Hans-Ludwig Wußing (October 15, 1927 in Waldheim – April 26, 2011 in Leipzig) was a German historian of mathematics and science.

Life

Wussing graduated from high school, and from 1947 to 52 studied mathematics and physics at the University of Leipzig.

Ernst Hölder Ernst Otto Hölder (2 April 1901, Leipzig – 30 June 1990, Mainz) was a German mathematician who made contributions to partial differential equations and continuum mechanics. Education and career Hölder was born in Leipzig and studied at th ...

was one of his teachers. In 1952 he took the state examination, and received his doctorate in 1957. His dissertation was on embedding

finite group Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marked ...

s. From 1956 to 1966 he was assistant at the Karl-Sudhoff Institute for the History of Medicine and Science at the University of Leipzig. He qualified as a professor there in 1966 with a ground-breaking work on the genesis of the abstract group concept. From 1966 to 1968 Wußing was lecturer, and from 1968 professor, of history of mathematics and natural sciences. In 1969 his book ''Genesis of the Abstract Group Concept'' was published in German; it was translated by Abe Shenitzer and Hardy Grant in 1984. B.H. Newman wrote in

Mathematical Reviews ''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also pu ...

(see external link below) that Wussing's "main thesis, ably defended and well documented, is that the roots of the abstract notion of a group do not lie, as frequently assumed, only in the theory of algebraic equations, but they are also to be found in the geometry and in the theory of numbers at the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries". Newman comments that Wussings

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

is "oddly arranged". Newman also notes that a broader perspective on the topic would require reading the works of

George Abram Miller George Abram Miller (31 July 1863 – 10 February 1951) was an early group theorist. At age 17 Miller began school-teaching to raise funds for higher education. In 1882 he entered Franklin and Marshall Academy, and progressed to Muhlenberg Colle ...

. Promoted from a department head at the Karl-Sudhoff Institute, he headed the institute from 1977 to 1982. In 1971 he became a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science, and a regular member in 1981. In 1984 he became a full member of the

Saxon Academy of Sciences The Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (german: Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig) is an institute which was founded in 1846 under the name ''Royal Saxon Society for the Sciences'' (german: Königlich Sächsische G ...

in Leipzig. Wussing retired in 1992. Wussing is the author of numerous scientific historical publications, the author of many mathematicians' biographies, and co-editor of several series of publications, including biographies in the Teubner Verlag, and several volumes in the series ''

Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften (English: Ostwald's classics of the exact sciences) is a German book series that contains important original works from all areas of natural sciences. It was founded in 1889 by the physical chemist Wi ...

'' (Ostwald's Classics of the Exact Sciences), in particular on

Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...

's work on functional theory,

Gauss' diary Gauss's diary was a record of the mathematical discoveries of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss from 1796 to 1814. It was rediscovered in 1897 and published by , and reprinted in volume X1 of his collected works and in . There is an Englis ...

, and Felix Klein's Erlangen program. In 1993 he was awarded the

Kenneth O. May Prize Kenneth O. May Prize and Medal in history of mathematics is an award of the International Commission on the History of Mathematics (ICHM) "for the encouragement and promotion of the history of mathematics internationally". It was established in 19 ...

. Until 1998 he was Chairman of the Commission for the History of Science at the Saxon Academy of Sciences. He was also involved in the publication of Johann Christian Poggendorff's ''Biographical and Literary Pocket Dictionary of the History of Exact Sciences.

Writings

* 1962: ''Mathematics in the period of slave society'', Leipzig, Teubner, and Aachen, Mayer. * 1969: ''Die Genesis des abstrackten Gruppenbegriffes. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der abstrakten Gruppentheorie''. ** 1984: ''The Genesis of the abstract group concept'', MIT Press * 1973: '' Nicholas Copernicus'', Leipzig, Urania * 1974: '' Carl Friedrich Gauss'', Leipzig, Teubner, second Edition 1976 * 1975: (editor with Wolfgang Arnold) ''Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker – eine Sammlung von Biographien'', 4th edition, Berlin, Volk und Wissen 1989. * 1977: '' Isaac Newton'', Leipzig, Teubner, 4th Edition 1990 * 1987: Editor: ''History of Science'', Cologne, Aulis Verlag. * 1989: ''Vorlesungen der Geschichte der Mathematik'', Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften. * 1989: ''Adam Ries'', Leipzig, Teubner, 1992, 3rd, revised and expanded edition, Leipzig Edition on Gutenbergplatz 2009 (Eagle 033)H. Wussing (1989, 1992, 2009
Adam Ries
Google Books preview * 1992: (editor) ''Fachlexikon ABC Forscher und Erfinder'', Frankfurt, Verlag Harri Deutsch. * 2002: ''The major renovation – on the history of the scientific revolution'', Birkhäuser. * 2003: (with H. W.Alten, A. Djafari Naini, Folkerts, H. Schlosser, K.-H. Chimneys): ''4000 years Algebra'', Springer Verlag. * 2008,9: ''Mathematics 6000 years – a cultural and historical journey through time'', 2 vols, Springer * 2009: Eagle Guide ''From Gauss to

Poincaré Poincaré is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), French physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science * Henriette Poincaré (1858-1943), wife of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré * Luci ...

– Mathematics and Industrial Revolution'', Leipzig Edition on Gutenbergplatz (Eagle 037) * 2010: Eagle Guide ''From Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei. Mathematics and Renaissance'', Leipzig Edition on Gutenbergplatz (Eagle 041) * 2011: '' Carl Friedrich Gauss''. Biography and document, Leipzig Edition on Gutenbergplatz (Eagle 051) ** The 60-page appendix "CF Gauss and BG Teubner" for the 200th anniversary of its founding on February 21, 1811, in Leipzig.

References

External links

Entry in the Mathematics Genealogy Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wussing, Hans 1927 births 2011 deaths German schoolteachers 20th-century German mathematicians German historians of mathematics Leipzig University alumni 21st-century German mathematicians 20th-century German historians 21st-century German historians