Rudolf Sturm

Rudolf Sturm

Friedrich Otto Rudolf Sturm (born January 6, 1841 in Breslau , † April 12, 1919 in Breslau) was a mathematician .

Life

Rudolf's father was a businessman. After attending the Maria Magdalenen High School in Breslau , Rudolf Sturm studied mathematics and physics at the University of Breslau from October 1859 to 1863. On the advice of his professor ( Heinrich Eduard Schroeter ) he mainly dealt with synthetic geometry . In 1863 he received his doctorate with the thesis "De superficiebus tertii ordinis disquisitiones geometricae". He continued to work on the subject of “surfaces” and in 1864, together with the Italian Luigi Cremona, received the Steiner Prize of the Berlin Academy (named after Jakob Steiner ). From 1863 to 1872 he worked as a high school teacher in Bromberg(Polish Bydgoszcz) in the then Prussian province of Posen .

Services

From 1872 Sturm taught descriptive geometry and descriptive statics as a full professor at the University of Darmstadt ( Technische Universität Darmstadt ). In order to be able to provide his students with a good textbook, he published the work "Elements of the descriptive geometry" in 1874. 1878 received storm a full professorship in Münster at the local university . In 1887 the results of his work appeared: "Synthetic investigations on third-order surfaces". In 1890, Rudolf Sturm, together with Ludwig Kiepert , was one of the founding members of the German Mathematicians Association (DMV). In 1892 he returned to the university in his hometown of Breslau, where he succeeded Heinrich Schroeter as full professor for 18 years. Rudolf Sturm wrote extensively on geometry and, unlike the above-mentioned textbook and a second with the title "Maxima and Minima in Elementary Geometry" (1910), he mainly worked in the field of synthetic geometry. He wrote a three-volume work entitled “Forms of the First and Second Degree of Line Geometry” (1893-1896) and a four-volume work entitled “Theory of Geometric Affinities” (1908/1909). Such extensive work is unique in this discipline. Sturm retired in 1910.

Works

• Synthetic studies on third-order surfaces , Leipzig 1867
• Elements of descriptive geometry , Leipzig 1874
• The Forms of the First and Second Degree of Line Geometry, Vol. 1–3, 1893–1896
• The doctrine of geometric relationships , Vol. 1, Leipzig 1908
• The doctrine of geometrical relationships , Vol. 2, Leipzig 1908
• The doctrine of geometric relationships , Vol. 3, Leipzig 1909
• The doctrine of geometrical relationships , Vol. 4, Leipzig 1909

literature

• Michael Toepell (Ed.): General Directory of Members of the German Mathematicians Association 1890–1990. DMV, Munich 1991, p. 377.
• Hans-Joachim Vollrath : About Aurel Voss' appointment to the chair for mathematics in Würzburg. In: Würzburger medical history reports , Volume 11, 1993, pp. 133–151, here: pp. 140–148.

Web links

• Walter Ludwig “Rudolf Sturm”, Annual Report DMV 1926, pp. 41–51
• History of Mathematics at the University of Münster, a. a. Sturm biography, pdf
• German biography: Sturm, Rudolf