Friedrich Engel (26 December 1861 – 29 September 1941) was a German

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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Engel was born in

Lugau Lugau is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 17 km east of Zwickau, and 17 km southwest of Chemnitz. The town has partnerships with Sallaumines (France) and Penzberg Penzberg (; ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, as the son of a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

pastor. He attended the Universities of both

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, before receiving his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from Leipzig in 1883. Engel studied under

Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and group ...

at Leipzig, and collaborated with

Sophus Lie Marius Sophus Lie ( ; ; 17 December 1842 – 18 February 1899) was a Norwegian mathematician. He largely created the theory of continuous symmetry and applied it to the study of geometry and differential equations. Life and career Marius Sophu ...

for much of his life. He worked at Leipzig (1885–1904),

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...

(1904–1913), and

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

(1913–1931). He died in Giessen. Engel was the co-author, with Sophus Lie, of the three volume work ''Theorie der Transformationsgruppen'' (publ. 1888–1893; tr., "Theory of transformation groups"). Engel was the editor of the collected works of Sophus Lie with six volumes published between 1922 and 1937; the seventh and final volume was prepared for publication but appeared almost twenty years after Engel's death. He was also the editor of the collected works of

Hermann Grassmann Hermann Günther Grassmann (german: link=no, Graßmann, ; 15 April 1809 – 26 September 1877) was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mat ...

. Engel translated the works of

Nikolai Lobachevski Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Лобаче́вский, p=nʲikɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ləbɐˈtɕɛfskʲɪj, a=Ru-Nikolai_Ivanovich_Lobachevsky.ogg; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, kn ...

from Russian into German, thus making these works more accessible. With

Paul Stäckel Paul Gustav Samuel Stäckel (20 August 1862, Berlin – 12 December 1919, Heidelberg) was a German mathematician, active in the areas of differential geometry, number theory, and non-Euclidean geometry. In the area of prime number theory, he use ...

he wrote a history of

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...

(''Theorie der Parallellinien von Euklid bis auf Gauss'', 1895). With his former student Karl Faber, he wrote a book on the theory of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s of the first order using methods of

Lie group In mathematics, a Lie group (pronounced ) is a group that is also a differentiable manifold. A manifold is a space that locally resembles Euclidean space, whereas groups define the abstract concept of a binary operation along with the additio ...

theory. In 1910 Engel was the president of the

Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung 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 ...

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* * * * 1861 births 1941 deaths People from the Kingdom of Saxony Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Leipzig University alumni Leipzig University faculty University of Greifswald faculty University of Giessen faculty 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians German historians of mathematics {{Germany-mathematician-stub

See also

References

External links