David Hilbert

David Hilbert (January 23, 1862 – February 14, 1943) was a German mathematician born in Wehlau, near Königsberg, Prussia (now Znamensk, near Kaliningrad, Russia) who is recognized as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. His own discoveries alone would have given him that honor, yet it was his leadership in the field of mathematics throughout his later life that distinguishes him. He held a professorship in mathematics at the University of Göttingen for most of his life.

Later years

Hilbert lived to see the Nazis purge many of the prominent faculty members at University of Göttingen, in 1933. http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-02b.htm. Among those forced out were Hermann Weyl, who had taken Hilbert's chair when he retired in 1930, Emmy Noether and Edmund Landau. One of those who had to leave Germany was Paul Bernays, Hilbert's collaborator in mathematical logic, and co-author with him of the important book Grundlagen der Mathematik (which eventually appeared in two volumes, in 1934 and 1939). This was a sequel to the Hilbert-Ackermann book Principles of Theoretical Logic from 1928.

Related Topics:
Nazi - University of Göttingen - 1933 - Hermann Weyl - Emmy Noether - Edmund Landau - Paul Bernays - Mathematical logic - Ackermann - Principles of Theoretical Logic

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About a year later, he attended a banquet, and was seated next to the new Minister of Education, Bernhard Rust. Rust asked, "How is mathematics in Göttingen now that it has been freed of the Jewish influence?" Hilbert replied, "Mathematics in Göttingen? There is really none any more" (Reid, 205).

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By the time Hilbert died in 1943, the Nazis had nearly completely restructured the university, many of the former faculty being either Jewish or married to Jews. Hilbert's funeral was attended by fewer than a dozen people, only two of whom were fellow academics (Reid, 213).

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