Georg Feigl (13 October 1890 – 20 April 1945) 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

Life and work

Georg Feigl started studying

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

in 1909. In 1918, he obtained 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 ...

under

Paul Koebe Paul Koebe (15 February 1882 – 6 August 1945) was a 20th-century German mathematician. His work dealt exclusively with the complex numbers, his most important results being on the uniformization of Riemann surfaces in a series of four papers in ...

. From 1928 he was editor of the ''Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik'' ("Yearbook on the progress of mathematics"). In 1935 he became a full professor at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. In 1937—1941, he was an 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 w ...

''. Feigl's main areas of work were the

foundations of geometry Foundations of geometry is the study of geometries as axiomatic systems. There are several sets of axioms which give rise to Euclidean geometry or to non-Euclidean geometries. These are fundamental to the study and of historical importance, but t ...

and

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

, where he studied fixed point theorems for ''n''-dimensional

manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a n ...

s. Feigl was one of the initial authors of the ''Mathematisches Wörterbuch'' ("Mathematical dictionary"). Because of the impending

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

he was forced to leave Breslau in January 1945 with his family and other members of the Mathematical Institute. His wife Maria was distantly related to the lord of the manor of

Wechselburg Wechselburg () is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is well known for its twelfth century Benedictine monastery, the Wechselburg Priory. The lordship and the castle were owned by the House of Schönburg fr ...

castle and prepared the castle to receive the mathematicians. Feigl brought his previously developed materials for the ''Mathematisches Wörterbuch'' and asked his students to further refine it in the castle. They did not have access to books, lecture notes, calculators, or typewriters in the castle.

Johann Radon Johann Karl August Radon (; 16 December 1887 – 25 May 1956) was an Austrian mathematician. His doctoral dissertation was on the calculus of variations (in 1910, at the University of Vienna). Life RadonBrigitte Bukovics: ''Biography of Johan ...

(1887–1956) and Feigl were willing and able to continue lectures started in Breslau for one hour a day at Wechselburg castle, without any documents. Feigl had a severe stomach ailment and died after a few months without medication in Wechselburg. The ''Mathematisches Wörterbuch'' did not appear until 1961, when Hermann Ludwig Schmid (1908–1956) and Joseph Naas (1906–1993) published it.

References

* *

Siegfried Gottwald Siegfried Johannes Gottwald (30 March 1943 – 20 September 2015) was a German mathematician, logician and historian of science. Life and work Gottwald was born in Limbach, Saxony in 1943. From 1961 to 1966, he studied mathematics at the Unive ...

(Ed.), ''Lexikon bedeutender Mathematiker'' ("Encyclopedia of important mathematicians"), ''Bibliographisches Institut'' ("Bibliographical Institute"), Leipzig 1990, , p. 145. * Hans-Joachim Girlich, ''Johann Radon in Breslau. Zur Institutionalisierung der Mathematik.'' ("Johann Radon in Breslau. The institutionalization of Mathematics"). In M. Halub, A. Manko-Matysiak (Ed.), ''Schlesische Gelehrtenrepublik.'' ("

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

n Republic of Scholars"), Vol. 2., Wroclaw, p. 393−418. https://web.archive.org/web/20070613211747/http://www.math.uni-leipzig.de/preprint/2005/p4-2005.pdf * Josef Naas, Hermann Ludwig Schmid, ''Mathematisches Wörterbuch. Mit Einbeziehung der theoretischen Physik.'' ("Mathematical dictionary. With the inclusion of theoretical physics."), 2 Volumes, Academy Publishers, Berlin, 1961.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feigl, Georg 1890 births 1945 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians Topologists Geometers Scientists from Hamburg University of Jena alumni Academic staff of the University of Breslau