the smallest biquadrates . At the same time he published numerous mathematical textbooks for high schools. From 1898 to 1901 he worked as director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Trier . In 1901 he was appointed director of the Apostelgymnasium in Cologne, where he was responsible for its growth despite adverse financial circumstances and where he worked until his retirement in 1921. In 1913 he was awarded the honorary title of "Privy Student Council" for his services. Schwering was a member of the teaching qualification examination committee of the University of Bonn for more than 20 years .

After his death on November 27, 1925 in Cologne-Braunsfeld , he was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne .

Karl Schwering had nine children: his son Leo Schwering later co-founded the Cologne CDU . Ernst Schwering was Lord Mayor of Cologne for several years after the Second World War . Lambert also became a teacher and headed the natural science high school in Cologne-Mülheim . His grandson Max Leo Schwering was director of the Cologne City Museum . Another son, Felix Schwering, worked as a ministerial official in Bonn.

Honor

In the vicinity of the Apostelgymnasium in Cologne-Lindenthal, a square that was laid out by the horticultural master Fritz Encke in 1925 was named after Karl Schwering. In Düren, the pedagogue was also honored with the naming of a street on the Fuchsberg.

Trivia

The line coordinate system described by Schwering in 1874 is now called Schwering's line coordinates after him .

Works (selection)

• Mathematical miscelles , 1881
• The parallel curve of the ellipse, as a curve of range one, using a new line coordinate system , 1887
• Theory and application of line coordinates in the analytical geometry of the plane , 1884
• Task and intuition, especially in stereometry , 1889
• Geometrical problems with rational solutions , 1889
• Trigonometry for higher education institutions , 1893
• 100 problems from lower geometry with complete solutions, 1899
• Handbook of Elementary Mathematics for Teachers , 1907
• Is math witchcraft? , 1909
• Arithmetic and Algebra for Higher Education Institutions , 1915
• Theory and application of line coordinates in the analytical geometry of the plane
• Collection of tasks from arithmetic for higher educational institutions , several volumes
• Arithmetic and algebra for higher education institutions , in several editions
• with Wilhelm Krimphoff: Level geometry: According to official regulations , in 12 editions

Web links

• Karl Schwering's personnel sheet in the personnel file of the BIL expert body in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Schwering, Karl, Dr. In: Ulrich S. Soénius (Hrsg.), Jürgen Wilhelm (Hrsg.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 499.
2. ↑ Schwering at genealogy.math.uni-bielefeld.de ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was 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. ↑ Mathematik Münster, p. 17 (accessed Jan. 16)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Konrad Adenauer and Volker Gröbe: Streets and squares in Lindenthal . JP Bachem, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7616-1018-1 , pp. 83f.
5. ^ Biography of Karl Schwering. (No longer available online.) Düren History Workshop, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on January 22, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ W. Fr. Meyer & H. Mohrmann: Encyclopedia of the Mathematical Sciences with inclusion of their applications . Third volume: Geometry. Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-16027-4 , pp. 702 .