Erich Schönhardt (born 25 June 1891 in Stuttgart,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, died 29 November 1979 in Stuttgart).Short biographies of mathematicians SA–SCHO
,

German Mathematical Society The German Mathematical Society (german: Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, DMV) is the main professional society of German mathematicians and represents German mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Mathe ...

, retrieved 2009-12-05. was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

known for his 1928 discovery of the

Schönhardt polyhedron In geometry, the Schönhardt polyhedron is the simplest non-convex polyhedron that cannot be triangulated into tetrahedra without adding new vertices. It is named after German mathematician Erich Schönhardt, who described it in 1928. The same ...

, a non-convex polyhedron that cannot be partitioned into

tetrahedra In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ...

without introducing additional vertices. Schönhardt studied at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wi ...

, and went on to do his graduate studies at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

, receiving his Ph.D. in 1920 for a thesis on Schottky groups under the supervision of Ludwig Maurer. In the 1930s, he was the ''Dozentenführer'' (

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

political leader of the faculty) at Tübingen, and was responsible for denouncing fellow Tübingen mathematician

Erich Kamke Erich Kamke (18 August 1890 – 28 September 1961) was a German mathematician, who specialized in the theory of differential equations. Also, his book on set theory became a standard introduction to the field. Biography Kamke was born in Mari ...

for having married a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

woman.. He moved back to the University of Stuttgart in 1936 and was

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

there from 1939 to 1942.Rectorate of the University of Stuttgart
Historic Commission of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowled ...

. He was a permanent editor of the journal ''

Deutsche Mathematik ''Deutsche Mathematik'' (German Mathematics) was a mathematics journal founded in 1936 by Ludwig Bieberbach and Theodor Vahlen. Vahlen was publisher on behalf of the German Research Foundation (DFG), and Bieberbach was chief editor. Other editors ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schonhardt, Erich 1891 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians University of Stuttgart alumni University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen Academic staff of the University of Stuttgart Nazis