Siegfried Heller

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Siegfried Heller (born December 1, 1876 in Rohrbach near Saargemünd , † June 9, 1970 in Schleswig ) was a German math historian and teacher.

biography

Heller was born in the then German Lorraine as the son of a judge, lost his mother at an early age and grew up in Bamberg with his father's sister. At high school he also acquired a good knowledge of ancient languages. In 1897 he graduated from high school and did his military service (one-year volunteer) in Strasbourg, where he also heard Adolf Krazer's mathematics lectures. He studied mathematics, physics and chemistry (as well as other subjects) at the University of Kiel and in Munich (with Ferdinand von Lindemann and Alfred Pringsheim ), Berlin (with Hermann Amandus Schwarz and Kurt Hensel ) and Göttingen (with Felix Klein and Julius Sommer ). He studied physics with Philipp Lenard in Kiel and received his doctorate in mathematics from Paul Stäckel in 1904 (investigations into the natural equations of curved surfaces) . In 1905 he passed the examination for the higher teaching post which was followed by a year of probation at the grammar school in Meldorf . From 1907 he was a senior teacher at the Reform High School in Kiel, was an officer in World War I and soon after the outbreak of war he was a prisoner of war in Siberia, after his return in 1918 he became a teacher and in 1926 a senior teacher at the Secondary School II in Kiel and from 1926 at the State Cathedral School ( Gymnasium with Realschule) in Schleswig. From 1935 until his retirement in 1947 he was a senior school officer in Kiel (interrupted as head of a draft staff during World War II, most recently as a lieutenant colonel).

In the 1920s he regularly took part in the seminar for the history of mathematics given by Julius Stenzel , Heinrich Scholz and Otto Toeplitz at the University of Kiel. In 1932 he succeeded Heinrich Wieleitner on the board of directors of DMV.

After his retirement, he worked closely with Joseph Ehrenfried Hofmann and regularly took part in the history of mathematics colloquium in Oberwolfach, which has existed since 1954. He dealt with ancient Greek mathematics and the history of number theory ( Pierre de Fermat ), where he himself also made extensive calculations on Diophantine equations. Among other things, he published a position in Theaetetus of Plato on irrationalities , an error in Archimedes edition, Euclid's definition of polyhedra and the discovery of continuous division of the Pythagoreans.

In 1968 he became an honorary member of the International Academy of the History of Science.

He was married to Margarete Becker in 1909 until his wife's death in 1957.

Heinrich Heesch was one of his high school students in Kiel .

Fonts

  • A contribution to the interpretation of the Theodoros passage in Plato's Dialog Theaetet, Centaurus, Volume 5, 1956, pp. 1-58
  • A mistake in an Archimedes edition, its origin and its consequences, Abh. Bayer. Akad. Der Wiss., Math.-nat. Kl, new episode 63, 1954
  • The discovery of the continuous division by the Pythagoreans, Abh. Deutsche Akad. Wiss., Kl. Math., Phys. u. Techn., Berlin, Born 1958, No. 6 (reprinted in Oskar Becker (Ed.), On the History of Greek Mathematics, Paths of Research, Wiss. Buchgesellschaft 1965)
  • Theatets Importance as Mathematician, Sudhoffs Archiv, Volume 51, 1967, pp. 55-78
  • Solution of a Fermat triangle problem for Torricelli, Arch. Int. Hist. Sci., Vol. 23, 1970, pp. 67-79.
  • On Euclid's definitions of similar and congruent polyhedra, Janus, Volume 51, 1964, pp. 277-290
  • Investigations on the solutions to Fermat's triangle problem, Revista Matemdtica Hispano-Americana (4), Volume 29, 1970, pp. 195-210, Volume 30, 1970, pp. 69-98.

literature

  • Joseph W. Dauben , Christoph J. Scriba (eds.): Writing the history of mathematics , Birkhäuser 2002, p. 445
  • Obituary by Christoph Scriba, Annual Report DMV, Volume 73, 1971, pp. 1–5, SUB Göttingen
  • Obituary by JE Hofmann, news sheet of the German Society for the History of Medicine, Science and Technology, Volume 20, 1970, pp. 93–95

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ His uncle Arnold Heller was a professor of pathology there
  2. ^ Siegfried Heller in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English) Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used. Published in Mathematische Annalen, Volume 58, 1904, pp. 565-577
  3. ↑ He used the book From Numbers and Figures by Rademacher and Toeplitz in student working groups
  4. ↑ Among other things, he read corrections in his history of mathematics (Göschen)
personal data
SURNAME Heller, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Rorbach-lès-Dieuze
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1970
Place of death Schleswig