Heinrich Eduard Schröter (8 January 1829 – 3 January 1892) 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 ...

, who studied geometry in the tradition of

Jakob Steiner Jakob Steiner (18 March 1796 – 1 April 1863) was a Swiss mathematician who worked primarily in geometry. Life Steiner was born in the village of Utzenstorf, Canton of Bern. At 18, he became a pupil of Heinrich Pestalozzi and afterwards st ...

Life and work

Schröter went to (along with mathematicians

Alfred Clebsch Rudolf Friedrich Alfred Clebsch (19 January 1833 – 7 November 1872) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to algebraic geometry and invariant theory. He attended the University of Königsberg and was habilitated at Berlin. ...

Rudolf Lipschitz Rudolf Otto Sigismund Lipschitz (14 May 1832 – 7 October 1903) was a German mathematician who made contributions to mathematical analysis (where he gave his name to the Lipschitz continuity condition) and differential geometry, as well as numbe ...

Carl Gottfried Neumann Carl Gottfried Neumann (also Karl; 7 May 1832 – 27 March 1925) was a German mathematician. Biography Neumann was born in Königsberg, Prussia, as the son of the mineralogist, physicist and mathematician Franz Ernst Neumann (1798–1895), who w ...

) the Altstädtisches Gymnasium in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

, studying mathematics and physics. After graduating from the Gymnasium in 1845, he entered the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

to continue the study of mathematics and physics under

Jacobi Jacobi may refer to: * People with the surname Jacobi (surname), Jacobi Mathematics: * Jacobi sum, a type of character sum * Jacobi method, a method for determining the solutions of a diagonally dominant system of linear equations * Jacobi eigenva ...

school's Frederick Richelot (and

Franz Ernst Neumann Franz Ernst Neumann (11 September 1798 – 23 May 1895) was a German mineralogist, physicist and mathematician. Biography Neumann was born in Joachimsthal, Margraviate of Brandenburg, near Berlin. In 1815 he interrupted his studies at Berlin to ...

and

Otto Hesse Ludwig Otto Hesse (22 April 1811 – 4 August 1874) was a German mathematician. Hesse was born in Königsberg, Prussia, and died in Munich, Bavaria. He worked mainly on algebraic invariants, and geometry. The Hessian matrix, the Hesse nor ...

). After his volunteer year in the military, he went to the Berlin Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, where he was taught by

Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (; 13 February 1805 – 5 May 1859) was a German mathematician who made deep contributions to number theory (including creating the field of analytic number theory), and to the theory of Fourier series and ...

and

. In 1854 he received his doctorate in Richelot in Königsberg with a paper on

elliptic function In the mathematical field of complex analysis, elliptic functions are a special kind of meromorphic functions, that satisfy two periodicity conditions. They are named elliptic functions because they come from elliptic integrals. Originally those in ...

s. He then passed the state exam and was qualified as a teacher in 1855 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 ...

(also on elliptic functions). In 1858 he became associate professor in Breslau and in 1861 professor. He died after he fell ill in 1891. Schröter was influenced by Steiner's lectures, which were available only as note sheets, on

synthetic geometry Synthetic geometry (sometimes referred to as axiomatic geometry or even pure geometry) is the study of geometry without the use of coordinates or formulae. It relies on the axiomatic method and the tools directly related to them, that is, compa ...

(projective theory of conics) published in 1867. In ''Die Theorie der Oberflächen'' (the theory of surfaces) of 1880, one of his major works, he studied second order surfaces and third order space curves, continuing Steiner's work. For this work, he received the Steiner Prize of the Berlin Academy and became its corresponding member. He also investigated the third-order surfaces and fourth-order space curves. His students included Victor Eberhard,

Moritz Pasch Moritz Pasch (8 November 1843, Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland) – 20 September 1930, Bad Homburg, Germany) was a German mathematician of Jewish ancestry specializing in the foundations of geometry. He completed his Ph.D. at the Univer ...

Jakob Rosanes Jakob Rosanes (also Jacob; 16 August 1842 – 6 January 1922) was a German mathematician who worked on algebraic geometry and invariant theory. He was also a chess master. Rosanes studied at University of Berlin and the University of Breslau. H ...

, and Rudolf Sturm.

Writings

* 1854 Breslau, Philosophische Fakultaet: Inaugural Dissertation: De Aequationibus Modularibus * 1855 Breslau, Philosophische Fakultaet : Habilitationsschrift: Entwicklung der Potenzen der elliptischen Transcendenten und die Theilung dieser Funktion. Respondent: A. Grimm, Dr phil.; Opponenten: R. Ladrasch, Gymnasiallehrer; E. Tillich, Cand. phil.; H. Jaschke, Stud. phil. * als Bearbeiter und Herausgeber: ''Jacob Steiner's Vorlesungen über synthetische Geometrie: Theil 2: Die Theorie der Kegelschnitte, gestützt auf projectivische Eigenschaften.'' Leipzig 1867, 2. Auflage 1876. * ''Die Theorie der Oberflächen zweiter Ordnung und der Raumkurven dritter Ordnung als Erzeugnisse projectivischer Gebilde.'' Leipzig 1880. * ''Die Theorie der ebenen Curven dritter Ordnung, auf synthetische Weise abgeleitet.'' Leipzig 1888. * ''Grundzüge einer rein geometrischen Theorie der Raumcurven vierter Ordnung erster Species.'' Leipzig 1890.

References

The original article was a translation (Google) of the corresponding article in German Wikipedia. * * * * Rudolf Sturm
''Heinrich Schröter.''
Jahresbericht DMV, Bd. 2, 1893. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schroter, Heinrich 1829 births 1892 deaths Scientists from Königsberg People from East Prussia 19th-century German mathematicians University of Königsberg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the University of Breslau